Pets As Therapy

[Scuttlebutter]

The tutor in our KC CGC class has suggested that one of our greyhounds would be an excellent Pets as Therapy dog, due to his lovely, affectionate and very gentle nature. We all refer to him as the "love sponge" . Has anyone else done this? If so, any tips, feedback, thoughts? To be honest, I don't know a huge amount about it, other than it involves visiting people such as elderly folks and for them to have some nice quality time with a well behaved woof. Does it involve a lot of training, or is it very time consuming? She mentioned I'd need a CRB check, which is fine.

At the moment, I feel quite torn, since on the one hand, I'd love it for him to be a good ambassador for greyhounds (he is gorgeous, even though I admit to being biased) and I can see the social benefits for the people visited. On the other hand, I already feel like I need 48 hours in each day as we do a lot of voluntary/rescue work. So I'd welcome hearing about other people's experiences.

I do know there is a test, when dd was in hospital PAT dogs visited every week and one lady said her dog had only just passed his test and he was trying to get at dd's dinner I think ignoring food is one of the criteria!

Dd wasn't interested to be honest but there was a little boy next to us with advanced cancer and it was the highlight of his week, they visited him at the hospice right up until he died.

I think if you do have the time it's a lovely thing to do, we saw 3 different dogs in 5 weeks, some did lots of visits, others less. HTH

Ignoring food is not necessarily a criteria. My lab is a therapy dog and she NEVER ignores food. She helps a little boy with severe behavioural issues and SN learn how to cope with school, and normal life.

It is a great thing to do , two of my dogs love it. Your commitment can be as large or small as you want.

Your dog will have to ba assessed by a certified tester

We go into old peoples home and also a college for disabled children - my dog loves zooming around with the children sat on their laps in their electric chairs. Dogs and kids and oldies and me love it!

more info here

Greyhounds are spectacularly wonderful loving dogs. I lost my 15 year old whippet/greyhound cross in March and I still miss her so very, very much.

My dd2 (severe disabilities and learning difficulties) sees a Therapy pet at school and at her respite place - its a PAT dog. It is a great success.

She loves dogs, loves to pat them, but is not very careful and can dig her fingernails in, or poke its eyes without meaning to hurt. She is only exploring but doesn't realise it can hurt the dog.

If your dog can cope with the odd prod and poke, and you have the time to take him to the places, then go for it. In our case there is no way I can cope with a dog at home, along with everything else, so its a way of her seeing a pet.

Thank you all so much for the comments so far. Iklboo, I am so sorry to hear of your loss, you must still be grieving for her - we never forget the ones we have loved - they become part of us. I agree - they are incredibly loving.

Minimu - love the idea of your dog zooming round in the chair! Thanks for the link. I had a good read this afternoon and that helped a great deal.

For those who've done it, do you get much say on where you go/get sent? I had a look at the website and that seemed a little vague. I think I'd be in pieces after visiting that little boy - must be very hard not to get too attached?

My friend has a whippet and it is a PAT dog. So gentle and loving. I think it is a great thing to do and if my Loofa settles down (when he grows up)then I might do it with him.