Therapy Dogs
What is a therapy dog? Therapy dogs play a different helping role than service dogs and emotional support animals. They aren’t trained to live with a specific handler. Rather, these are dogs that, with their human teammate (often the dog’s owner), volunteer in clinical settings. These locations include hospitals, mental institutions, hospices, schools, and nursing homes. These dogs provide comfort, affection, and love in the course of their work. Therapy dogs are trained to be comfortable in new environments and to interact with different people. They should have a calm temperament, be unfazed by unfamiliar noises and movements, be comfortable being handled, and love people.
With all the above in mind, all that I do with the puppies helps prepare them for therapy work if this is something the family wants to pursue. For example, daily they listen to various sounds-firecrackers, thunderstorms, construction zone, door knocking, city sounds, blow dryer, vacuum, blender, leaf blower to name a few. They are handled daily beginning with ENS and ESI, The puppies have regular nail trimming and are touched in every spot on their body- no off limit areas! They are exposed to different locations, car rides, see all parts of the house, walks being carried outside, outside play on our deck, introduction to water, introduction to crates. All these and more help to aid in the socialization of the puppies. Helping them to be able to handle new situations and adapt to various environments.
