I am frequently asked about the differences between therapy dogs and service/assistance dogs. Below is a good article explaining the differences. Our Gang Pet Services does offer a therapy dog preparation class, but we do not train service dogs. One important distinction is that therapy animals provide service to others; for example, visiting a senior center or a hospital ward. Service animals, or assistance dogs, provide service to their owners, who may require said dog to perform certain, trained tasks in order to assist their owners in daily living; an example is a dog who is trained to retrieve objects and open doors for an owner who may have limited mobility. There are many different ways in which service/assistance dogs can assist owners with disabilities. Our Gangs Rumble (who is now retired from therapy work as well as sports) was a Delta Society Pet Partner for 8 years, providing therapy visits to students in Special Education classrooms as well as doing visits in neighborhood centers, senior citizen centers, and providing safety/bite prevention demonstrations in schools. If you have questions about training your pet for therapy work or would like to start training with us, please contact us at ourgangpetservices@gmail. This type of work with your pet can be a great service in your community and can be very rewarding. Your dog needs to have not only the right personality/temperament for this type of work, but also needs to be a well-trained pet with reliable response to your verbal obedience cues. At a minimum, we suggest enrolling your dog in a Basic Obedience class and then continuing on to an advanced obedience class or Canine Good Citizen preparation class. Many of the various organizations which evaluate and register therapy dog/handler teams incorporate test items that are similar to the AKCs CGC test in addition to other more specific test items and scenarios that are commonly encountered in therapy settings. petpartners.org/Service_Animal_Basics#Difference
Posted on: Sun, 04 May 2014 22:16:15 +0000
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