Working Dogs: What are Therapy Dogs and how do you train one?

Therapy Dogs are people’s beloved pets who have the aptitude and the right temperament to have controlled access to specified private and public areas upon request. Owners and handlers recognize their love for a dog’s purpose and companionship, and volunteer their time to share their pet with people in need.

These dogs are very stable, and work with people who have committed to training impeccable manners so the dog poses no risk to the public, even in extremely sensitive situations like reading with children, visiting seniors, or taking on a university full of anxious students under the full weight of final exams. A well trained therapy dog can handle all of these situations with a wag in his stride.

Can any dog be a therapy dog?

While everyone believes their pet is the best in the world, the criteria that therapy dogs must meet is exceptional.

They must have a very confident personality without being rambunctious or aggressive. This means being around strange medical equipment, people who have speech abnormalities, physical handicaps of all types all without being concerned and remaining neutral while following any directions from their handler.

This standard is upheld by testing each and every dog and handler team through a certification process that is a combined total of 13 different exercises which evaluate not only a dog’s training, but also their core temperament.

The dog is tested and observed in multiple high-stress scenarios to see how they react under pressure. Scenarios include: being crowded by people, being crowded by people with different pieces of equipment, being startled by different speech intonation and voice levels, being patted with objects like canes or by people wearing gloves, being grabbed at on different parts of their body, loud noises like dropped pots and bed pans, and stomping and running. These are just a few of the situations being observed for both the dog and handler, as both are equally important.

The dog needs to remain neutral and calm, and the handler needs to be aware of their dog at all times. Any potentionally negative reactions like jumping up on people or their handler, aggressive behaviour or excessive fear will not be tolerated.

Training a dog with an aptitude for calm companionship, the skill most needed to pass the testing, requires consistency through high level obedience classes and maintaining that training through stressful situations. It’s not for every dog or person, but for the right dog and person, it can be some of the most rewarding time spent together.

Although therapy dog programs are quite new to Canada, only introduced in Ontario though St. John’s ambulance in 1992, then making their way across the country, in recent years they have seen a steep decline in volunteer numbers. If these programs are to expand their presence to the communities that need them, often made up of our most vulnerable citizens, there needs to be a significant increase in volunteer numbers.

Originally photographed and published in the Leader Post newspaper.