Frequently Asked Question:
Does My Dog Have What it Takes to Be a Therapy Dog?
DEFINITIONS:
Because there is often confusion between different types of working dogs, it helps to clarify their roles:
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Therapy Dogs: Trained to provide comfort and affection to people in hospitals, schools, or retirement homes as a volunteer with their guardian.
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Emotional Support Animals (ESAs): Provide comfort through companionship but do not have public access rights or special training.
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Service Dogs: Individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability (per the ADA). Must be highly trained and impeccably well behaved in public.
CHQDogs’ services happily support teams with early puppy training, basic pet manners, socialization, therapy dog preparation through certification.
If your goal is service dog training to assist an individual with a disability, here are some networks featuring certified professionals who specialize in that field:
Some questions to consider for potential Therapy Dogs:
DO YOU as a handler have what it takes to manage a therapy dog? A Therapy Dog instills confidence unto those with whom they interact. It takes a special team to accomplish this feat.
Therapy Dogs United details testing requirements at:
https://www.therapydogsunited.org/testing-and-evaluation/testing-requirements/
Canine Good Citizen
CGC is a prerequisite for evaluation as a (TDU) Therapy Dog, as well as a minimum age of 12 months.
The 10 CGC Skills are:
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Accepting a friendly stranger
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Sitting politely for petting
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Appearance and grooming
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Out for a walk (walking on a loose lead)
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Walking through a crowd
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Sit and down on cue and stay in place
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Coming when called
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Reaction to another dog
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Reaction to distraction
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Supervised separation (3 minutes)