Thus inspired, I reached out to a number of regular readers, and asked if they’d be kind enough to send photos of their dogs. Many responded, and I had a grand old time “meeting” dogs I’ve read abou I’d say I have to agree with most – born and made – with the “born” part first. My little petite Golden let me know by observing her interactions with the world in general. The “made” part is more the honing of the skill; she went through training to become a certified pet therapy dog then went through more training at a local hospital to be able to go there. Within the hospital, there is more training for different situations, such as being part of a pediatric procedure in the emergency room or going to the cancer treatment part of the hospital.

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery! The world does seem to be in a dark and dangerous time. It needs all the love and civility we can muster. When the state of the world gets too depressing there’s nothing like a playground romp with my 10 month old Great Dane to lighten the day. Pure unbridled joy as he chases after toys and blowing leaves. It’s his first autumn so he’s never seen blowing leaves before! He runs and leaps just for the joy of it, throwing in some Scooby Do antics along the way. Who can keep a straight face! At the end of each play session our bond seems stronger.

I live with a collie who was born for this work….she is an obedience washout….but LOVES this work…her idea of heaven is walking around meeting and greeting as many new people as possible because she just loves people cooing over her. But even she has a threshold of about 45 minutes….before she gets tired and it’s time to stop or take a break. So often we are afraid of our dog’s “misbehaviors,” but they can be our best friends if we know how to use them safely. So, I guess I would say that handler creativity and problem solving is an important element in animal assisted therapy work, in particular, where you have specific client outcomes as your goal. Lucy May also lets me when she’s tired and what venue she enjoys. She likes more the pace of a hospital, for example, than an assisted living center or hospice. She even seems to wear the occasional holiday “costume” with dignity and care, but then, she is a bit of a poser! And, of course, loves the attention. In our organization we emphasize (1) knowing/reading your dog; (2) stewarding your dog; (3) assessing what situations/populations your dog enjoys and what situations/people they enjoy less, and we try very hard to help people with unsuitable dogs understand that they and/or their dogs are not failures, just not meant for this career. We try very hard to do good jobs of ‘matching’… dogs, owners, and ‘clients’ and feel that this is critical to good canine-assisted therapy. It would be wonderful if all therapy dogs could do and enjoy all therapy work but we feel if we restricted certification and participation to just those dogs, many potential ‘clients’ would miss out and many wonderful dogs and owners would be left out. So we work hard at making sure all our teams look for their own niche and emphasize at all times the importance of the dogs loving what they do. So far, everyone really seems to ‘get it’ and so we have more dogs out there working, and more of them happy. We try to define dog teams as “broad spectrum” vs. “narrow spectrum” which helps us when we get requests for teams and/or programs. We also have a process of ‘shadowing’ that allows owners to visit a program in action to see if they think it would be a good placement for them AND their dog. If so, they then intern with their dog and a veteran mentor. Then the mentor and the owner discuss what they observed and try to come up with a decision that is accurate in terms of the dog’s likes as well as the owner’s. So far it is working wonderfully and we get nothing but thanks from new teams.

