Advice on Therapy Dog Training

Daily Paws – August 24, 2020

Having a therapy dog means sharing your dog’s love and comfort with those who need it most. And these days, there’s a greater need than ever for comforting. Our Operations Manager and Head Trainer, Courtney Briggs, provides some excellent guidance and insight on what it takes to become a therapy dog.

In order to be a good therapy canine, the dog should be versatile enough to handle different types of situations with ease. We live in a very eclectic world, and we want a dog to be used to being handled by all different types of people

Therapy dogs can be a great comfort for kids diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder or kids with learning disabilities. This comfort can assist them in being better able to focus. Just petting an animal helps them do their homework. It helps them get through school. The comfort of an animal is like no other.

It’s a partnership between the dog and the human. The human has to dedicate the time into obedience training. You can’t force the dog into working with you – the dog has to want to work with you – which is done through positive reinforcement training and rigorous socialization.

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