Have you thought about taking your dog to assisted living
facilities to be a therapy dog? Good dog training is the key. Actually,
most any dog can be a therapy dog.
We've all seen news segments about dogs that have
been rescued from dog shelters, that were trained to work as therapy
dogs to visit nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities.
Little dogs like Yorkshire
Terriers
and bigger
dogs like Collies, Cocker Spaniels or
Poodles make
great therapy dogs.
Much bigger dogs like Great Danes
are wonderful in this capacity, but
sometimes the rooms in the facility are not large enough to accommodate
everyone.
If
you have a family dog that you
think would be wonderful as a therapy dog, but he's a little rough
around the edges, then you need to consider training. To save time and
money, you may want to train your dog yourself at home. There's some
great, easy information on dog
training to be had online.
Good Conduct is a MUST!
When taking your dog to a nursing home or assisted
living facility you want to make sure that his conduct is above
reproach.
The only way you can be sure is
proper training which will help him with his manners.
- Also, your dog must enjoy being petted or
held. Your dog needs to be housetrained, trained to not be barky or
aggressive.
-
He needs to follow the commands of sit, stay, shake and hand
signals from you.These are all easily taught if you have the proper
knowledge and know how to convey that knowledge to your dog.
-
Ask yourself if your dog has the proper temperament to meet and
greet residents in these facilities.
Just imagine the joy you can bring to someone
living in one of these facilities. Perhaps they had a dog earlier in
their life, but cannot have one any longer.
The chance to pet a dog or cuddle with a dog delights the heart.
By training your companion dog to
be
a therapy dog has
great rewards
for you as well as the recipient of the dogs affection.
Your dog will enjoy it too!
If you would like more tips for training a therapy
dog, you can find them
here......
