How to Prepare Your Dog to be a Therapy Dog

One of the services you can provide with your dog is to visit hospices, retirement homes and assisted living establishments. A dog that is well adjusted, friendly and docile can brighten the lives of people. This role is called being a "therapy dog."

Some dogs are excellent at this service. There is training you can go through to prepare your dog to be a therapy dog. The single best activity you can do is for your dog to pass the CGC (Canine Good Citizen) test.

But before you train your dog to be a therapy dog, there are some steps prior to training (that will prepare your dog and also let you find out if your pooch as the temperament to do well in this kind of setting). This article will focus on the pre-training and socialization activities you can do to both prepare your dog for this role and also assess her fit to be a therapy dog.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Socialization. Good therapy dogs are comfortable and docile around strangers and in strange situations. Ideally, you'd start exposing your dog as a puppy to new settings beginning at 8 weeks. But if you've adopted an adult dog, never fear--you can work on this at any age.
   
   It isn't enough just to expose your dog to new people. You want to reassure and comfort your dog after new exposure (so the dog associates new people with good feelings and security). Change the clothing (so your dog deals with people wearing gloves or hats). Make sure there is exposure to a wide range of people (races, sizes including the elderly as well as toddlers). It isn't enough for your dog to not shy away--you want a dog that is comfortable and at-ease with stranger contact.

2. Touch. Your dog needs to be comfortable being touched and handled (and some strangers or kids may be too rough accidently). Grooming is a great way to test your dog.
   
   If your dog is a small dog, you need to get him acclimated to sitting quietly in someone's lap. All therapy dogs are likely to be hugged at some point so it's important to build a high comfort level with this.

3. Obedience. Work on obedience skills so you've got these down cold. You'll need a well-behaved dog for any therapy situations. And if a human panics or behaves badly around your dog, the ability to demand a "down-stay" with immediate compliance is critical.

4. Tricks. A good therapy dog is willing to be petted or even hugged. But a bonus is to be able to entertain a little as well. If your dog can do some modest tricks (turning left or right on command, shaking hands, a play bow, nodding yes or no, waving hello), these are all things that will generate smiles as well as compliments for your dog. They also allow the people you're visiting to participate (by asking your dog to do a specific trick) which will do wonders for them! So training some of the most common tricks allows some of the people you visit to ask for a trick (and your dog responds). More elaborate tricks (jumping into arms, jumping over obstacles, doing a handstand) are great but usually too active for most therapy situations--assume that those things are bonuses that you might get to use only occasionally.

5. Train a "Leave It." In a strange environment (especially a hospice, or retirement home) it won't be uncommon for your dog to discover an advil tablet that rolled under the bed or a grape that fell to the floor. You may also encounter people who don't realize a dog shouldn't eat chocolate (and try to treat your dog). Or someone has a collection of stuffed animals or beanie babies. You need to train your dog to have an absolutely reliable "leave it" command so that she ignores or drops immediately whatever she was attracted towards.

6. Evaluate Your Dog's Personality. A good therapy dog is comfortable around strangers, doesn't react quickly, and is docile. You want a dog that is relaxed around strangers and new settings. As much as you might like to provide therapy dog visits, you may have a dog that regardless of the amount of training, is just not suited to be a good therapy dog. You will also need to be able to read your dog's body language to tell when he is becoming stressed or needs distance. This is more than just a wagging or sagging tail--until you're adept at reading canine body language, you won't be able to accurately evaluate a dog's personality.