Therapy dog?

What would be involved with Zeus becoming a therapy dog? I know absolutely zilch about it.

My husband took Zeus to Petco this morning. There was a small group of disabled children in wheelchairs who all asked to pet Zeus. My husband said yes, but kept a good hold of Zeus. After all, Zeus had never seen wheelchairs before, and he can sometimes let the "killer tongue" loose on children. Well, Zeus just walked up to each child, gently laid his head in each lap, and let them love him to death. The adults with the children loved Zeus, and said that we should see about making him a therapy dog.

Thoughts/suggestions?

WOW good boy Zeus!!! Extra liver treats for you buddy! I say go for it. If he is that instinctive to their needs, he'll make a great therapy dog. I know there are classes you can take, first canine good citizen, and then a seperate one for therapy but I am not sure. Do a google search with your area and "therapy dog training" and I bet you come up with something.

i dont know much about therapy dogs...but if you like volunteering, i think that would be an awesome thing to look into. I know around me, there is a program where kids read to dogs...the doggies just listen really helps the kids relax, and have more fun learning to read. There are also nursing homes where dogs can visit, and things like that...as well as rehab programs, etc.

seems like that comes as a natural talent to zeus! (whereas oakley is like...ooh, a 3 year old..lemme tackle her) i would def look into it if i were you!!that story is soo cute!!

I think you should at least try. If it's not thing for Zeus, well, at least you had fun trying . I'm hoping to get my Tips into therapy soon.

Here is a link to the site for Therapy Dog International:

http://www.tdi-dog.org

This is a great organization. I have done therapy visits and it is great to see the joy our furpals can bring to others.

Glad you found the link for her !! That's the group I've gone through...it's good because you get your dog's I.D. and with membership you are insured through them. Alot of dog groups do the CGC ..... TDI should be able to tell you where and when there's a testing near you. Good luck to you and Zeus !!!

therapy dogs are awesome, and if your og has the proper temperament, then go for it!

therapy dogs are typically extensively temperament tested -- there are two major groups certifying nationwide - TDI (the link was already given early by another poster) and Delta Society.

Their tests are both a little different but in general they go over the dogs ability to handle close contact from others, different situations, etc. once certified, your dog can go out to a variety of places - hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers, etc -- and do wonderful work!

keep us updated!

You need to train him so that he is calm around hospitals, he doesn't bark, and he needs to obey you 100%. If he is really good at all of that, contact a hospital in your area, and you need to do a special kind of test that proves to the hospital that Zeus is calm and well mannered enough to do this kind of work.

I've never heard of a blackmouth cur doing work like that. I hope that you guys work hard, because Zeus would be one heck of a therapy dog.!

Once he has been certified , he will be accepted anywhere. ( especially with a TDI certification ) ...I've even gotten away at motels in the past from paying an extra fee when I've shown his card...this was before motels were pet friendly. I've only had 3 TDI dogs... BubbaTD , his Mom IB and now Chip. I've also been a helper when a tester through our Golden Club was evaluating.....fun to act like an idiot rocking on the floor and saying " where's my fan, where's my fan !" or dropping a pile of tin pans to get their reaction. The test is easier than when I first went through it. We had to tie our dog to something and leave the room for 5 minutes. I.B. was tied to a table and I kept waiting to hear the table being dragged across the floor or her starting to bark ! That phase is now having someone hold the leash while you're out of sight for 5 minutes.

That sounds much less stressful than the one my Bear and Gonzo (the Cat) went through at UT! Each animal was taken to a testing room without me and kept back there and tested for quite some time. I'm really not even sure what they did! Both passed with flying colors though, even though I am, at best, a middling to indifferent person when it comes to all the niceties of obedience. If my critter comes when I whistle and listens to me that's pretty much all I ask, lol. I will admit I ask my animals all sorts of odd things though, lol!

Thanks for the info! I read the rules on that site, and Zeus can do all that. Woohoo! I found a local therapy dog group here that operates with the Humane Society, so I think I'll look into it. And I agree, it'll be interesting to see a therapy blackmouth cur.

I went through Pets on Wheels when I volunteered with my Max. The temperament test consisted of things like seeing if he will approach a stranger when called, hugging his head, grabbing his tail, grabbing around his belly, knocking a chair over in front of him to see what he does when startled, things like that. Oh, and he also had to be able to take a treat gently from someone's hand without nipping any fingers. Because the people that you visit may not always know how to handle a dog appropriately, they needed to make sure he would stay calm and gentle if, say, a confused nursing home resident pulled his tail.

I highly recommend volunteering with your dog. It's such a heartwarming experience and the dogs usually LOVE it. When I would tell Max "time to go be therapy dog!" he would go nuts.

Aw. I should consider it with Sam. Although I'm worried that elderly people will be overwhelmed by her size....?

Gemp; Lets us know how it goes!

Max was huge and they loved him. But it helped that he was a Samoyed - he looked like a big fluffy toy.

i think therapy dog is cool, but at least we should hv a calm dog. its very new over my country, however i had my very first visit to orphan home over here last week, i enjoy it so much. i will keep on doing it, its just feel happy to see so many smiling face around..

I always found that eldery people really liked seeing the big dogs. Most of them had a big dog when they were children and it brought back a lot of happy memories for them.

Hm. Sounds like fun! But... let's see how Gemp does first. This is HER moment of glory! (drum roll)