Going to a seminar

REceived the invite...this sounds very helpful!
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Have you ever had difficulty getting your dog positioned just right for visiting an individual in a wheelchair, on crutches or a walker, or even laying in a hospital bed? Mary Sellaro can teach you simple commands and techniques for getting your canine partner in just the right spot without having to tug on the leash. Teach your doggie to come forward, scoot sideways, back up, and to do all that with style! You will find these techniques especially helpful in crowded rooms or where you must maneuver in tight areas.

maybe. But wouldn't having a dog who stays in heel whether you step sideways, back up, turn your body etc etc, do the same thing. Esp if you had trained your dog to go to your other side on cue?

I might be missing something, its been a looooong time since I was involved with therapy dogs. (omy I am getting old :yikes

WHen you have a bigger dog, and you are in a room with many mentally affected people in wheelchairs..your dog has to be a lot more aware of his surroundings then a handler and a leash. He has to be prepared for someone to reach out and grab his tail, touch his ears, or even raise their hands in a threatening gesture. IT is chaotic, and close, becuase you have the dog, and everyone is bored out of their minds and this is new they tend to rush over. VIc has had his tail run over once and he handled himself like the champ that he is.. IT isn't like a show ring or an agility course. LIttle dogs can often be carried in, set down, picked up, but a bigger dog must do this on his own.
PLus your dog has to learn how to get up on a bed without nicking thin skin with his nails. IT is gentle, and slow, and exceedlingly careful. AT the same time you have to be prepared for falling metal trays and hollaring, some people scream with dementia or cry. GEtting your dog in the exact position that a person can reach over, and sometimes that is exceedingly hard to do, they can't reach far, isn't as easy as you think. IT isn't like come to heel on either side. SO the dog has to learn to focus on his commands at the same time of being a hundred percent of his enviroment. I am really looking forward to this seminar because i think there is always new to learn and i have a dog that is a natural therapy dog. IF this will heighten our skills in a medical facility i am all ears. I don't think you can understand if you haven't been there. Crutches and wheelchairs, walkers, ivs it is a different kind of obstical course and the dog cannot knock into anything accidently. IT is a different kind of skill and Victor has such an apptitude for it which is a credit to his pointerness.

He gets better every time we go, he understands more and i can see him grow in his understanding of the people around him. I am so proud he can do this, and that i can assist and hopefully share here for anyone that is interested.

Dekka if your dogs are that well trained why aren't you doing therapy work now? IT is a wonderful experience for all.

Zoomer i sent a message and asked if it is only for pets for life or if i could reserve one more seat. They said space was limited. You may have to work too but i thought i would ask if you would like to go.

That sound like a lot more than what you first said Yes as I said I have been involved with therapy dogs. I remember part of the testing was to drop a metal tray behind the dog when it wasn't expecting it. My dogs are all small enough they can be placed on the bed.

I have gone to seminars..and then wondered what it was I had spent my money for

Why I don't do it? Well one 'I' can be uncomfortable around sick people, and I would be afraid the dogs would pick up on it. Dekka would be very good at it, but not sure if she would pass the testing (where other dogs are involved). Basically I didn't enjoy it the last time I was involved, the politics were ridiculous.

Now if my son wanted to work with Scandal to that end, I would fully support it (he would need to wait a few years to be old enough first). But right now all he wants to do is agility and JRT trials.

I didn't write that, it was the e-mail i received from the pets for life. I know what they mean tho, so i hope i cleared it up.

He could always take the pre test and see if he is interested and if the dog has the temperment. IT isnt' for all dogs, Mary would like going in but she would flop down in the middle of the isle and join the geriatrics. IT isn't for all people either. Illness can be pretty hard to look at for anyone, and there is the added consideratiaon of bacteria, especailly now that we have rampent staff. I am not sure i would want Hy in the rooms i go in. I took Victor and we failed the first one. THe umbrella they opened behind him in a big woosh, sent him right up out of a down stay. I don't beleive you were around when i posted threads where we trained for each aspect that needed work. THat was just one way they try to scare your dog into jumping, they have to see if he is going to flip out and take an iv out of someone's arm. IT takes very steady nerves and some dogs can and some dogs cant' Has nothing to do with breeds just personalities, and for Victor it seems to be a sense of duty.

I decided to make him a therapy dog when this happened at the guild. A man at the guild was glazing his greenware and had his 4 year old son with him. THe man had his back turned and the boy was about to run his finger down the waxed foot on the clay side which would have made it so his father couldn't glaze. I came in and said DAd...your son is about to put wax on the side of the pot. THe man turned around, the boy was embarrassed and started to cry. Apparently this is something the child did easily. VIc in the meantime had come in the room, i was working on my own piece when i felt an elbow in my side. Ellen said look...Vic had positioned himself next to the little boy, his head hung down, his tail down, for all the world looking as sad as the little boy. He didnt' look at the boy, just stood beside him, then Vic lifted his head, put his nose in the boys ear nuzzled, then dropped his head back into the same sad hang dog look he had before. THE boy smiled..shoot we all did and that was when i knew. HE knows, he has an instinct for people. IT isnt' my training, i don't think anyone can teach a dog to be "like that" to people he never met before. We just have to learn how to do it best and safest in a hospital situation.

