New to the Therapy Dog world

[Dan Huber]

Hello Everyone:

We are Dan and Debbie from Las Vegas. Our Golden Doodle Abby just passed her test to be a therapy dog. Now she has to pass her 3 supervised visits before she(we) can go visit the hospitals and assisted living places without a monitor. Debbie and I are both are getting "processed" so we can go together or separately.  

Does anybody have any helpful hints for at this stage in our learning?

Thanks

Dan,Deb and Abby  

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

First of all, your baby and your Doodle are so beautiful! You may want to join the Therapy Dog group here on Doodle Kisses...there's so much good info there. I think you've going to be in for some pretty amazing experiences doing therapy work. We visit an Alzheimer's Facility, and the patients there just love our visits...we love them too! One of the greatest challenges we've encountered is with the "leave it" command. When we visit the facility we're in the "social room" and there's usually food involved for the patients (cake, cookies are BIG there). There are often crumbs on the floor and even on the patients' laps, and that's very hard for Guinness to resist. He had to do a "leave it" to pass the test, but sometimes when were "working" he has a tendency to forget, so we have to continuously reinforce it. Other than that it's all about him being able to sit calmly while they pet him. The other thing is that they have to be very clean and well groomed prior to any visit....in my program they actually ask that the dogs have baths just prior to their visits. Keep us posted on how things go....you're in for a very rewarding experience.

[Dan Huber]

Thanks for the kind words.

[Dan Huber]

My wife and I want to be a team with Abby so we can go together or separately so we both have to pass as I understand.
Thanks for the help!

[Michael Gurley]

Congratulations on passing your test!!

I would definitely recommend that you join the Therapy Dog group here- I'm sure you'll learn lots of valuable information and there are lots of personal stories you can go over as well.

I would love to get my labradoodle certified, but she's a bit airheaded and not great with commands... or being still... or letting people pet her without kisses...

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Congratulations!

[Dan Huber]

Thanks---We are excited about being able to help.

[Kathie and the gang]

Congratulations, you will love doing the visits. Winston as been visiting for 6 months now and he just expanded his volunteer service to the County Department of Education Special Education classrooms. This is a very rewarding activity to do with your dog. Just relax, and your three visits will go well. If you are relaxed that energy will pass through to the dog. Even when the patients or the student are petting Winston I make sure that I'm touching him in a very reassuring way, this gives him even more confidence. Keep it fun.

[Dan Huber]

Thank You!
You are spot on. Abby picks up on our energy all the time--amazing.