Dr. Mark Swaim Answers: Can You Train Your Own Therapy Dog?
Dr. Mark Swaim says that children and adults alike can truly benefit from a therapy dog. After all, therapy dogs offer physical, social, mental, emotional, and cognitive benefits. Therapy dogs—and therapy animals in general—are known to help calm down children and adults alike, lowering blood pressure and reducing physical pain.
Here’s what you need to know about training your therapy dog.
Therapy Dogs Don’t Fall Under The Same Strict Standards
Service dogs must pass many stringent standards to qualify. Because of this, most service dogs must be trained for several years by professionals—and sometimes, some dogs won’t even qualify in the end. Emotional support dogs don’t need to pass the same standards, requiring only a letter of recommendation from a medical professional.
When it comes to therapy dogs, Dr. Mark Swaim happily shares that they require nothing at all. Therapy dogs are mostly owner-trained, and they usually spend their whole lives with their owners.
The Dogs Still Have to Be Trained
For you to start training your dog to become a therapy animal, it must be young and well-socialized. It also has to be healthy. Then, you and your dog will have to complete some behavioral classes. You also have to be there because you are the dog’s handler, which makes you part of the “therapy team.”
Once all the classes are completed, you can start completing a few required therapy visits for your qualification. Dr. Mark Swaim says finish these, and you can then register your dog with a recognized national therapy dog org. And that’s it—your dog is officially a therapy dog!
Just because your dog now has an “official job” does not mean that you need to fulfill any duty. Dr. Mark Swaim says it’s completely okay to train your dog to become a therapy animal for your children and your family.
Here’s what you need to know about training your therapy dog.
Therapy Dogs Don’t Fall Under The Same Strict Standards
Service dogs must pass many stringent standards to qualify. Because of this, most service dogs must be trained for several years by professionals—and sometimes, some dogs won’t even qualify in the end. Emotional support dogs don’t need to pass the same standards, requiring only a letter of recommendation from a medical professional.
When it comes to therapy dogs, Dr. Mark Swaim happily shares that they require nothing at all. Therapy dogs are mostly owner-trained, and they usually spend their whole lives with their owners.
The Dogs Still Have to Be Trained
For you to start training your dog to become a therapy animal, it must be young and well-socialized. It also has to be healthy. Then, you and your dog will have to complete some behavioral classes. You also have to be there because you are the dog’s handler, which makes you part of the “therapy team.”
Once all the classes are completed, you can start completing a few required therapy visits for your qualification. Dr. Mark Swaim says finish these, and you can then register your dog with a recognized national therapy dog org. And that’s it—your dog is officially a therapy dog!
Just because your dog now has an “official job” does not mean that you need to fulfill any duty. Dr. Mark Swaim says it’s completely okay to train your dog to become a therapy animal for your children and your family.
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