How To Register Your Dog As An Comfort Dog

Have y'all ever thought that your dog might brand a adept therapy canis familiaris? Perchance you lot know of a nursing abode where a visit from your dog would infuse the residents' lives with a much-needed dose of joy, simply you're not certain how to make information technology happen or even where to first. If you've e'er wondered what steps are necessary to register a therapy canis familiaris, or what'due south involved in training a therapy dog, keep reading.

What Therapy Dogs Do

Two people pet a dog outside. Therapy dogs, along with their handlers, visit people in places, such as schools, nursing homes and hospitals to help ameliorate the lives of people in difficult situations. When y'all register a therapy dog, he might cheer upward a terminally ill patient or be a friend to a alone senior. Therapy dogs help kids suffering from feet or low by providing a calming influence. A therapy dog's main job is simply to provide companionship, entertainment and beloved to those who are struggling with difficult circumstances.

Therapy Domestic dog vs. Service Dog

Information technology's important to distinguish between a therapy dog and a service canis familiaris. Service dogs live with the people they're trained to serve and provide highly specialized services, such every bit guiding the blind or providing help to the physically disabled. Service dogs receive rigorous training in order to perform their duties effectively, and they are legally permitted to go wherever their human being companions get, including places similar restaurants and on airplanes. While therapy dogs enjoy special admission to facilities when they're invited to visit, they don't have unrestricted access the way service dogs exercise.

Training a Therapy Dog

Because a therapy domestic dog'southward job is only to be a domestic dog for those in need, they don't have to undergo a lot of specialized training. They do, however, need to be proficient in basic obedience skills and be highly socialized and able to get along well with strangers. Some therapy dog organizations may require their canine students to pass the Expert Citizen test provided by the AKC. Therapy dogs may also demand to undergo desensitization training and so that they won't get rattled in situations involving boisterous children or noisy hospital machines.

Some therapy dog registration organizations provide training courses for those who demand them, but most practice not. You may need to have it upon yourself to either train your dog or enroll him in independent training courses. These are the courses your dog volition likely need to take in preparation for becoming a therapy dog:

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

Check with the organization with which y'all plan to annals your dog to find out the exact requirements. They may be able to assist you lot with finding classes or a therapy domestic dog grooming specialist in your customs.

Additional Therapy Canis familiaris Requirements

Dogs of any breed, shape, or size can become therapy dogs. In order to be considered for therapy dog registration, a domestic dog should be at least ane yr of age. He as well needs to exist friendly, confident, and well-mannered and not ambitious, anxious, fearful, or hyperactive. Y'all must too exist able to demonstrate that either yous or the person who volition back-trail your domestic dog on visitations are able to work well with the dog.

Typically, therapy dog organizations also accept health requirements that your canis familiaris must meet. For instance, Therapy Dogs International (TDI) lists the following wellness requirements:

Your dog needs to take had an almanac wellness cheque performed by your veterinarian inside the past 12 months.
He must be current on his rabies vaccination, and it must have been administered by a vet.
He must have received all of his core vaccinations, including for distemper, parvo, and hepatitis.
He must take received a stool exam inside the past 12 months, with negative results.
He must too accept tested negative for heartworm inside the past year, or exist 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 can volunteer your canis familiaris as a therapy domestic dog, you commencement demand to register with a therapy dog system, that can so match you to facilities where you and your dog tin volunteer. Check your local listings for a therapy domestic dog registration organization in your area, or visit the American Kennel Club (AKC) for a list of AKC-approved therapy dog organizations.

Once you'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 organization. The evaluation usually takes identify in person with a group of other potential volunteer teams, and is typically done in a hospital or nursing home environment. Tests that your domestic dog will undergo might include:

Meeting 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 exit-information technology command
Meeting another dog
Entering the facility

Keep in listen that your domestic dog isn't the only 1 that will exist evaluated. The evaluator volition too exist watching closely to encounter how you interact with your dog, equally well as how well you and your dog get along and piece of work together as a team. If the evaluator is satisfied with both your and your dog'south operation, you will both be allowed to register as a therapy dog team.

If a therapy domestic dog organisation doesn't provide testing in your area, some organizations, including TDI, make provisions for limited registration based on long-distance evaluation. To be considered, you volition need to provide graduation certificates for basic and intermediate obedience courses along with a letter from the obedience schoolhouse attesting to your dog's temperament. You will also need to provide a letter of the alphabet of recommendation from your veterinarian, too as a letter from the facility you wish to visit, written on the facility'due south letterhead, stating that yous and your dog are welcome to visit.

Information technology's quite a process to train and register a therapy dog, but information technology can be a rewarding experience for yous and your pup, not to mention for those who will benefit from your canis familiaris's companionship.

Contributor Bio

Jean Marie Bauhaus Contributor Photo

Jean Marie Bauhaus

Jean Marie Bauhaus is fiction author and freelance author and editor living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She writes frequently about pets and pet health in her home office, where she is assisted by a lapful of furbabies.