Credentialing a site to accept Therapy Dogs
One of our play therapists is really interested in having dog therapy for some of her clients!! Does ANYONE know how we can credential our facility to accept therapy dogs? Does anyone know where we can obtain the information? |
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| I'm sure each organization of therapy dogs has it's own preferred process, as well as each facility being visited. In our area, we are well established. Therapy dogs are common knowledge in the medical and healthcare facilities and youth groups around us. So, we have very little explaining to do to them. We mostly get requests from facility and organizations to come visit their facility or group. One of our members coordinates the monthly schedule. Most sites have a standing visit that get rescheduled for the same month every year. We go so many places that most facilities get just 1-2 visits a year. The exception is the hospital - we go there monthly - 3rd Wednesday of every month. Here is a link to the TDI site for some wording that can be given to potential places you may wish to visit. When they talk about requesting visits at the bottom of the page - TDI posts a list of facilities that currently aren't being served by any thereapy dog volunteers. It's like an open invitation to come visit them, as they want dogs to visit, but don't have any currently coming. http://tdi-dog.org/About.aspx?Page=Info ... Facilities Do you have a chapter near you? That is usually the easiest way to go. We have several members who just go to the scheduled visits as able each month. Others have personal connections to certain places and do extra visits that they independantly have arranged. It all works! What therapy dog organizations do you have near you? We have Therapy Dogs International, Inc (TDI, the original), Therapy Dogs Inc (they tried to copy the TDI moniker - using TDI as well  ) and Delta.Is this what you were asking? Hope it helps! |
| Thanks, Dawn! It looks like my local kennel club uses Therapy Dogs, Inc for their certification. I spoke to my trainer about how my facility could get involved. She wasn't terribly helpful, but she did point me in the direction of the website. I guess when we pass our CGC we will get more info. So far my Clinical Manager is very interested. Apparently our partial hospital program had therapy dogs years ago and it was a very positive experience for our members. Our school based therapists are interested, too! |
| Erin...you sound like you have a 'home' when Wendel passes CGC!!!! You are very lucky to be able to have a facility just waiting for you!!! Good luck!!! and Dawn..I didn't realize there were two TDI's...???? |
sheepieshake wrote: and Dawn..I didn't realize there were two TDI's...???? The Therapy Dogs Inc group is fairly new - founded in 1990. They were using "TDI" as a direct copy of Therapy Dogs International' s TDI. They were trying to buy into the good reputation that the real TDI already had, was my guess. Legal issues ensued, and they now use TDInc as their abbreviation.  They also are less strict for some things. TDI requires all dogs to be well behaved and dependable on plain buckle collars. TDInc allows choke collars and head halters....wow, not my idea of a well behaved, well trained dog ready to do visits with elderly and children, or those who may do unexpected or loud behaviors..... My view is if you need to use that type of device to control your dog, you aren't ready to be out doing therapy work with your dog yet. |
got sheep wrote: TDInc allows choke collars and head halters....wow, not my idea of a well behaved, well trained dog ready to do visits with elderly and children, or those who may do unexpected or loud behaviors..... My view is if you need to use that type of device to control your dog, you aren't ready to be out doing therapy work with your dog yet. WOW  I can't believe someone would have a therapy dog that needed a choke collar... Wendel only needs a buckle collar, he is always at my side and doesn't venture off. |
| I guess different strokes.... Support Dogs TOUCH program, requires all dogs to be on a choke. NO buckle. I don't know the reasoning as I am just a worker bee...  But, with the temprement testing, the 3 months of classes, the written test, station test and the CGC test, most of the dogs passing are very much under control. Not to mention, after just a few visits with associating the harness with ""NO playing, you are a working dog, now..""going to a visit, most are well behaved and very happy ~~~ |
