by Jolanta Benal, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA 

Imagine for a minute that you’re hospitalized, or doing time in a nursing facility for physical rehab. Wouldn’t some dog facetime cheer you up? It might even speed your recovery. Or maybe your developmentally disabled kid brother lights up whenever he has a chance to pet a dog. This week, therapy dogs – what they do and how to teach your dog to be one.

This being The Dog Trainer’s Quick and Dirty Tips, I’ll speak of therapy dogs, but dogs aren’t the only therapy animals. I’ve met a therapy cat, there are therapy llamas and rabbits, and a study of Alzheimer’s patients found they ate more when there was a fish tank on their ward. Therapy fish, maybe!  Also, people in the field distinguish between animal-assisted activities (AAA) and animal-assisted therapy (AAT). The first involves visiting and socializing, with no particular aim in mind other than to improve well-being; in animal-assisted therapy, though, the dog’s presence has a specified goal. For example, visits from a dog may be geared to help an autistic child improve his social skills.

How to Qualify as a Therapy Team with Your Dog

Are you all ready to leash up and head over to your local nursing home? Whoa, Nelly! Qualifications first. Most institutions partner with a therapy-dog certification group. Therapy Dogs International and the Delta Society are national organizations; local and regional groups also exist – for instance, the Good Dog Foundation serves New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

These organizations screen the dog-and-human team to make sure they’re well suited to the work. The canine half of the team has to be at ease with strangers, of course. It’s also important that your dog be comfortable with metallic and electronic noises, walkers, wheelchairs, unusual gaits, and clumsy handling.

Therapy Dogs Need Good Manners

You and your dog will take a class in which you teach him the manners he needs for therapy visits – for instance, greeting people without jumping up, walking politely on leash through crowded indoor spaces, and turning away from spilled food on your cue. You’ll also learn to look out for your dog’s stress signals and well-being. For instance, a therapy dog shouldn’t growl or snap if a socially clumsy person pulls her ear -- but she isn’t there to endure repeated yanks, either. Therapy visits are supposed to be pleasant for the dog as well as for the people she visits. A good handler may gently redirect the clumsy person or take his dog out of the situation.

Therapy Dog Groups Help Place Teams Appropriately

Finally, you’ll learn how to prepare your dog for visits (you may need to give her a bath and trim her nails), what kinds of needs different client populations may have, and what confidentiality rules apply to your work. And the certifying group can guide you and your dog to an appropriate placement. For instance, a friendly dog who’s on the wiggly side might knock down frail elderly people, so she may not be the best suited to visit nursing homes. That same dog might be a perfect choice to visit a group home for developmentally disabled but physically healthy young men.

What Therapy Dog Visits Are Like

For a first-person account, I asked my friend Susan, whose mixed-breed dog, Alfie, was recently certified as a therapy dog and visits a group home for severely disabled men. To protect the men’s privacy, I’ve changed everybody’s name and disguised some other identifying details.

Alfie’s First Visit

“Alfie had his first visit as a therapy dog tonight!  Most of the men at the home are non-verbal and non-ambulatory, and a few need feeding tubes.  Alfie was a little overwhelmed when we got there -- a little whiny, his tail was down, and his pupils were incredibly dilated.

“I considered aborting because he looked so stressed, but the two attendants were nice and he responded well to them. The [therapy dog group] coordinator called him and petted him too, and then he started to relax.  

“The evening manager, Jorge, was very good about controlling the residents' hands (holding his hand with theirs) to make sure Alfie wasn't subjected to too much accidental rough treatment.  So it was mostly light, clumsy pats. By the end, Alfie was flopping down for belly rubs from the staff (relaxed hind limbs, tail loose), and tried to lick a hand or two.

“One fellow, one of the few who could walk without assistance, followed us around but backed up whenever Alfie turned to look at him.  Very interested, but scared I guess.  The other was a physically impaired man who actually came off the couch and crawled after us to spend more time with Alfie.”

So Alfie’s first visit wasn’t perfectly smooth, but Susan, the manager, and the therapy dog coordinator all helped out to minimize his stress and make the experience comfortable for him as well as engaging for the residents. Alfie and Susan went back a couple of weeks later for a second round:

Alfie’s Second Visit

“Alfie was a complete nut, wouldn't settle down, yodeled a few times, etc.  I didn't take him out for a longer exercise walk in the afternoon but now I’ve learned my lesson and will tire him out beforehand.  The workers and two of the residents who like dogs got a kick out of his antics. Of course as soon as he saw people laughing at his bouncing and yodeling, he bounced and yodeled more.  

“I also brought some Cheerios and the residents got to ‘feed’ him and a few of them were visibly thrilled to feel his cold little nose on their palm.  A resident who was too afraid last time was able to pet Alfie today, so that was good too.  And I think his biggest fan is the fellow from our first visit who crawled to him again today.”

If you think you and your dog would enjoy making therapy visits, get in touch with one of the groups I mentioned earlier, or ask nearby institutions whether there’s a local organization they partner with. Happy New Year to everybody, and special warm wishes to all the therapy animals and their handlers. Thanks for bringing comfort and interest to people who for whatever reason need more help and concern than most of us.

You can follow The Dog Trainer on Twitter, where I’m Dogalini. I’m The Dog Trainer on Facebook, and you can also write to me at dogtrainer@quickanddirtytips.com. Though I can’t usually reply individually, I welcome your comments and suggestions, and I may use them as the basis for future articles.