Therapy Dogs 101

Types of Therapy Dogs

Animal-Assisted Activities:  Therapy dogs visit hospitals, nursing homes, and other locations to provide comfort to people dealing with physical ailments or mental illnesses along with general and uplifting interactions.

Animal-Assisted Therapy:  Therapy dogs work hand-in-hand with health care professionals or rehabilitation specialists together with patients to seek specific and measurable outcomes during the continuum of care such as hospice.

Facility Therapy Dogs:  Therapy dogs are typically owned by a facility and an employee handler is assigned to care for the dog during and after hours. Often they undergo more specific training.

Is my dog the right fit for therapy work?

Therapy dogs come in all shapes and sizes and breeds.  The most important characteristic is your dog’s willingness to provide affection, comfort and support not just to you but to others as well.  Not all dogs are comfortable giving attention to others. You are the best judge of your dog’s ability to do that. 

Therapy dogs also need to have a calm and gentle disposition. They must be good around other dogs, calm when strangers pet them all over, not jump on others, walk on a leash without pulling, and be comfortable when startled by such things as strange noises, smells, and medical equipment.  Typically, therapy dogs must be one year old.

Here is the primary difference between these types of support animals.  Therapy dogs provide support to others.  Service dogs perform trained tasks for their owner and provide support to them.  Emotional support dogs provide support to their owner. 

Typical Skills Needed to be a Therapy Dog

Child reading to therapy dog

As your dog will be visiting places and people, it will need basic obedience skills.  Although the Canine Good Citizenship (CDC) training is a great way to build your dog’s obedience skills, therapy dogs do not require all the skills acquired through that training.  Each recognized therapy dog certification organization has a set of skills that are required to pass the certification test but primarily skills include:

  1. Allow strangers to pet them all over including their ears, tail, and feet.
  2. Walk on a leash without pulling.
  3. Listens to you when given commands.
  4. Has a calm demeanor when being petted.
  5. Friendly around other dogs.
  6. Remain with feet on the ground when meeting others – no jumping up.
  7. Comfortable in unfamiliar places, able to move around in crowds, and not react negatively to unfamiliar sights and sounds.
  8. Comfortable around medical equipment such as wheelchairs or walkers and people who may walk unsteadily or have an unusual appearance or demeanor.

Dog Handler Expectations

Here is a list of the typical characteristics that will help you be successful in sharing your dog with others: 

  1. You genuinely enjoy being with your dog.
  2. You like volunteering and visiting facilities and institutions in the community with your dog.
  3. You want to invest time and are enthusiastic about creating pleasant experiences for all.
  4. You are confident that you can safely handle your dog.
  5. You praise your dog for good behavior or kindly correct your dog in a constructive manner.
  6. You understand and are alert to signs of stress in your dog and are able to manage the situation in a positive way with your dog’s comfort being the first consideration.
  7.  You recognize when it might be necessary to stop a visit or take a break from visiting. 
  8. You meet the requirements of the certification organization regarding visits.
  9. You meet the requirements and are respectful of the local facility being visited.
  10. You follow through on commitments to visit unless you don’t believe a visit will be a positive experience for all concerned.
  11. You notify Morningstar Therapy Dogs if you are unable to meet a commitment so we can look for a replacement for that visit.
  12. You are well groomed and wear appropriate closed-heel footwear.

For younger people wanting to be a handler, each national certifying organization has its own age requirements.  For example, ATD has a “junior” handler program for those 12 to 17 years of age.

What do therapy dogs actually do?

Monica Callahan
Professional Dog Trainer and Member of Board of Directors of the Alliance of Therapy Dog

Tips to prepare your dog for certification

Training your dog for therapy work is not only fun but very rewarding.  The activities listed below will help build you and your dog’s confidence and prepare you for the national certification test.

  1. Take lots of walks, especially in places where you may encounter people or other dogs such as parks, bike paths, sidewalks near businesses or schools, inside businesses that allow dogs such as Murdoch’s, Chow Down, Home Depot, and Petco. Ask places you do business if you could bring your dog in for a few minutes explaining that your dog is practicing to become a therapy dog.
  2. Sometimes using a different collar is helpful when going on practices. Use a special phrase or command such as “let’s go on a visit” so your dog identifies it as different from going on a walk.
  3. Keep the sessions short and ending them with praise such as saying “good work” and petting your dog. Then replace the 4’ leash used for therapy work with the standard length leash.
  4. Touch your dog’s feet, ears, tail, and mouth frequently and ask others to pet and handle your dog when you are confident your dog will accept their attention.
  5. Work on having your dog walk by your side with no sniffing, pulling, jumping, or playing allowed.
  6. Set up situations where your dog can encounter new experiences gradually – children, people wearing hats, bicycle riders, shopping carts, wheelchairs, walkers, canes and other medical equipment.

