How To Register A Dog As A Therapy Pet

Accept y'all ever thought that your dog might make a good therapy domestic dog? Maybe y'all know of a nursing dwelling where a visit from your dog would infuse the residents' lives with a much-needed dose of joy, but yous're not sure how to make it happen or even where to start. If y'all've ever wondered what steps are necessary to register a therapy dog, or what's involved in training a therapy domestic dog, continue reading.

What Therapy Dogs Do

Two people pet a dog outside. Therapy dogs, forth with their handlers, visit people in places, such as schools, nursing homes and hospitals to assistance amend the lives of people in difficult situations. When y'all annals a therapy dog, he might cheer up a terminally ill patient or be a friend to a lonely senior. Therapy dogs help kids suffering from anxiety or depression by providing a calming influence. A therapy dog's chief job is but to provide companionship, entertainment and love to those who are struggling with difficult circumstances.

Therapy Dog vs. Service Domestic dog

It'south important to distinguish between a therapy domestic dog and a service dog. Service dogs live with the people they're trained to serve and provide highly specialized services, such as guiding the blind or providing assistance to the physically disabled. Service dogs receive rigorous preparation in guild to perform their duties effectively, and they are legally permitted to get wherever their human companions go, including places like restaurants and on airplanes. While therapy dogs enjoy special access to facilities when they're invited to visit, they don't accept unrestricted access the style service dogs do.

Training a Therapy Domestic dog

Because a therapy canis familiaris's job is but to be a dog for those in demand, they don't accept to undergo a lot of specialized grooming. They do, even so, need to be proficient in bones obedience skills and be highly socialized and able to get along well with strangers. Some therapy dog organizations may crave their canine students to laissez passer the Good Denizen test provided by the AKC. Therapy dogs may likewise demand to undergo desensitization training then that they won't become rattled in situations involving bouncy children or noisy infirmary machines.

Some therapy canis familiaris registration organizations provide training courses for those who need them, simply well-nigh do non. You lot may need to take it upon yourself to either train your dog or enroll him in independent grooming courses. These are the courses your dog will probable need to take in preparation for becoming a therapy dog:

Bones and intermediate obedience preparation.
Canine Good Citizen training.
Desensitization training, which includes exposure to strange situations and loud noises, every bit well as acclimation to hospitals and other specialized environments.

Check with the system with which you programme to register your dog to find out the exact requirements. They may be able to assist you with finding classes or a therapy dog preparation specialist in your customs.

Additional Therapy Dog Requirements

Dogs of any breed, shape, or size can get therapy dogs. In club to exist considered for therapy domestic dog registration, a dog should be at least one year of historic period. He also needs to be friendly, confident, and well-mannered and not aggressive, broken-hearted, fearful, or hyperactive. You must also be able to demonstrate that either you lot or the person who volition accompany your dog on visitations are able to work well with the dog.

Typically, therapy dog organizations also have health requirements that your dog must meet. For example, Therapy Dogs International (TDI) lists the post-obit health requirements:

Your canis familiaris needs to have had an annual health bank check performed by your veterinarian inside the past 12 months.
He must be current on his rabies vaccination, and it must have been administered past a vet.
He must take received all of his core vaccinations, including for distemper, parvo, and hepatitis.
He must take received a stool exam within the past 12 months, with negative results.
He must also have tested negative for heartworm within the past twelvemonth, or be on continuous heartworm prevention medication.

How to Register a Therapy Dog

Shih Tzu sits in hospital bed with a man, while his wife and nurse look on smiling. Before you tin volunteer your canis familiaris as a therapy domestic dog, you first need to register with a therapy domestic dog organization, that can and then lucifer you to facilities where you and your domestic dog can volunteer. Check your local listings for a therapy domestic dog registration system in your area, or visit the American Kennel Lodge (AKC) for a list of AKC-approved therapy dog organizations.

Once you lot're confident your dog meets all the qualifications to become a therapy dog, both you (or the person who will be volunteering alongside your pup) and your dog will need to undergo evaluation by the arrangement. The evaluation usually takes place in person with a grouping of other potential volunteer teams, and is typically washed in a hospital or nursing home environment. Tests that your dog will undergo might include:

Coming together and greeting new people
Sit/stay and down/stay in a group situation
Coming when called
Visiting with a patient
Reactions to children and unusual situations
The go out-information technology command
Meeting another dog
Entering the facility

Proceed in heed that your dog isn't the only ane that will be evaluated. The evaluator volition likewise be watching closely to see how you interact with your domestic dog, as well as how well you and your dog get along and work together as a squad. If the evaluator is satisfied with both your and your dog's performance, y'all will both exist immune to register as a therapy dog team.

If a therapy dog organization doesn't provide testing in your expanse, some organizations, including TDI, brand provisions for express registration based on long-altitude evaluation. To be considered, you will demand to provide graduation certificates for basic and intermediate obedience courses forth with a letter from the obedience schoolhouse attesting to your dog'south temperament. Yous will as well need to provide a alphabetic character of recommendation from your veterinarian, besides as a letter from the facility you wish to visit, written on the facility'due south letterhead, stating that yous and your canis familiaris are welcome to visit.

Information technology's quite a process to train and register a therapy dog, but it tin can be a rewarding experience for y'all and your pup, not to mention for those who will benefit from your dog'due south companionship.

Contributor Bio

Jean Marie Bauhaus Contributor Photo

Jean Marie Bauhaus

Jean Marie Bauhaus is fiction author and freelance writer and editor living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She writes frequently about pets and pet wellness in her dwelling house part, where she is assisted by a lapful of furbabies.