Comment

Comment by Kristy Watkins on January 17, 2011 at 8:12pm

Selphie got through her first class tonight, she did good, but was very noisy, lol, as a corgi it's normal, but she was the loudest puppy in the group, lol. She LOVED LOVED everyone and every dog, although she did get snapped at twice :( Apparently two of the puppies in our class were not socialized at all first and one would snap when a puppy moved too fast (a boston) and the other (a shepherd mix) would bare her teeth at every dog who even got too close, she snapped at several dogs in the class, actually had to have the trainer discipline her a couple of times.... It's really sad and a little scary.

Comment by Geri & Sidney on January 17, 2011 at 7:54pm

When my Mom was in hospice last May, a therapy dog came by for a visit. Since my Mom was too far out of it to appreciate the visit, I know I loved the distraction and friendly conversation during a stressful time. This was the first time I was on the receiving end of a therapy visit.

Comment by Jane Christensen on January 17, 2011 at 7:13pm

Oh...I love the idea of a hospice therapy dog....will have to check this out!

Comment by Teresa on January 17, 2011 at 6:41pm

Baron is in training to become a hospice therapy dog.

Comment by Krystle (Luna & Twinkie!) on January 17, 2011 at 3:06pm

I chose based on what was available in my area. I didn't know about Love On a Leash until Geri told me about it. I researched it and liked them better than what I was considering before.

Comment by Kristy Watkins on January 17, 2011 at 1:40pm

Oh, of course location, lol. It wouldn't do good for someone to join a group in another state, you'd be kind of afloat on your own with no physical help.

Comment by Kristy Watkins on January 17, 2011 at 1:28pm

I suppose you just scrutinize their ethics, their practices, their goals and such, the testing process, see which one you agree with most. Most of these groups have a website and they will have an ethics, policy, goals, criteria, etc. pages on there... I would just read them and really consider which you are most aligned with.

Comment by Geri & Sidney on January 17, 2011 at 1:16pm

I chose Love on a Leash because it is affiliated with Sidney's obedience school, so I already knew everyone and it was a good fit.

Comment by Jane Christensen on January 17, 2011 at 8:18am

Our last obedience class we had the walkers wheelchairs,noise maker toys and many other items plus distractions from the trainer  to see how our dogs did and Sage did well but at work I did notice that Sage is hesitant with one of the people I support so in "real life" it will take more training and exposing of things. I will send a message to someone on here who does therapy dog and is working on it with a pup to see if she will join also:)

Comment by Geri & Sidney on January 17, 2011 at 3:30am

Laura, the way it worked for us was, Sidney took basic obedience, and then passed his Canine Good Citizen test. After that I took him to therapy dog traingin class where he would be exposed to things like walkers, wheelchairs and beds, and the handlers (us) were trained on interactions with the kind of people we would be visiting. We were told there could be many different reactions to our dog's presence, and how to respond to those reactions. There are some important things to learn, like to watch for dropped pills and to have a very good "leave it" command if we see one and need to keep our dog from eating it. If we then passed the final evaluation, we could start supervised visits with a visit captain. After 10 hours of supervised visits there is a final evaluation with the visit captain, and then we were fully certified :)

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