Dekka, when my Bear and Gonzo did therapy work, we got assigned to a women's shelter and a runaway shelter instead of the regular hospital/nursing home beat. I'll have to say that I and the dog and cat probably were better suited to that. I know I enjoyed it much more than I would have hospital or nursing home visits.

It was particularly great to see the effect Bear and Gonzo had on the runaways. They were all there because of some sort of abuse, whether physical or emotional.

IF you do want to train for a hospital situation, there were many different things i did with Victor. Like carrying rattly sacks that filled with wind and crackled in my leash hand, we became best friends with umbrellas. My mom and Hy threw rocks into a trashcan making all kinds of noise while we did sit down stay with distraction. THe final of our test was when Vic was doing the sit stay down...you back off..your standing in front of your dog, he is in a down stay, about three feet, they come up behind the dog and drop a large metal salad bowl right behind him. Victor just turned his head and laffed..IT was wonderful to see him so confident. He was the most high strung dog! Flighty, fast, nervous, and very young, everything you think would never make a therapy dog. He passed when he was 3 years old, we worked on it for about a year before i felt he was old enough and prepared enough to pass. THis test was much tougher then the test Bronki took. When we visit we are suppose to go in teams. I am paired up with Kelly but because of family illness she hasn't been able to go. THey contacted me and asked if i would like to switch and team up with Liberty but i have developed attachements to the residents, and the piano is there too so i don't want to change.

You also have to retest every two years. They give you a new rabies tag that has the pets for life stamped into it. I felt like we had scored a touch down when we passed, it was pretty cool.

Morgan used to go to a nursing home. I'm not cut out for the nursing home thing. I really want to get Morgan into the reading dogs program. Maybe I'll look into that after I move.

I do not want to do the reading program for one reason. At one time in his life before i got him, someone hurt victor's legs, and that someone must have been a toddler. He will not lay beside a very small child when they start wiggling or if they lean on him, it causes him stress and i don't want to set him up to fail. I think he was really harmed. ANything but across his skinny long legs he will take 100 percent, i do not know if he would be a hundred percent if he was harmed again that way. Mary could do that, kids could roll over her and she wouldn't care, but he would so it is not for us. If the children were any age but kindergarten i think he would be fine. ITs' a shame because Hyia reads to him every night and he actually looks like he is enjoying the story.

Since the fee for this seminar is 5 dollars, and is being held by a long term experienced therapist i don't think it will be a waste of my time or my money. I love when profit it taken out of everything and we can get down to what is real.

That is what i meant by not for everyone, it takes many visits before your desensitized to the smell, and the sight of sick people. IT's sad. But if you can get past that part you start to see the people. I have one woman that i play the piano for while she gets to sleep, right after dinner. WE have our routine I play for awhile, go down a hall, visit some rooms. I get to hers and she says I heard someone playing the piano but it stopped. I say that was me! Victor and i have come to say goodnight. IS there a song you would like me to play? And she always has one. I really like her! She says when she gets better we can play together. I really wish we could but that day is never going to come. SOme people have died since i came and that is hard. I spent most of my middle adult life caring for people that were ill either phsyically or mentally so i am use to it. STill after not being there for a span of years it was hard to step back in. ONce one man that does not talk much, and is very mobile in his wheelchair came up and played c chord, c 7th and then c minor. THen he turned to me and smiled. THat is a pretty big moment and i was so pleased. That is what it is all about. VIctor gets them talking and communicating which helps with orientation. And all i hope is for a few minutes to make that horrid place recede a little and maybe feel a bit more of "home". Being sick blows.

ohh now that we could do. I would love to help out at a woman's shelter (I can't do hospitals, because I feel so badly when people are in pain. I want to help and I can't) Thats emotional pain, and for some reason do much better with that.

The reading would be cool, Dekka LOVES toddlers. But I don't think we have a program like that here.

That will be a good seminar. That's the lady who was/is my training mentor...she has done therapy dog stuff for years and also trains her own person service dogs...she KNOWS what she is talking about.

Good luck and send me the rest of the info; she and I have been trying to get a lunch date together but she's been so busy with training stuff that we haven't been able to do it. Maybe if I pay to see her... :rofl1:

ROck on...i haven't heard yet, but fingers crossed, would be fun to attend together.

Let her know it's Zoom and I'll bet there's a place open for her

My horse Dex was a therapy horse, not only did he get used for a Handicap Riding Program. I use to take him to nursing homes. We also had regular visits from a mentally challenged group out to the farm, where Dex would stand in the alleyway with muliple wheel chairs around him and with several people that were vocalizing. He never once put a foot wrong, all 1250 lbs of him at 16.1 hh.

That is just beauitful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!