Sunday, February 26, 2017

Therapy Dogs


It’s often said that Therapy Dogs are born, not made. Just about any dog can be a licensed, certified Therapy Dog, provided he has the calm, sweet disposition & temperament to work with humans and even other animals, and has the intelligence to be trained to the specific requirements of therapy dog work. It’s often demanding work, requiring dogs to be petted, often by strangers – sometimes awkwardly in the case of children and older people – and to be always “up” to meet new people. 

Dogs have been known worldwide to help humans - they have often been used as working dogs, guarding flocks, tracking, hunting, search and rescue, leading the blind, and in assisting the deaf and physically challenged. The bond between dog and man dates back to early history, but it wasn’t until recently that a correlation was acknowledged between this bond and the emotional health of humans. Studies have shown that a person holding or petting an animal will have lowered blood pressure, strains and tensions are eased, and can often draw a person out from loneliness and depression. This means that all those things that help in the healing process are brought out by simply petting a dog; in
the case of people with terminal illness, the anxiety and stress of one’s final days are eased by a dog’s company. Some schools and public libraries even have reading programs set up for children and Therapy Dogs; Therapy Dogs are brought in for a one-on-one reading session, and the child reads to the dog. With the dog’s affections centered on the child, the child feels no pressure to perform and is more relaxed, improving learning and reading skills. Tina Gaine’s Bella has become a favorite at the library and a local kindergarten class. Therapy Dogs are often seen on college campus, offering a gentle way for students to relax petting a dog while in the middle of exams. 

Therapy dogs are not Service Dogs; Service dogs are canines who are uniquely trained to the handler’s needs – i.e., a seeing eye dog, dogs working with people who are subject to seizures, people subject to severe diabetic attacks, returning veterans with PTSD, etc. Service dogs are not to be petted by the general public as the service dog’s attention must be wholly on the handler. So while Service Dogs can accompany their handlers just about anywhere – stores, restaurants, etc., Therapy Dogs often are not. There are numerous regional organization that offer certifications for Therapy Dogs, but there are also national certification organizations that offer certification for handler and dog teams. The test is not an easy one, and indeed therapy dog work is not for every dog – but for those who can make the grade, it’s a pretty amazing journey. 

Because of the naturally sweet disposition of Berners, some of our BMDCCV Club members’ dogs are certified Therapy Dogs who visit hospitals, nursing homes, Hospice patients, even libraries and schools. Often the Berners’ sensitive nature will pick up on issues humans are not aware of. Our Berner girl Ella was visiting a nursing home with a Hospice patient one day, and without any commands from anyone she approached the patient sitting in a wheelchair and simply put her head in his lap. For the first time in days he responded, and he gently stroked her head for a while before sitting back. Stroke patients find the simple exercise of brushing a dog helpful, and of course, our Therapy Berners love the attention! Since our Berners are large dogs, it’s often easier for patients to pet them bedside. It must make quite an impression to see our large tri-color dogs moving down the hallways in a hospital. Those of us who have Therapy Berners have found that we spend almost half our time with staff – they get stressed out as well, and petting a big fluffy dog is a sure way to ease that pressure. This stress relief often finds its way into improved relations with the patients and their families – yet another benefit of Therapy Dogs. We will often have some fun with our Therapy Berners – Rockingham Memorial Hospital/Sentara had a Halloween parade with the Therapy Dog teams, with the result of lots of laughter and smiles as we moved around the hospital. Several of our Therapy Berners have awards from AKC for the numbers of visits – Jim Barret and his Therapy Berner Carly were recently awarded the second highest AKC therapy dog award (THDX), reflecting at least 200 visits to patients. One of our Hospice patients requested pictures of our dogs, so we wound up creating a notebook of pictures of her and the Therapy Berners – and at her funeral, we brought the Therapy Berners to meet family members who had heard about them, but had never met them. Another Hospice patient told us that when our Therapy Berners were with her, “my bones don’t hurt”.

So what makes a good therapy dog? First, a gentle disposition, one that is quiet, calm, and friendly to humans and other dogs. Some nursing homes may permit patients’ dogs to visit, so a good therapy dog must be able to relate positively to other dogs as well as humans. Next, an intelligence and responsiveness to humans that will allow training for therapy work. Training is required, both initially and on-going. Most of the training is obedience, but there are a few unique behaviors thrown in. For example, many dogs tend to eat things off the floor or ground; in a nursing home or hospital environment, there is no telling what may be in a balled up tissue or paper towel – a ‘sharp’, a pill, or something else we do NOT want our dogs to ingest. So the “leave it” command becomes critical, and is often the test that many would-be therapy dogs fail. Training for this is tough – and dogs must pull away on command from the handler to be successful. Most therapy dog certifying organizations will require up-to-date vaccinations and annual health records, and some facilities will go further by requiring additional reporting. Therapy dogs must be noise tolerant – they can alert to a noise as a bed pan hitting the floor, but not be spooked by it. While not on the test, it would also be helpful if the dog was elevator tolerant – think about having to walk up five flights of stairs if your dog can’t do elevators!

Training is important, and should be on-going. Handlers who want their dogs to be therapy dogs should go thru an obedience school, and another course that is helpful to take is the AKC Canine Good Citizen test. This CGC test is a measure of how well you and your dog walk on lead, interact with other humans and dogs, do basic commands – ‘sit’, ‘come’, ‘down’, and especially ‘stay’.

For more information on therapy dogs, go to the web sites for Therapy Dog International (see http://www.tdi-dog.org/Default.aspx), Alliance of Therapy Dogs (previously Therapy Dogs Inc.) (see https://www.therapydogs.com/ , and Pet Partners (previously Delta Society) (see  https://petpartners.org/) For more on therapy dog organizations go to http://www.akc.org/events/title-recognition-program/therapy/organizations/ .
For more stories on Therapy Dogs, see –  

Prepared by Dan Lynn & Rosemary Mitchell, with their Therapy Berners Eldor, Ella, and Vasca, with assistance from Tina Gaines and her Therapy Berner Bella, and Jim Barrett and his Therapy Berner Carly