sheepieshake wrote: I guess different strokes.... Support Dogs TOUCH program, requires all dogs to be on a choke. NO buckle. I don't know the reasoning as I am just a worker bee... But, with the temprement testing, the 3 months of classes, the written test, station test and the CGC test, most of the dogs passing are very much under control. Not to mention, after just a few visits with associating the harness with ""NO playing, you are a working dog, now..""going to a visit, most are well behaved and very happy ~~~ I'd be VERY curious to know the logic behind that one Val.... And so you have to use a choke on Heart and Pearl? with all their coat? One pull or correction and it would be tangled and choking them. How annoying, having to keep untangling and loosening it all the time.  And how mean to the girls...hardly comfortable. |
| Well, Dawn both dogs are very use to the choke~~. And I have a choke with oblong links so the tangling is not bad at all. I think Pearl is more uncomfortable wearing the silly hats than the choke...or maybe the silly hats make the choke seem not too bad!!!  And as far as Heart goes. She does so much better with a choke. The buckle collar gives her the idea that she should pull....  ..I KNOW...i know...Heart is just not trained as well as she should be, but again, once that harness goes on, she is almost as Perfect as Pearl...That Harness must be magical~~~~~~~~ |
sheepieshake wrote: Well, Dawn both dogs are very use to the choke~~. And I have a choke with oblong links so the tangling is not bad at all. I think Pearl is more uncomfortable wearing the silly hats than the choke...or maybe the silly hats make the choke seem not too bad!!! And as far as Heart goes. She does so much better with a choke. The buckle collar gives her the idea that she should pull.... ..I KNOW...i know...Heart is just not trained as well as she should be, but again, once that harness goes on, she is almost as Perfect as Pearl...That Harness must be magical~~~~~~~~ And another difference - no harnesses allowed for us. We used to have them years ago. Then they realized that while they look "official", it greatly limits the touching and sensations from feeling and hugging the whole dog. Especially those that are very tactile aware - if the harness is there, they lose that opportunity. So now we have our ID cards the humans carry, the yellow "I am a therapy dog" tags the dogs wear, and we can add an optional item like a bandana for ID as a therapy dog - but nothing more. And we do get to do silly hats and costumes for holidays, but we remove them when it is time for petting. Sorry Erin - stealing your thread! |
BAD DAWN!!!!! |
got sheep wrote: Sorry Erin - stealing your thread! Oh, no, Dawn, you're not hijacking the thread at all!! In fact, I enjoy the playful banter!! It's also interesting to know about collars vs harnesses vs chokes. I never even considered these things before!! Keep the info coming! |
| I know the therapy group I belonged to (guinness has been recooperating for the past YEAR!!) Pets On Wheels did not allow anything but a buckle collar They had to wear bandannas to cut down on the bacteria that could get on their coats . Yeah funny huh?? Putting a bandanna on guinness was like a band aid on an elephant. This was the hospitals policy. NOW back to the post. If we found a facility that wanted us we had a form that the coordinator faxed to the facility and once it was completed we were in This ,I am sure, had to do with insurance. |
| Nothing to do with Therapy Dog certification but do any of you visit facilities that require special health testing on the handlers? We visit a nursing home that required a PPD test for tuberculosis. We also had to complete a questionnaire just as any other volunteer in the facility would have to do. Just wondered if there were other tests/vaccinations, etc. that places you visit require. |
| A few a the facilities I visited in the past, required the TB test. And two of them required we attend a 3 hour seminar on hospital procedures. But, for the most part, no other special stuff!!!! |
| WAGS Pet Therapy of Kentucky does not allow choke collars of any kind. The facilities we visit do not need to be certified to allow therapy dogs, but the pets must be certified to visit the facilites. any potential facilities must be audited by WAGS to make sure it is safe and a suitable place for a visit. One facilitiy requires orientation and signing their mission statement. Another nursing home requires a TB test. The psychiatric hospital we visit requires an initial 5-hour orientation, a book exam, a yearly TB test, and hospital-issued ID at the psychiatric hospital. Several facilities require proof of Patch's rabies vac. Interestingly enough, the Catholic facilities we visit are the strictest. |
| None of the literally hundred facilities/groups we visit every year have ever required the humans to do any tests. We did get searched before visiting the Maximum Security unit at the state psych hospital though. (home of the criminally insane) That was 20+ yrs ago when I had my 2 therapy dogs Jenny (GSD) and Daisey (basset) - and you guessed right, I took Jenny on that visit! And with the H1N1 outbreak we weren't able to do the hospital visits, as they really cracked down and limited visitors to the hospital. |
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