Available Certified Therapy Dog

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

My facility that I work at is in need for a certified therapy dog. Does anyone know anybody that may have any input on this? The dog would visit the elderly a couple times a week, and live at home with me. Thanks.

[Adina P]

Hi Barb,

Typically Therapy Dogs only become registered via their owner. For example, I'm registered with Delta Society (one of the national organizations that registers therapy dogs). For Rosco to be eligible for liability insurance under Delta Society he can ONLY visit facilities with ME as the handler because he passed his test with me as the handler. Nobody else can take Rosco for therapy visits under the auspices of Delta Society unless they too pass the test with Rosco.

Also usually the only dogs that are trained to do therapy are trained by their owner/handlers. It's not like Service or Assistance or Guide dogs that are trained to someday work for someone else. I don't believe there are any organizations that train therapy dogs and then hand them off--because they have no special skills to make someone purchase them (like a service dog who would provide balance support or "seeing eyes", etc).

I would check with the three big organizations that have national coverage:

Delta Society (deltasociety.org)
Therapy Dogs International
Therapy Dogs Incorporated

Again none of these organizations train for other people...BUT they might be able to help you somehow.

Adina

[Adina P]

Oh I wanted to add something! If your facility just needs therapy dog visitors...then if/when you contact those particular organizations (peruse their websites) you can get a list of local people who are registered with that organization and you can contact them and invite them for regular visits. That's how most facilities get visits...they contact the organization and many cities have a local chapter that gets called on assignments to visit a certain nursing home, hospital, etc. Some of the groups become regular weekly or monthly visitors.

Or you can train your pup for Therapy...the organizations often teach classes/workshops to prepare you for the test with your dog.

[Jacque Reynolds]

Where are you located, Barb?

[Barb, Murphy, Emmet, & Hudson]

Hello, We are from MI.

[Jacque Reynolds]

Many times you can get a puppy donated for therapy work and if you have a good trainer and puppy raiser in mind, you can get a fabulous dog for your needs.
I have donated many service dogs and several therapy dogs and if they have not gone to the service agencies, they have gone to individuals with time, interest and energy to put into the training...maybe you could go that route?