Our 7-Week Therapy Dog Class

Would you like to do therapy visits with your dog? Or more importantly, would your dog like to do therapy visits with you? This seminar will prepare the handler and dog for various therapy environments. We will train you and your dog in therapy skills and protocols. What we can’t train is a therapy dog disposition, so your dog needs to naturally enjoy being around all kinds of different people and be comfortable with other dogs. This class can also be taken by existing therapy dog teams as a refresher and for continuing education.

 

We will introduce and familiarize the handler and dog to situations, activities, and equipment found in therapeutic environments. We will strengthen existing behaviors as well as introduce new therapy-specific cues.  Throughout the seminar, we will cover therapy-related topics such as stress signs, certification, and serving options.

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What We'll Cover

We will set up mock scenarios staging situations and activities the handler and dog will find in a therapeutic environment. These include role-playing, a certification practice test, and an actual nursing home visit (or a live virtual visit, depending on Covid-19 restrictions).

We include an introduction to more advanced visitation and trick cues. Topics such as Zoonotic Diseases, dog handling protocols, and safe patient interaction will be covered.

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The goal of this seminar is to give the handler and dog team the skill and confidence to go into a broad variety of therapy dog settings. As well as be prepared for the Alliance of Therapy Dogs Evaluation or any other therapy dog certification test.

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Please Note: This seminar does not include a therapy dog certification, but is intended to prepare you and your dog as a team to do therapy dog visits and be ready to take a therapy dog certification evaluation from various organizations that offer these.

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Prerequisites

• Comfortable with people of ALL ages and gender

• Solid in basic obedience

• Friendly & comfortable with other dogs

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