What did I do? I held the leash, I carried his water bowl and his big soft greyhound bed big enough for him and a reader 🙂 I was silent. I let the readers talk to Doug and made sure that they knew that he was listening, that they could touch him, kiss him, rest on him, show him the book, play hide and seek in the library before their session with him. I let them feel safe with him, I let the other children listen with out embarrasing the readers that were “his”, I encouraged the parents that the readers (grades 3-5) were making progress, I was a non-judgmental listener just like my dog. I let Doug lead. to the commenter who spoke of a dog-therapy dog program, my staffy ninna is also one of these dogs who loves rehabilitating anxious or fearful dogs; this is how we came to adopt our yorky mix as she was a foster. It was ninna who helped her feel confident with other dogs and people. If you get this started I would love to get it happening here in Australia. But I just don’t think he’s truly a good candidate. Otis is TOLERANT of new people, but he doesn’t actually love them. There are a few types of people that he eagerly seeks to greet and interact with, (youngish, shortish, roundish women and uniformed police officers, oddly enough) but mostly, he’s indifferent. He loves the people that he loves, (and he has a pretty big circle of friends and relatives, for a dog), but he’s not naturally affiliative or attentive to strangers. He gets a LOT of attention from people out in public, and based on that, I’m confident that he could probably do service work, but I can’t imagine that he would enjoy it. A great blog, as always! I would agree heartily with your points. Training only gets you so far, and some dogs simply are not cut out for therapy work, or they are not interested or are stressed by it. I have been working on standards, practices, and a specialized credential for Animal Assisted Play Therapy, which combines AAT with play therapy (psychotherapy) for children, teens, and families. One of our principles is that the dogs have to enjoy it, not just tolerate it. We can also use dogs who are a little more energetic as our work involves lots of play interactions, but the energy does have to be under control. (If anyone is interested, I do have a Facebook group called Animal Assisted Play Therapy which is very multidisciplinary, and we’ve been talking about this topic as well. It’s a closed group but I’ll accept anyone ‘legitimate’ who asks to join.) Thank you for bringing attention to AAT/AAA!!! I tend to think that even in as much work as one can do with socialization (and socialization and more socialization) and training, there does seem to be in innate quality that is born into a dog that makes a good therapy dog. I’ve been in pet therapy and training therapy dogs for ten years and I’ve seen people work extremley hard to try to “make” their dog a therapy dog–they end up with a miserable (albeit compliant and obedient) partner; even to the point of one dog flat out vomiting from stress, another defecating in stress. I’ve also seen shelter dogs that right out of the humane society could be stellar at visiting patients. My two older goldens are Delta Society registered dogs and demonstrated a natural desire to want to visit and interact with others and be loved and petted, whereas my other golden who is now 12 months (same training, socialization, etc) has in no uncertain terms let me know she is going to be a nosework champ and could care less about visiting the nursing home or hospital with her older brother and sister. Anyway, that’s my two cents for what its worth. =)

Sandy, on the other hand, never met a stranger (dog or human) and would be a great candidate, if I ever get around to putting in the work necessary to get her excitement under control and her manners totally up to snuff! It’s even more dramatic with dogs. Otis doesn’t engage new dogs in play as often as he did when he was younger, but when he meets a dog who is a good fit, size and energy-wise, he forms attachments in as little as a few minutes, remembering and joyfully greeting that dog when he meets him again. Others, especially puppies, he builds a relationship with over several weeks or months, but then remains attached to that dog forever. I’d say that there are perhaps a dozen dogs in this category. Here they are about two minutes later, wondering who that handsome man is sitting in the car. Thank you girls, it was nice to meet you.

Taking him to the vet for his last visit was so heart wrenching because he knew, he started shaking and he never did that when visiting the vet. He most certainly read my emotions and knew it was goodbye. Aware of their Job? This is gravy, pure gravy, but the fact is that some dogs do more than happily sit with strangers or participate in structured therapy treatment plans, as beneficial as that can be to some people. These dogs seem to sense why they are there, and seek out people who are especially needy, and make an emotional connection with them that changes their life. These connections happen, and hearing about them is enough to make you all gooey-eyed. Special stuff indeed.I’m writing this with tears in my eyes but also surrounded by three Aussies who help me get through every day. I had a very difficult day at work yesterday. I work at a vet clinic. There was a dog that had to be put down and her eyes are still haunting me. I needed to go home and sit under a pile of my own dogs to feel better. I will be alright. It will get figured out. I am surrounded by a devoted husband, dear friends, tons of doctors and holistic practioners. Some things don’t help, others do. Some days are better than others. I am better than I was in January and February. I am probably going to have to make some permanent changes in my life, a tad of a challenge for a woman who lives on a hilly farm, has sheep and working dogs, and uh, has ADHD besides. I’m not going to go into any more details, because that’s just not what this village is about. This is not the place to talk about disease, medicine, and treatments. It IS the place for me to honor so many others, including those who will read this post, who are worse off than I am. It IS the place to savor how important our dogs and our friends are. I have several comments which I’ll write as I listen to your Rotary talk. You just made my dogs bark by the way! I’m so sorry you are feeling ill. I empathize after years of not being able to walk without pain and a cane and having constant fatigue due to thyroid and diabetes. Look to natural remedies and acupuncture/pressure. They have worked so much better for me than prescribed meds with their side effects. Now onto my comments on your talk. Somehow, I cannot imagine you having a murderous look on your face.