Beginning Pet Therapy With Your Dog
This article is written to give you helpful information about becoming a therapy pet team with your dog. It takes a very special person and their dog to love doing this type of work.
INTRODUCTION TO FANCY AND ME
My dog Fancy is a Golden Retriever/Chow. I adopted her from a local animal shelter when she was three month old. We immediately began obedience classes at the shelter. Fancy graduated as the top student! Obedience skills were very easy for her to master. I also taught her hand signals. This was invaluable in many instances during a difficult situation while on a therapy visit. Healthcare facilities can often be very noisy and your dog may not hear you give a verbal command. It is not mandatory for you to teach your dog hand signals but I would strongly suggest it. There is probably a local dog obedience school in your area. Contact them to see if they have basic and advanced classes.
Fancy and I visited hundreds of facilities during our years of making therapy visits. Our visits included: hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living centers. When we entered a nursing home the Director would announce on the PA system that Fancy was in the building. Residents and staff came from all directions to see their weekly special furry visitor! We visited one nursing home each week. One resident was blind. I would give Fancy the command – UP- which meant get up on the chair and sit next to the patient. The blind resident would feel of Fancy’s fancy, body and bushy tail. She always sat very still while he did this. She knew there was something special about him. The resident would always say,” Fancy could be a Seeing Eye dog, couldn’t she?” I would reply, “Yes, she could with a little more training. He never missed a visit to see Fancy!
We also were asked to give presentations to nursing schools and local community groups regarding the benefits of pet therapy to patients and the staff at healthcare facilities. We visited other groups too. We are now retired.
Therapy visits can be very rewarding experiences for you and your dog. It is an excellent way to spend quality time with your pet while enriching someone else’s life!
The rewards are numerous. When you visit someone and see their tears turn into a smile and even laughter – it is worth the time and effort. Even patients/residents who are not fond of dogs will request that the pet visit their room! It is amazing what a positive influence a therapy pet can have on the people he or she visits!
BASICS OF BECOMING A PET THERAPY TEAM :
To begin visiting healthcare facilities with your dog – you and your dog MUST become a TEAM prior to visiting. This is vital in making any type of therapy visits. You BOTH must be friendly and love interacting with people of all ages and often with disabilities or health problems.
You and your dog must be able to work together and know what each other is thinking. You should practice and develop a very close relationship with your dog before considering becoming a pet therapy team!
Your dog should be taught to NEVER jump up on anyone whether they are sitting or standing!
Your dog should be taught to NEVER lick people! Some facilities will ask that you not come back if your dog licks a patient/resident. This is for health reasons.
Your dog should have his/her teeth brush occasionally and should never be taken on a therapy visit if he/she has bad breath.
Your dog must be tolerant of being petted roughly and allow people to touch their feet/and or pick their feet up and touch them.
Most healthcare facilities require that your dog have ALL vaccinations. They will have a list to give you. Most dogs must be at least six months of age before all of the required vaccinations are given.
Contact the Director of any healthcare facility you are interested in visiting with your therapy dog and ask what their qualifications and requirements are for a therapy team to visit.
If you begin therapy visits with your dog when he/she is six months old watch their personality. Some dogs may change when they mature.
Always give your dog a bath at least one day before you go on a therapy visit. His/her toenails MUST be trimmed. There should be NO sharp edges or long toenails.
Breed or size of a therapy dog depends on you as the handler. Can you be in COMPELETE control of a large dog ALL of the time while on a therapy visit? Small dogs may be carried while on visits. Health care facilities may at times be dangerous for a small dog walking down a hall or anywhere in the facility. Patients/residents in wheel chairs or walkers may not see the dog and stop on it. .
A person with dementia or Alzheimer’ may try to pull your dog’s fur, pull their tail, try to hit them, pull their ear or poke them in the eye. It is up to you as the handler to keep your pet SAFE at all times on a therapy visit! If you see the patient/resident may attempt to harm your pet, back away from them immediately.
If you have more than one dog and would like to make therapy visits with each dog, NEVER take more than ONE dog at a time on a therapy visit. You must concentrate and give your full attention to one pet! Things can happen in an instant on a therapy visit. You must be always be totally aware of exactly where your pet and what he/she is doing.
NEVER allow your pet to eat anything off the floor while in any facility or outside a facility while on a therapy visit. Food, medication or other objects may have been dropped which could harm your dog.
A therapy visits officially begins the moment you and your dog step out of your car. There may be staff members, vendor drivers, delivery drivers, visitors, etc. who may want to interact with your dog as soon as they see him/her.
As soon as you arrive at a facility for a therapy visit take your pet to a designated area so he/she may use the restroom. Always carry a baggie, scoop and bag or container to put any waste in and throw it away before entering the
Always carry a small bottle of water and a small non breakable dog water dish with you on a therapy visit. Give your dog a small drink before entering the facility. Visits usually last for one hour. Give your dog a small drink halfway through the visit and when you finish the visit. Also, take your dog back to the designated restroom area. Watch enough to know when he/she may need to go to the restroom. Take him/her outside immediately. NEVER allow your dog to relieve himself inside a facility!
Always take a towel with you on a therapy visit. It may not be raining when you leave home, but may be pouring when you arrived at the healthcare facility for your therapy visit. Never take your dog inside the facility if he/she is wet.
Stop and allow your dog to interact with visitors and medical staff at a facility. They have stressful jobs and petting a Therapy dog is a welcome break for them.
Limit your therapy visits to one hour. You may wish to visit a facility weekly or less often. Therapy visits are very tiring on your dog! Never visit too often or your dog will get burned out on the therapy visits; most dogs’ do well visiting one hour per week. You may wish to visit the same facility each week. You and your dog will develop a bond with the residents/patients and staff, if you visit on a regular basis.
Commitment is important. Once you begin regular visits to a health care facility, the residents/patients and staff look forward to your visits and expect you to be the there with your dog at the appointed time of your therapy visit. If you are unable to make the visit, call the Director and inform them.
Most facilities are flexible on a schedule when you may visit their facility. Some allow visits only during the day, with others may allow evening or weekend visits. Sometimes holiday visits are especially important.
If your dog loves children, consider visiting a healthcare facility for children. Or, if they prefer older people visit a nursing home, assisted living or geriatric hospital.
It is very important that you make the therapy visits FUN FOR your dog! Reward him/her with a treat and praise when the therapy visit is over.
Enjoy enriching someone’s life with your dog!