Therapy Dog skills

We had five Therapy Dog hopefuls attend our Therapy Dog Skills class.  The dogs ranged in age from 1.5 – 8 years and size from 12-75#.  But they all had one thing in common: great potential as a Therapy Dog- those dogs that visit hospitals, nursing homes & other facilities to brighten the day of a patient or resident.  All the dogs aced our Greeting & Handling exercises, and got practice in staying calm & focused while interacting with other people & dogs.  In subsequent weeks we will be adding more distractions & simulating scenarios Therapy Dogs would likely encounter while on visits.  We finished up with exercises from AKC’s Canine Good Citizen test since the CGC test is a good starting point for Therapy Dogs. 

Here’s Liz returning to her beautiful black Lab, Tag after the  supervised separation exercise during which Tag hung out with instructor Sheyla.