My babies are Pet Therapy dogs....

[Sky Fox]

Here your dog MUST FIRST;

To be certified (and you must be or NO ONE WILL let you in!) lol

* Demonstrate an out-going personality
* Basic obedience skills so the pup is under control at ALL TIMES! Sit - Stay - Come and Down.
* Show that the dog gets along with other dogs and is overall 'social'
* Current Vacs
* Be at least a year old.

Now this is to be CERTIFIED but you dont HAVE TO BE unless your going to hospitals like my pup. Very sterile environments with oxygen tanks and such where a loose dog could reek havoc or cause death!

When certified - a rep from the organization comes to visit your pup to see:

if its registered and chosen as a therepy dog the 'Evaluator' from the organization puts the dog through an evaluation consisting of:

Lay down
Come
Sit
Stay
Down

Yay! You are certified! But my girl is just shy of a yr old so isnt able to get to work until her first birthday

We are ready NOW! So many people we could be touching daily but simply because she isnt a yr old - she cant go. If I go sooner - they will boot me from the program.

If you want to be registered - please let me know and I can get that ball rolling for you! Its just better being registered and to have a bit of insurance. Things happen!

[MrsStraty]

Aww thats cute, your boss lets them out of jail...LOL..I laughed when I read that. I see you have a lot of posts. I have been on vaca this week so Im trying to get over 100 posts today! I have been on this board since Oct. 2007 when I got Tobey and I only have 50. LOL Shame on me.

[alaskayorkie]

Originally Posted by Cherylt8

How do you go about doing training for this?

If you want to go the certified route, some obedience schools have classes to help you qualify for the Canine Good Citizen test. That doesn't qualify you for therapy dog certification, but it's great practice and covers many of the same things. If you want to look into certification, you can try Delta Society - Improving Human Health through Service and Therapy Animals

There's at least one other major organization that certifies therapy dogs, but I can't remember what it is.

Here's what the Delta Society tests them on. I wrote this up for another discussion here:
1. Accepting a friendly stranger
2. Accepting petting
3. Appearance and grooming.
4. Out for a walk (loose leash and changing directions)
5. Walking through a crowd.
6. Reaction to distractions (visual and audible).
7. Sit on cue or pass between strangers. (Since we did the little-dog test, all I had to do was carry him and walk between other people).
8. Stay in place. (A sit-stay for 30 seconds. Eddie tested as a small dog, so he sat on someone else's lap for 30 seconds without my involvement.
9. Come when called. (They put him on a long leash and had him stay, then come when called)
10. Reaction to neutral dog. (You walk past a person with another dog. Your dog can't go crazy).
11. Exhuberant and clumsy petting.
12. Restraining hug. (Someone else hugging your dog).
13. Staggering, gesturing individual.
14. Angry yelling. (As I was talking to a "patient," two others argued 10 feet from us. The two arguers then broke up and one approached us.)
15. Bumped from behind. (One person walked past me and bumped into me).
16. Crowded and petted by several people. (This was our worst exercise, and it was all my fault. Eddie got nervous when three people crowded him. The instructors wanted me to tell one or two people to back off. They wanted me to take care of my dog's needs first.)
17. Leave it. (A nonissue if you're carrying your dog.)
18. Offered a treat (this is up to the handler. You can just so "no, I don't want you to feed my dog." I opted to allow it, but I told them to feed them them with their hand flat and open. Eddie can be nippy, so I didn't want to take any chances.

[MrsStraty]

Aww good luck with that. She will be a great therapy dog. It is so touching to see what these dogs do for the patients and residents. They light up.

[MrsStraty]

great post Alaska. Thanks for taking the time to post all of that.

[alaskayorkie]

Originally Posted by MrsStraty

great post Alaska. Thanks for taking the time to post all of that.

Thanks. We'd had a discussion on this when my guy was going through the testing, so I just copied all that.

The problem with certification is it takes a while to get all the paperwork through. Now I've got our ID, but have to go through the certification process at the hospital I want to visit. Then there are blood tests, a TB screening. Ugh. Seems like it's taking forever.

[MrsStraty]

Oh but it is worth it. Our facility didn't require ANY of that. Again it is a nursing home not a hospital, maybe that is why. All the same they are there to put a smile on the resident's faces.

[Sky Fox]

'The Delta Society' is one of the programs we went with (she has three organizations).

I wanted to add - with this group - you CAN NOT bring kids a long with you. Meaning - my 8 yr old couldnt come with us. Which is fine but something different than the other organizations. NO ONE UNDER 10! At all!

Here is some contact info I have from the man that came to test her:
Henry Jacobs
875 124th Ave NE, Ste. 101
Bellevue, WA 98005
Delta Society - Improving Human Health through Service and Therapy Animals


'Love on a Leash' is a GREAT organization! And she is also going into Space Coast Therepy Dogs but not until she starts working - that making 4, not 3. Sorry.
www.loveonaleash.org

Therapy Dogs International as well
Therapy Dogs International, Inc.

[alaskayorkie]

Originally Posted by MrsStraty

Oh but it is worth it. Our facility didn't require ANY of that. Again it is a nursing home not a hospital, maybe that is why. All the same they are there to put a smile on the resident's faces.

Yeah, that's what it's all about. It all comes down to the individual hospital in the end anyway. With certification or not, some don't allow them. Seems like more and more are catching on to the trend, though.

[MauiGirl]

I love hearing how you had to convince your hubby to get a small dog, only to see him fall in love with one (then 2). I had a similar situation; my DH and two of his guy friends all had the same opinion..... small dogs were for wimps. And now that they all ADORE their Yorkies, they try to make it seem like it was their idea in the first place. Within 2 months, my DH said get another one, so I just brought home a Morkie last week. Double the fun for sure.

My only question/concern about small dogs in a nursing home, is what can you do to protect them from being stepped on or accidentally hurt?

[ketters12]

I am so jealous, I wish Tobey could do something like that! He is pretty well behaved but gets really overly excited when someone comes over to our house. so he would have to do some training on that- meeting new people.

but what I blessing to be able to bring to others!

[Cherylt8]

Thanks so much alaska for your post. Great information to prepare for this service. I am so computer illiterate that I just found out this am how to find the posts that I made. I would just check the new posts and try to find the ones that I made posts on .... this I was finding virtually impossible! OOOPS I guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks!!! Sorry for the pun... I am still able to learn ... even if it is at a snails pace!!