Official new therapy dog
 He's now officially a therapy dog.   While he's not my 1st therapy dog by any means, it's still so exciting to know that he has attained this certification, and can move on to this new level of activity! Our chapter is doing volunteer gift wrapping at Barnes and Noble this Saturday, so I do believe this will be his 1st official outing as a Therapy Dog  They do have freezing rain, ice and snow forecasted here for the weekend, but I hope the weather behaves and we get to go.  |
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| Congrats Bond! Cindy |
| Congratulations Dawn and Bond !!! That is just awesome. |
| Congrats to you both! Cross fingers you both can make it to the book store. |
hmmm, but is the Therapy Dog just a convenient cover for covert activity in service of the Crown?  |
| How old do you start your dogs for therapy dogs? Also do they have really laid back temparements? I imagine my dogs might be a bit pulley on the leash when they enter an unknown building. They usually settle quickly it is the initial excitement of something new. How do your therapy dogs behave? |
 Yay Bond!! |
MontyQs wrote: How old do you start your dogs for therapy dogs? Also do they have really laid back temparements? I imagine my dogs might be a bit pulley on the leash when they enter an unknown building. They usually settle quickly it is the initial excitement of something new. How do your therapy dogs behave? Very good questions  Age - I try to get all my dogs into obedience classes as young as possible. Some of our 6 dogs are my husbands, and he is not as good about it. So some end up playing catch-up with me taking them in. And I should clarify too - I teach classes, so my dogs actually don't get to be real students in class - they get worked as demo dogs and on the side most of the time. Lately I have been trying to make it to another facility's rally class, so they do get to be regular students at that! I usually bring 2 with me - either Chewie, Riley or Bond. Temperaments - yes, they need a nice balance of being friendly and outgoing, tempered with being easily under control and not jumping on people, etc., where they enjoy working as a team with their human. That's probably the key. So many dogs are friendly, but not reliably well behaved. Or the well trained ones who are too reserved to initiate visiting with people. It's a balance that's needed. If your dog is really outgoing, a good human as the trainer can put in the extra training to work on self control with the dog. And sometimes this just means you wait until the dog is older and more "grown-up". For our organization, all dogs must be at least 1 year old to take the test. And a biggy - they need to work on a simple buckle collar (or plain harness) - so good behavior must be part of the dog's nature and training, not induced by a collar to get them to behave. Our lab Biscuit is super friendly, but I can't see him ever being a therapy dog...or maybe when he's ancient! He is very intense, but also he has little physical sensation restraint. It's like he has no receptors or any sensors that would make a normal dog stop a behavior. Of course this makes him excellent in other things - as he shows no self preservation of his body for hunting or other sports. But it also makes him insensitive to more subtle things, like training. I realized this as a puppy. He is the type that would have gotten a prong collar or even a gentle leader by less experienced people as a way to manage him. Instead, I stuck to my guns and have always worked him on just a simple nylon martingale collar, and worked and worked on attention and focus. He's 3 now, and is still a handful. I take him places when I have TIME to really work him. It may take us 5 minutes to get from the car into a building....or more. At home I 100% require calm behavior before any activity...and it takes lots of patience...OK, you see why this dog would never be a good therapy dog!! About the initial pulling and excited behavior - yes, some is normal. After all - you want a dog that loves doing this! How you deal with this is important though. When I do individual visits (without our group), I get to the facility early, let my dogs walk outdoors and settle. I also do some obedience in the parking lot to settle their minds. With Chewie and Riley (they are 6 and 7), this is just a minute or so - they are old pros at this. Do a couple heels and halts on the way to the door, and they are good. They know what a visit involves. With Bond, I will be needing to get there earlier, and spend more time. Also - we do lots of group activities with our chapter - so the other dogs are a factor. If your dog gets excited with other dogs, you need to get there early, and get the meet and greets done before the visit. This Saturday is a group visit, and Bond will be there early, and we will be outside the store and do initial greets with as many dogs as possible before we go inside. He knows several of the dogs, but most of them are strangers to him. You don't want any rowdy behavior between dogs in public - it's not appropriate, ever. Our group does have many new members from our last 2 test events, so as a chapter, we are doing 2 training sessions as a group. They are scheduled for January and February. We are going to have social time for the dogs, but also training for the humans to help them transition into therapy volunteering. As an evaluator, I am working up skill sessions for these events. I started therapy dog volunteering in 1985 with my GSD Jenny, and I've been hooked on it ever since. It's my favorite way to volunteer - sharing our dogs with others is great! |
 CONGRATULATIONS TO DAWN AND BOND~~~~~~~  |
Congratulations to you both! Hope the weather holds out and you have a successful first "official" event! |
| I would really like to share Monty and Buster with others. They are friendly and gentle with people. Before we got the dogs I was nervous of other people's big dogs, especially if they ran up to me. Now that we have big dogs I would like to show people that they can be very gentle and friendly. Buster and Monty never jump up......they usually present their necks or bums for petting  Thanks for the info, we may look into it when they are a bit older. |
| Of note - when Chewie and I tried out for the DSR team (Disaster Stress Relief, division within TDI), 2 of the dogs were Newfies. And they BOTH made the team |
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Bond had his 1st official outing as a therapy dog...and he loved it! I swear he thought all the people were there just to see him.  We greeted people, explained what therapy dogs do, and shared our dogs with all the shoppers. Many said our dogs were a great stress relief from a hectic day of shopping. Bond and I were there from 5-7pm. He kissed babies, and got lots and lots of hugs. Several people at 1st thought he was a stuffed animal...until he moved. He also had his picture taken an amazing number of times!  I don't have any action shots yet, but here is his "official" picture by our sign and wrapping table.  |
| Ahh that looks fun |
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