How to prevent boredom?

[Therapy Dogs]

I'm wondering if anyone else has this issue with their doodle?

Noah and I volunteer in the physical therapy department of a local nursing home.  All of the patients in PT are wheel-chair bound.  Noah is very happy to greet any person, but after about 30 seconds, all he wants to do is lay down next to the wheelchair.  He will even rest his head on their feet.  I think he gets bored when the person stops interacting with him and he wants to lay down.  I know some residents would love it if Noah would sit or stand next to their chair so they could pet him.  When he lays on the floor, most of them can't stretch their hands down low enough to pet him.   Noah will actually fall asleep in the PT room if no one is paying attention to him.  Wheel chairs can start beeping or someone can be tossing bean bags into a bin, and Noah will still sleep.  Is this normal?

[Winnie's Dad]

How long are your visits? Try to limit to no more than an hour or maybe 1.5 hours.

Try to come up with ways to engage Noah. We have one team that made a "die" out of a foam cube, and wrote different tricks on each side. Resident throws cube, dog does whatever trick comes up.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Jane ..... One of the facilities that we visit our hospice patients in, we also do what they call "General Population" visits as well. Basically we just wander the halls or find the activity area where the patients are grouped up. We just basically stop for a minute or two and visit each of the people that show an interest. Some it will be longer. That way the dog doesn't really have time to get bored. You are constantly moving to the next person for pets. Many of these individuals are older and have lost their mental capacities, but they get a light in their eyes when they see Sophie coming. If a Nurse or PCA walks by they always feel the need to introduce her to them. I enjoy those type visits more than the ones to visit my specific patients. Sophie likes to "hold hands" (different than a shake because she doesn't want you to let go of the hand because she will give it right back to you) and they always love that. No other tricks really required.

[Sue Robin F]

Moses, my Goldendoodle, has worked with young children , the elderly and the disabled of all ages. He also can behave similarly with each population. Often with 'Reading to the Dogs', some of the kids do not look at him and read in almost a whisper. I will tell the kids they can pet him as they read, but not all of them want to. This will really make him lay down ... but sometimes he lies on their lap and licks them. I tell the kids that they have made him so relaxed because he is so content. I get Moses aroused by asking each kid to give Moses a treat after they read. In the Group homes for the Developmentally delayed that we go to, I ask the disabled residents to also give him a treat if they can ... and we give him commands before he gets the treats. But he will often lay back down ... sometimes I get him up again by giving him water or walking him around the room.
I do not think it has to be boredom ... I am not sure. Moses tends to be a very laid back dog and would also lie down in all his training classes. My Havanese, who is also a Therapy dog,is also laid back, but does not usually go to sleep during the visits. He will remain more attentive.

[Adina P]

Rosco has slept through some of our therapy visits--well the ones where we'd visit Juvie. He is just so comfy there that he lays down and falls asleep while I talk. Toward the end we started playing more games and getting the kids involved in helping him learn tricks...but, we didn't always do that. AND we almost never were there past 1 hour--and that hour was split between 1-2 groups so there was a changeover. Still by the last group he just wanted to chill and snooze.

[Ann Davis-Schultz]

Although my dog and I haven't started doing therapy work yet, her favorite activity is fetch. Do you think the folks would be willing to toss a lightweight ball for her to fetch and bring back to them? That way they would both be getting activity.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I think that Eva posted a video once of Malibu at a therapy visit where he was off leash playing fetch. Malibu was doing a great job of letting people take turns tossing the ball. I think that in order to do that, at least from my personal experience, that you would have to be very very comfortable with the facility and the people. Additionally, you would have to have absolute and complete confidence in your dog and its not getting spooked and fleeing for some reason. I say this because I've had so many difference things happen during visits. You also would want to be very careful that someone didn't fall over the dog or something like that. There can also be people in the facility that do not like dogs or are afraid of them and that would be hard to control off leash. Particularly in the elderly facilities things are just so unpredictable!

[Jaime and Barley Barker]

Noah sounds like my Barley. Sometimes I worry, "Is my dog too boring for therapy work?" He is very different at home. I'm hoping that as we visit some of the same place again and again, he'll be more playful. Basically, he's in the "Please pet me" mode and then will lay down by someone. The "Reading to the Dogs" programs at libraries seem to be what he most enjoys. (We're a new pet therapy team, having just got certified this past May.)