Name: Service or Therapy Dog Preparation
Item: Service or Therapy Dog Preparation
Author: kohmancb@gmail.com

Service or Therapy Dog Preparation

Service dog in training, Ruth, doesn’t want to finish her “settle on the mat” training – despite the fact we folded it up (see yellow mat under Ruth) and tried to put it away!

If you are interested in training your dog for either therapy or service work, we have programs for you! Both service and therapy dogs will need basic manners training but at some point their training will go in different directions.

Therapy dogs are the dogs who go to schools, nursing homes, and are generally “good citizens” of the canine community. They enjoy being touched, being around people and other dogs, and can tolerate the noises and excitement of human environments.

Service dogs are more specialized and are trained to assist people with disabilities. They have learned specific tasks that compensate for the person’s disability. For example, if a person is blind, they learn to be a seeing eye dog. If a person has seizures, they are trained to alert their person to an upcoming seizure. These dogs need to focus on their humans and not interact with strangers – quite different from the role of a therapy dog!

For both types of working dogs, we begin with Basic Manners so the dogs build a love of learning and a working connection with their person/handler. As with rescue dogs, puppies, and adolescents, we’ll tailor the lesson program to the individual dog and the track he/she is on (therapy or service dog). At this point in time, we’ll all get a feeling of whether or not the dog is a good candidate for this work – as the training can take many months at least for a therapy dog, and a few years for a service dog.

The next step is a version of the Canine Good Citizen training. We recommend passing the Canine Good Citizen test for the therapy dogs – we have a preparation lesson package for this if needed. Service dogs can begin concentrating on their specific tasks at this point.

Service or Therapy Dog Preparation

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