Pet Therapy

RonandJan said:
This is something I would like to get MMM into when he is a bit older. He is such an outgoing, good looking little fellow, sometimes cuddly (sometimes not, but he is young). He just has such a fine personality and is such a clown.

I will google groups in my area, but some questions:

Anything I should be training now besides his regular manners?

What are the special needs of bathing and grooming?

Chris, I noticed Layla has a nice jacket with patches, is there an accreditation that must be acheived before visiting or is that a group by group decision?
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I'm going to train my dog for Delta Society. Essentially it's the same as the (Canine Good Citizenship test. My university offers a course on animal assisted therapy, which I plan on taking either as part of my masters or afterwards. That's my long range goals. For now, she's almost 10 months old, still a puppy, and we're starting at beginner obedience school at Petsmart, then intermediate, then advanced, and possibly more.
 
RonandJan said:
This is something I would like to get MMM into when he is a bit older. He is such an outgoing, good looking little fellow, sometimes cuddly (sometimes not, but he is young). He just has such a fine personality and is such a clown.

I will google groups in my area, but some questions:

Anything I should be training now besides his regular manners?

What are the special needs of bathing and grooming?

Chris, I noticed Layla has a nice jacket with patches, is there an accreditation that must be acheived before visiting or is that a group by group decision?
Click to expand...

Layla is accredited through Washington DC's People, Animals, Love program. She also did TDI, but they won't let you belong to any group but TDI. The jacket came from PAL, but you can order them online.

Thanks to all for the kind comments.
 
take4roll10 said:
I'm debating between TDI and Delta.
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My Mom LOVES Delta. If I end up doing the assisted Therapy with Chloe, I will have to be Delta as well, as that is the organization that they use. TDI has a lot of weird policies and such. Right now....Chloe is TDI just because that test was offered at the Sheltie Picnic and we took the opportunity to get her in one of the organizations.
 
Wait a minute.....I might be wrong about what I said above. I think it might be Bright and Beautiful that my mom likes. Is that one of the therapy groups?

I will have to check with her.
 
I really admire people who do therapy work with their dogs. Such a great way to make a difference in peoples lives.:smile2:

I thought about it with my dogs. I've done demos and meet and greets with Justice(mister social butterfly) and he really seems to enjoy inacting with people so I don't know how he'd do. Ember can be standoffish, the meet and greets seemed to stress her out after awhile so I don't think she'd enjoy it.
 
I would definitely recommend checking out the home/hospital, wherever it is that you want to visit to see what certifications they accept. My friend had her dog certified with TDI but almost all of the local places here only accept Delta certified dogs.
 
Justicemom said:
I really admire people who do therapy work with their dogs. Such a great way to make a difference in peoples lives.:smile2:

I thought about it with my dogs. I've done demos and meet and greets with Justice(mister social butterfly) and he really seems to enjoy inacting with people so I don't know how he'd do. Ember can be standoffish, the meet and greets seemed to stress her out after awhile so I don't think she'd enjoy it.
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Part of it is for me, I have PTSD (major anxiety), and it's just so soothing to looking into the loving gaze of a dog and stroke their fur. Dogs are the epitome of unconditional love. I would've like to have done therapy work with my Daisy, who has three legs. While she never meets a stranger, she's also a one person dog, and that's me.

The only thing I've wanted to be is a therapist (once you get over the kid ambitions of "I want to be an astronaut" I was in 7th grade and found my mom's college psychology book, which she never got back, hehe). Anyway, two things in my life are my wanting to help others overcome their own trauma (enter Masters degree), and my love of animals (welcome to my zoo: i've had cats (7), dogs (4), hamsters (6), guinea pigs (3), zebra finches (2), fish (assorted, too many to count), turtles (2).)

I figure even if she's not cut out for therapy work, I'll have a well trained dog, whom I love and can do things with (I'd like to try agility or maybe even flyball, I'm talking about with my sister possibly doing something between her dog and my two dogs).

The person I'm getting Lady from thinks she'll make a great therapy dog. She's coming from the breeder, but was already sold once and returned, through no fault of her own. The original purchaser wanted to use her as a assistance dog, as she was considered disabled with a hearing disability. Problem: she was elderly (70s), trying to train Lady on her own & subsequently didn't know what she was really doing (she didn't want her grandkids to play with her b/c she wanted Lady to attune to her and her alone), her vet was taking advantage of her and charging her gobs of money, and she couldn't afford to keep Lady especially after her disability checks got cut and she had to move to another state to live with family. The breeder took her back fully prepared to keep her for life, but posted an ad that she had puppies (after my sister's puppy... i wanted an older puppy, but after a year of end-of-life care for our family snauzer I wanted a young dog) and also two 8 month olds. I emailed her, she replied back that she thought she had a dog that would match what i was looking for. So i went out to meet her, and took my dog to make sure they'd get along, which they did (though Daisy was enthralled with the chickens, and horses/donkeys). Lady didn't bark much, though the rest of the dogs were almost non-stop. She has an amazing personality though. I can't wait til she comes home!

11 more days.. 11 more days!!!!
 
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