therapy dogs

[evenifigoalone]

So the nursing home my dad is (temporarily) staying in allows dogs as long as they are well-behaved.
Thus when we visited my dad yesterday we brought mine. Little guy got restless just sitting around, so I walked him around the place a bit. My dad wanted me to, anyway.


We stopped by a couple of people's rooms and brought Treader in for a few minutes upon request. They pet him, I had him do a few tricks for them. I may have been able to visit some others, except it was supper time.
Nevertheless I enjoyed seeing them cheer up when they saw him.

I think I would like to work with therapy dogs...I'm not sure yet, but I'm definitely considering it. I like working with animals and I like cheering people up.
Treader isn't registered as a therapy dog. He's generally well-behaved, but to be registered I'd have to work on a few things. (He'd have to be able to pass the CGC. Which would include learning to heel, which is something I haven't been able to teach him yet. He doesn't get it.)
This place doesn't require your dog to be registered. But if I wanted to bring him to other places he'd need to be registered.

Here's a picture of Treader:

View attachment 2621

 

[reba]

Quest what a wonderful plan.... Treader is adorable.... God gives us such simple pleasures

 

[Gordon]

Thats cool. My mom works in a nursing home and talks about therapy dogs. I think it's important. Some elderly have it pretty rough with family that doesn't visit or not having a family. It's not just the dog its you too. I wish I had more compassion for the elderly like you. Whenever I visit my grandma it's so obvious that all these people just want to be talked to. They all turn and look at you. I think you'd be doing a good and important thing.

 

[juliegb]

Treader is a cute dog. I've been thinking of having my Annie visit a nursing home. I used to work in one and they always loved the pet visits.

 

[AlexBC]

Do they only use certain breeds as therapy dogs? Are some breeds deemed not suitable?

 

[evenifigoalone]

Do they only use certain breeds as therapy dogs? Are some breeds deemed not suitable?

I'm pretty sure any breed can be a service dog if he can pass the CGC (Canine Good Citizen) test and then the therapy dog test set up by the organization.
Only thing I can think of is that some organizations may ban Pit Bull type breeds. That said, I know for a fact that Pit Bull therapy dogs do exist.

 

[Tri Unity]

Dogs are a wonderful therapy for humans. They seem to be designed for human friendship. They make humans laugh and smile; that's a great thing.

 

[Nick]

Dogs are a wonderful therapy for humans. They seem to be designed for human friendship. They make humans laugh and smile; that's a great thing.

Indeed. :yes

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Questdriven, until I'd read the first paragraph, I misread this thread title as "therapy drugs" . Think about drugs and read the first line of your post and change dog to drug:

So the nursing home my dad is (temporarily) staying in allows dogs as long as they are well-behaved.
Thus when we visited my dad yesterday we brought mine. Little guy got restless just sitting around, so I walked him around the place a bit. My dad wanted me to, anyway.

I lol'd so hard :rolling

 

[AlexBC]

It's amazing how some animals factor into human therapy. Because of the work i'm doing now I was recently working with some dolphins which are used for therapy with various cases. It's amazing how much of a connection there is. Dare I say, and considering my views, almost spiritual.

 

[evenifigoalone]

Questdriven, until I'd read the first paragraph, I misread this thread title as "therapy drugs" . Think about drugs and read the first line of your post and change dog to drug:



I lol'd so hard :rolling

:toofunny
Ironic considering there's a sign on one of the windows of the building that says "DRUGS DON'T WORK".

 

[AlexBC]

Dogs are a wonderful therapy for humans. They seem to be designed for human friendship. They make humans laugh and smile; that's a great thing.

Well, look how long dogs have been around humans. We've changed the species so much with cross-breeding, produced so many different varieties of dog that are often specially bred for specific tasks it's no wonder there is such a connection between us.

Kinda funny how we cross breed so many animals but only dogs have come up with so many different varieties. Cats are basically cat shaped. Horses are basically horse shaped. Look at dogs. What happened!!!?!?!?

 

[evenifigoalone]

There are some odd-looking breeds of cats and horses, but they're not nearly as well-known as the different breeds of dogs. Not as numerous, either. There's over 400 breeds of dogs.
Not sure how many breeds of horses and cats there are, but I doubt it's that many.


I guess dogs have been the most useful to us for several reasons, one being their loyalty. They're pretty versatile, too. They can be used for quite a few things. Service animals, war animal, herding sheep or cattle (and there's a couple different types of herding, too), guardian...man's best animal friend.

 

[Nick]

:toofunny
Ironic considering there's a sign on one of the windows of the building that says "DRUGS DON'T WORK".

LOL! It gets better!

 

[AlexBC]

There are some odd-looking breeds of cats and horses, but they're not nearly as well-known as the different breeds of dogs. Not as numerous, either. There's over 400 breeds of dogs.
Not sure how many breeds of horses and cats there are, but I doubt it's that many.


I guess dogs have been the most useful to us for several reasons, one being their loyalty. They're pretty versatile, too. They can be used for quite a few things. Service animals, war animal, herding sheep or cattle (and there's a couple different types of herding, too), guardian...man's best animal friend.

Their pack mentality meshes very well with our own too. And the early ancestors to modern dogs were probably eating a lot of the scraps that we threw away so they'd naturally develop a closer relation ship to Humans overtime this way aswell.

It's interesting that modern dogs retain so much of their juvenile characteristics like softer fur. Younger dogs are far easier to tame and much less aggressive. We really have made them into our children