You love your dog. To you, he’s the goodest boy of all good boys; the top-tier pooch, the best behaved, the most handsome, and the best at play. Whether or not those claims are factual doesn’t so much matter to you, because all dog owners think they own the best and most skilled dog. That’s just part of bonding.
Unfortunately, your own feelings about your dog don’t necessarily translate out into the real world. That’s exactly why people sometimes believe their dogs would make great therapy animals, only to pursue the process and find out they really don’t.
That’s what we want to talk about here today: how you can determine whether your dog is right for therapy work, without falling victim to pet owner’s bias. Some dogs really do make great helpers, but honestly, most are just great pets – and either propensity is just fine, too.
Overview of Therapy Dogs
The term “therapy dog” can be a little bit ambiguous. Depending on who you ask, it can mean anything from Emotional Support Animal to Guide Dog to Service Dog to the type of therapy animal who visits nursing homes and hospitals. All of these working dogs provide a type of therapy.
That said, for the purposes of this article, we’re going to stick with the American Kennel Club’s definition of who qualifies:
It states:
Therapy dogs volunteer with their owners to sit quietly with people who need comfort or affection. Their work can range from visiting hospitals and senior centers to offering students comfort during final-exam week to helping children learn to read, and many dog–owner teams do a little of everything.
Thus, the kind of therapy dog we’re talking about is, in fact, the type of dog who helps children learn to read, visits, nursing homes, or even just lays quietly with someone ill or infirm.
If you’re thinking, “Great! My dog loves people and loves to lay around with my kids. She’d make a great therapy dog,” know that this is short-sighted. Therapy pups need to have many other skills than just being calm, although that’s certainly important.
What Makes Their Work So Special?
Therapy dogs need specialized training to ensure they’re prepared to be on the job. But why is it so important they receive training? What is it about being a therapy dog, which admittedly seems remarkably easy from the outside in, that makes training and behavior so important?
Care.com spoke to Dr. Herman from Pet Medical Center on this issue in another article. Herman raises a really good point about access and responsibility.
“Both service and emotional support dogs go through significant training and certification, he says. “They are permitted to accompany the humans they support in places dogs aren’t usually allowed.”
More importantly, therapy dogs may also be around sensitive patients or people who frighten easily or for whom a behavioral issue could pose serious risks. Very young children, people with developmental delays, people with intellectual disabilities, elderly seniors, and the very sick could be harmed, injured, or frightened by a dog who suddenly acts out. And they might frighten the dog, who could lash out and bite or growl in response to show his displeasure.
Therapy dogs need to be incredibly patient and tolerant (meaning they don’t care if they’re poked, prodded, or sometimes, inappropriately petted) for at least long enough for a handler to intervene. To some degree, we can train these skills, but a certain portion of it comes down to personality and genetics.
Characteristics of Therapy Dogs
Now that we’ve cautioned you about just how specialized this role really is, let’s talk more about what you should look for. Most pups manifest signs of a propensity for therapy work early on, but for best results, you should wait until at least one year before you make any hard and fast decisions.
Here are the most common traits:
- Loves people – all people. Big, small, loud, quiet or annoying!
- Constantly seeks out people for company and play sessions.
- Calm, reliable, and responsive to handler commands.
- Tolerates physical discomfort without aggression/growling.
- Does not spook or frighten, even after noise/surprises/etc.
- Has no history of biting (puppy teething not included).
- Is in good health and isn’t too old or too young.
Where most people seem to get caught up is in the fact that these traits can seem a bit open-ended. Most dogs behave like this when they’re at home. That doesn’t mean they’ll behave the same way under stress, strain, or when a child grabs them by the ear in excitement and twists it. Which is exactly why trainers put dogs through scenario training during therapy certification in the first place.
Training, Exposure & Testing
Let’s say you decide your dog is absolutely a great candidate for therapy work. You’ve done the research, and you really think he can contribute by giving back to the world. Your first step should be to contact a reliable trainer who specifically works with guide dogs, service dogs, or therapy dogs (most do all three if they do just one).
Every training program is unique, but most start with testing your dog’s ability to learn, his intelligence, his resistance to distraction, and his ability to listen to the healer in the presence of background noise, tempting treats, etc. This tells us two things: one, that your dog will respond to training attempts, and two, that he has the intelligence and good behavior to follow simple commands.
From there, training programs branch out into exposure and testing. Your trainer may expose your dog to mild stressors (don’t worry; this doesn’t harm him) to see how he reacts. For example, some trainers use moderate pressure on a paw, a loud clanging noise, or rambunctious exposure to strangers (such as clapping a friend on the back or having a “mock argument).
Assuming your dog aces all of these parts of training, the next stage is usually to assess his comfort in crowds or among strangers in unfamiliar environments. This may include a visit to a “safe” potential therapy location, such as a nursing home, with additional controls in place. Trainers continue working with you and your dog as long as he continues to succeed.
What about if your dog doesn’t succeed? He or she isn’t alone. The vast majority of dogs don’t make it through therapy training; they just don’t have the personality for it. Maybe they get too excited, they love a little too hard, or they just lack the focus and calm nature needed for it. Or, maybe they just don’t like it. Some dogs are introverts, and some dogs are homebodies – just like some humans!
If your trainer tells you it’s not wise, don’t take it as a slight. It just means that he’s a great pet first and foremost, and you get to enjoy him more often on your own.