The very basic of a
therapy animal is a species that undergo some special trainings and known for
bringing good feeling, affection, comfort and happiness to people.
Therapy animals can be cats, dogs, horses, pigs, rabbits, or even rat,
but the most popular and common therapy animals are dogs.
So, in this article we will cover dogs as therapy animals, the benefits brought by therapy animal, and Therapy Dog Training.
What is a therapy dog?
Therapy dogs are animals that offer a specific service to people. They offer a helping hand by soothing the feeling, comforting, relieving stress, and bringing happiness to patients in hospitals, in rehabilitation centers, in nursing facilities, etc.
Therapy dog also give the patients motivation to help them get through the medication.
According to the experts, there are so many benefits and healing effects brought by therapy animal
Here are some of the benefits and healing effects brought by therapy animal.
a. Mental Benefits
- Decrease feelings of isolation, loneliness and
depression
- Decrease anxiety, stress, and aggressive behavior, such
as trauma from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Increase self-esteem, making a patient feels confident
to involve in group activity
- Increase in ability to socialize, laugh, and being
happy
- Motivate a patient for a faster recovery
b. Physical Benefits
- lowers blood pressure and heart rate
- Increase endorphin, dopamine, oxytocin that have a
calming effect
- Reduce pain felt by a patient
- Improve physical ability
Knowing there are so
many benefits and healing effects brought by therapy animal, especially dog,
how do you train a therapy dog? What is necessary for therapy dog training?
Here the methods for Therapy Dog Training.
#1 – prepare your dog
The qualification of
becoming a therapy dog is that your dog must have a good temperament, friendly,
gentle, and get used to receiving attention from people, even from strangers.
Your dog should also love much petting because your dog will have contact
with a lot of humans.
It is also necessary that your dog has mastered basic obedience skills and good socialization, and you can actually train your dog to have these skills by yourself or with the help of a good dog trainer.
#2 – evaluate your dog
After you prepare your
dog your dog, you can try to check your dog’s readiness to be a therapy dog.
You can try to check the readiness of your dog with the nearby therapy animal
organization. You can determine if your dog needs additional training or not by
learning your dog’s evaluation from the therapy animal organization.
#3 – Get your dog the AKC Canine Good Citizen title
If your dog is prepared
and well behaved, then you are good to go, but if your dog is not fully
prepared as a therapy dog, you can enlist your dog to the AKC's Canine Good
Citizen® (CGC) Program. It is a good one to start with.
Try to get your dog the AKC Canine Good Citizen title which will prove your dog’s readiness to become a therapy dog.
We hope this article helps your Therapy Dog Training.
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