Morningstar Therapy Dog volunteers are always available to help at this stage.  Need some coaching or someone to come with you as you practice these skills with your dog.  Don’t hesitate to contact us.

The next step in your journey is National Therapy Dog Certification

There are several national organizations registering dogs for therapy work.  These national volunteer organizations are dedicated to regulating, testing, insuring and registering therapy dogs and their volunteer handlers for the purpose of visiting nursing homes, hospitals, and wherever else therapy dogs are needed.  You can get their names by doing an internet search or contact Morningstar Therapy Dogs for information. 

Typically, these organizations require your dog be at least one year old.  

Currently there is only one national certifying agency on the Western Slopes of Colorado with a qualified person to administer the test and perform the required three observations, so most therapy dog teams here are certified through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. 

Alliance of Therapy Dogs Logo

1919 Morrie Avenue
PO Bo 20227
Cheyenne, WY 82001
Phone:  877-843-7364
Email:  office@therapydogs.com
Website:  www.therapydogs.com

Alliance of Therapy Dogs . . . Here are the basics for this organization:

  1.  Complete the Alliance of Therapy Dogs required background check. A background check provides the facilities we visit with a sense of comfort that ATD volunteers have been properly screened. Background checks prior to testing will also help to keep ATD insurance premiums low and thus, keep your yearly fees low. 
  2. Download the membership packet available through the “Alliance of Therapy Dogs” link.
  3. Complete ATD’s Membership Application.
  4. Have your veterinarian complete the New Member Health Verification Form.
  5. Complete the Assumption of Risk and Release of Liability form.
  6.  Contact ATD’s tester/observer for the Western Slope:  Margie Kramer, 970-417-2339, jmkramer12@gmail.com to set up a time for the ATD certification test.  If you are unable to reach her, contact Joy Styer, 970-240-1561, sbboh4432@gmail.com as other tester/observer options may be available if Margie Kramer is not available.  
  7. Review ATD’s Important Facts, Rules and Guidelines to Know document found in ATD’s Membership Packet.
  8. Bring the above documents and your ATD membership fees check to the certification test.
  9. While at the test, your tester/observer will ask you to answer the questions found on the Rules and Guidelines document.
  10. Complete the certification test with your dog (see pages 11-17 in the membership packet for the test components.)
  11. After the certification test is completed, the tester/observer will go over the results with you.
  12. If you have passed, the tester/observer will send all of your paperwork into ATD for membership approval.

Once you become a member of ATD, you will be insured when performing visits.  You are responsible for paying the yearly ATD membership fee which helps ATD defer its costs in providing resources and insurance to its members.  

ATD requires members to complete at least one visit every three months to maintain certification.

Example of ATD Certification Test

Sample certification test video on the Alliance of Therapy Dogs website

The Bright & Beautiful Therapy Dogs Logo

80 Powder Mill Rd
Morris Plains, NJ 07950
Phone:  973-292-3316
Phone:  888-738-5770
Fax: 973-292-9559
Email:  info@golden-dogs.org
Website: https://golden-dogs.org

 

The Bright & Beautiful Therapy Dogs . . . Here are the basics for this organization:

1.  Fill out B&B’s application and present at test.
2.  Get a Health Certificate from your veterinarian.
3.  Bring your paperwork to the certification test.
4.  Pass the certification test.
5.  The tester will send your application, check and test
    results to B&B.

The Bright & Beautiful does not have a local evaluator.  Instead it uses the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizenship (CGC) test plus local recommendations and references.  The dog does not have to be a purebred to become a certified therapy dog.

Therapy Dogs International

88 Bartley Rd
Flanders, NJ 0783
Phone  973-252-7171
Email:  therapydogsinternational@gmail.com
Website:  www.tdi-dog.org

Therapy Dogs International (TDI) requires the team to pass the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizenship (CGC) test plus an additional evaluation.  These tests can be administered together from a CGC and a TDI evaluator in Grand Junction.  However, TDI does not allow its members to belong to any visiting groups or clubs such as Morningstar Therapy Dogs.