therapy dog

[yoko]

i have a friend who works up at the city hospital and i was showing yoshi off to her.

she asked me if i wanted to train yoshi to be a therapy dog. she showed me a couple of the tests that yoshi would have to pass, not all of them because she didn't know what all of them were.

but like yoshi would go up to someone but she wouldn't touch a stranger the stranger has to touch her first.

then we cooked one some pizza rolls and left them on the floor and went out of the room for a while and came back and yoshi hadn't eaten any of them.

she's learned sit, stay down and a few tricks. so she asked if i was interested in getting the number for a lady i could talk to, to do it.

is having a therapy dog fun? i was thinking of it, i have been looking at some volunteer options and i kind of like this one cause i could work with yoshi at the same time.

any input would help!

[Adrienne]

Absoultely, there is nothing more rewarding than brighting sick or elderly peoples days! I plan to start Gunnar at the nursing home as soon as we finish our basic obediance class. I would say go for it, it is great for the dog, good for your soul and great for the others your dogs life touches!

[EliNHunter]

Doing volunteer work with your therapy dog has got to be the most rewarding experience ever! My golden (who passed to the Bridge last January), Eli, was a therapy dog. I got his CGC (Canine Good Citizen Dog) which is just basic testing and will give you the green light to go to many places. Bubbatd got the TDI crendentials with Bubba (Therapy Dog International). I would visit nursing homes and a "Day care for the elderly or disabled" place called Joy's House. It was SOOOO COOOOL! There was one guy who was terrified of dogs at Joy's House. He was mentally disabled. But when it came to arts/crafts time, he made a picture of Eli and said he loved him! It is SOOOOO touching!!!! I think I'm going to cry...

[EliNHunter]

Also, Bubbatd has a really cool story to share about an experience with Bubba at a place in the city she used to live. I'll let her share that one, though...

[bubbatd]

Yes, it is very rewarding. Chip is also licenced but , doesn't egual Bubba , yet ! Besides the nursing homes, Bubba and I used to go to a work shop area for physically and mentally disabled over 16. They would try to train them to be able to do simple tasks easy assembling. They were many episodes. One was a lady about 30 or 40 who would be brought in the morning, put in a chair and she wouldn't talk or get up. They first time she saw Bubba walk in, she stood up came up to us, put her arms around his huge neck and kept saying Dog, dog dog as she hugged him. Another was a young girl who was very serverly autistic .....She didn't like to be touched and would sit in a corner on the floor and rock back and forth all day . I had Bubba lay down near her....after a few visits she start to crawl closer and closer to him until she was close enough to pat him and he would extend his paw to her. Soon she allowed people to get closer to here... she never spoke. My favorite, and Bubba's, was a very good looking man 60ish, with eyes that sparkled when we came....he always got up and sang to Bubba and pretended to be dancing with him.Another younger boy who was spastic etc. would love to roll on the floor with him....they'd put a helmet on him so he wouldn't hurt himself... I asked if they had one for poor Bubba!!! I've got many great pictures. Maybe EliN could post them someday. He didn't enjoy the hospital visits that much.......too many times I think he smelled death and was depressed afterwards.

[Renee750il]

Bear, the GSD/Akita mix I got off of death row at the shelter and Gonzo, my big blue cat who moved in with me, were both therapy animals through the H.A.B.I.T. program at the University of Tennessee. They assigned us to a runaway shelter and a shelter for abused women and children. Some of those kids would just break your heart, but Bear and Gonzo just got through to them, especially the ones who had really been abused.

[bridey_01]

Im going to do therapy with my little collie Azlan when he is five months, and I can't wait. I used to do it with my bullterrier snake, but alot of the elderly women were very scared of him the first few times he came around! We would always get the men coming over, giving snake a hearty slap on the ribs whilst saying "that's a good dog there, that is". They used to rough him up and say "Who's a big old bruiser then!", they should have seen him at home, he was such a softy.