Do You and Your Dog Have What it Takes?

Transcription

1 THERAPY DOG READINESS INFORMATION Do You and Your Dog Have What it Takes? Becoming a therapy dog team with Project Canine

2 Welcome to Project Canine The most common question we are asked is my dog ready to be a therapy dog? The purpose of this document is to give you a brief overview of our exam process so that you can consider whether or not you and your dog are ready. Note that the exam process is Step 2 of our 4 step process. Step 1 is a Therapy Dog Preparation Workshop and in addition to teaching best practices and more, the exam is practiced in detail during class.

3 Relationship You and Your Dog If you certify with your dog you will be certified as a therapy dog team It s critical that you have a positive and supportive relationship with your dog We want to see how you interact That your dog looks to you for support and guidance That your dog listens and responds to your requests in complex and distracting environments

4 The Exam Section I The Project Canine exam consists of 5 sections designed to evaluate if you and your dog are ready to conduct therapy dog visits Section I is designed to confirm that your dog is social and enjoys interacting with people while maintaining basic composure

5 The Exam Section II Section II determines your dog s ability to respond to basic commands and your skill in making the requests. Your dog must be able to do the following at your request without the use of treats as a lure. You may use hand and/or voice signals, but you may not physically push or yank on your dog. Sit Stay or wait for 15 seconds A basic recall or come Loose leash walk across the testing room Must have at least an emerging ability to down meaning your dog must have an understanding of the behavior and at least try to respond/execute the behavior Must be able to walk past another handler and dog on a leash in a calm manner meaning no aggression, growling, and not overly exuberant/excited Must be able to respond to a leave it! request when passing by a toy or interesting object

6 The Exam Section III This section determines your dog s ability to appropriately handle unusual occurrences and your skill in supporting and advocating for your dog. In this section the examiners will do a variety of things to check your dog s startle response and your dog s ability to recover from surprise as well as your ability to provide support to your dog. As an example, this includes things like a plastic water bottle being tossed on to the floor.

7 The Exam Section IV This section evaluates the dog s overall temperament and personality traits taking into account breed type and age. We are looking for dogs that have inspired confidence in class and in the previous sections of the exam. Dogs that have shown they are essentially calm, stable and consistent from a temperament standpoint. Next we do some exercises that are a bit more complex to check on resource guarding of food and treats and the ability to handle some of the challenging interactions that can happen on therapy dog visits.

8 The Exam Section V The last section is a discussion with you about some key material that was reviewed in class to insure you are understanding and remembering information critical to therapy dog visits.

9 A Word About Dogs Under 2 Years of Age Project Canine has a puppy certification program Puppies 5 months of age and older are eligible for certification Puppy certifications are difficult to achieve as puppies need to have solid bite inhibition, (meaning they won t chew on or nip visitors), basic obedience skills, and energy levels appropriate for therapy visits. Your puppy must have an essentially calm temperament and demeanor and be able to greet new people while maintaining 4 on the floor. As a handler you must be able to gain your puppy s attention and focus with calm and humane handling techniques. Please note that slip leads, choke collars, prong/pinch collars and flexi-leads are not allowed in our program. Please also note that if you have decided to have your puppy s tail docked or ears clipped you may not attend our program while those are healing. Your dog must be 100% healthy and wound free, (no tape or stitches), to attend our classes. If you have questions about your puppy s readiness please contact us. Dogs from 9 months to 2 years of age are in a teenager phase. While wonderful they can be overly exuberant and easily distracted by busy environments. If your dog is a teenager please consider their energy level and ability to respond to your obedience requests before deciding to proceed.

10 Thank You For Your Interest in Project Canine If you are ready to proceed please visit our website and register for class. If you don t think you and your dog are ready yet, don t be discouraged. We have had many teams who needed to do some skill building and after working with their dogs successfully became certified teams. If you don t believe your dog is temperamentally appropriate for therapy dog visits we hope you will find another activity to enjoy with your canine companion. There are lots of options out there! If you still have questions please contact us via phone or , ( is best) info@projectcanine.org or