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  My Rainbow Bridge  Please, Join Me Here.  Write Your Stories I talked to a friend who lost her dog recently.  (I just lost 2 of my precious dogs - Benny & Dukie). She says that her way to get over the grief is to celebrate their life by writing about the good, the funny and even the aggravating stories of their life!  What a great idea.

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photo credit: Laertes

Are you considering this with your precious dog? Do you want to know where to begin?

How does the whole Therapy dog system works?

It really is not hard. It takes commitment, a love for doing volunteer work, a well behaved social dog and a little research on your part.
First: The commitment

You will need to commit to whatever avenue of Dog Therapy you choose. You will need to find your own niche in this work. And once you do find it you need to commit to it. You see, wherever you do dog therapy volunteering, those people wait for your dog. They know that your dog will come at certain times/days and they wait in anticipation. Don’t let them down. It is a high point of their day for many of those you visit. You must do it on a regular basis.

There is hospital visiting; paliative care visiting; children hospital visiting; senior homes visiting. Many of these avenues have different requirements for you and your dog. Find out where your heart, your dog and your time will fit in best, and then… Do research. Visiting the elderly is the easiest with little required except an obedient (not like in obedience training) dog.

Love For Volunteering

You will need a love for volunteering. And, depending on the venue you choose, certain charecter traits. For instance, I could never work in palliative care, it would bother me too much. Yet, my mentor and her dog did this for years. That’s where I met my mentor and started my volunteering.

You Need A Well Behaved Dog

Your dog does NOT need to be “obedience trained” as such. But, you need an obedient dog that you can handle. Your dog needs to be friendly. Don’t force a breed or dog to do this work if the dog does NOT like to be social. Your dog needs to be calm, relaxed and not be afraid of sound and movement.

Research

Do research of different groups available in your area, or even your state or province. Check out a few and then go with the one that suits you and your pet. Again, different groups have different requirements. Most organizations also require a “police check”.

Nurising homes are happy to have any well-behaved dogs visit, most do require certification from any organization. Hospitals are very difficult to go into, and have their own requirements.

Certification is not only good for you, because the organizations will also insure you and your pet, but also, because the nursing homes realize that the certifying organization has accepted you, and that they have done a “police check”.

The two main therapy organizations are: TDI and Delta Society, but depending on where you live there may be other, local groups. TDI just tests(basically the Canine Good Citizen test with some additions to see how thedog reacts to things that it might come across in a health care setting).

Delta Society’s Pet Partner program is a training program that you take to prepare you and your dog before you get tested.

TDI’s site:
http://www.tdi-dog.org/
Delta’s site:
http://deltasociety.org/

My dogtherapy page:

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