Certified Therapy Dog Certification
Training your dog to become a certified therapy dog is a wonderful way to bond and spend quality time together.
Certified therapy dog certification. A therapy dog is a dog that has undergone training to provide comfort and support to people often in group settings. The good dog foundation offers a thorough evaluation training program and follow up program for its good dog therapy teams. Therapy dogs provide help to people other than their owner while service dogs and emotional support dogs directly assist their owners with a physical or mental health condition. Alliance of therapy dogs is a national therapy dog organization providing testing certification registration support and insurance for members.
The on campus course is the capstone which involves student presentations group work and interaction with animal therapy professionals. The university of denver in colorado offers an animals human health certificate that requires one on campus course and three online courses. Certification is the final hurdle in a dedicated process toward becoming a therapy dog however which includes temperament assessment training and more. Therapy dogs are dispensers of unconditional love and affection.
A certified therapy dog must be friendly patient confident gentle and at ease in all situations. Only specially trained service dogs have full public access rights. Akc does not certify therapy dogs. What you need to know.
If you are interested in training your therapy dog into a service dog you can read more about what qualifies a dog to be a service dog. Therapy dogs come in all sizes and breeds. The certification and training is done by qualified therapy dog organizations. The certification organizations are the experts in this area and their efforts.
The most important characteristic of a therapy dog is its temperament. The foundation initially evaluates the handler and the dog as a team to determine which level class they are placed in. Therapy dogs must enjoy human contact and be content to be petted cuddled and handled sometimes clumsily by unfamiliar people and to enjoy that contact. A therapy dog is trained to provide affection and comfort to those in hospitals schools nursing homes retirement homes people with learning disabilities people with anxiety people with severe stress and disaster areas.
Therapy dog vest once the dog and handler have been approved by the hospital or school they may require your therapy dog be clearly identified. Therapy dog training and certification.