Memories are stirred up by a childhood dog or an interaction. We've had residents in memory care Alzheimer's units that all of a sudden just open up and can share very precise childhood memories about a dog that they had and have the caregivers at the facility. So we've never heard this person talk, you know, and it's nothing that we've done. It's just that there's something magical about a dog that it just opens people's worlds up.
Once an unusual occurrence, the sight of a friendly dog with a wagging tail is now not an uncommon one at nursing homes, college campuses, primary schools, and a host of other locations. There is a growing acceptance of therapy dogs, but what makes for a good therapy dog? What differentiates a therapy animal from a service animal? And what benefits do therapy dogs actually provide? This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College. I'm your host, Steve fast. Today we're talking about therapy dogs with someone who trains them.
My name is Tina Zimmerman. I'm teaching the introduction to therapy dog work.
Tell me a little bit about the class itself. Is it just for anyone that happens to think their dog is particularly suited for this? What are the criteria you want? In the owners of the dogs?
We kind of have restrictions on temperament. Obviously, the dog can't be aggressive or overly fearful. And yeah, it's people who enjoy their dogs, I want to share that with other people who maybe don't have access to a dog or live somewhere where they can't have dogs such as nursing homes or situations like that. So what is the
difference between a therapy dog and a service dog?
Huge. a therapy dog is one that is shared service dog you would think of as a prescription. It's mine. It helps me It improves my quality of life, it enables me to do things. Whereas a therapy dog is a pet that goes into the community and improves the life quality of others just by being present.
For instance, if you're out and you see somebody that has a service dog, they always wear the little vest. Is there a term for that the
little vest, little vest, be a big vest I
already am I feel like I've already taken the class. So they have the vest. And if it's a service dog, as just somebody that comes across this dog, you don't want to pet as soon as you want
to pet you don't want to distract that animal is there to keep the handler alive. You think of it as a bus driver. If if my children were on a bus and somebody was up yakking with the driver, you know, that endangers the lives of those who he's caring for. Same thing with a service dog. And we don't want to ignore someone because they have one. But we definitely don't want to distract. So it's totally fine to say to the handler, I love your dog or something like that. But you don't want to say Hey, buddy, what's your dog's name? Can I pet him? No, you need to ignore that. Yeah.
Now with a therapy dog, though, it's a different situation. Absolutely. Because the therapy dogs, that's kind of the point is to exactly interact into I mean, maybe not just anyone, although I'm sure that a lot of those dogs would be happy, for contact with somebody that's not specifically using them for therapeutic purposes, although they might get a little therapy without realizing it was there. But these are dogs that do thrive on contact with people. Yes.
And you know, luckily nowadays, we understand that you should ask to pet any dog what no matter what it's there for you ask first. And even though a therapy dog is there to interact, like in our class, we teach our dogs, they have to be sitting to be petted. And so the handler needs time to make their dog sit down that keeps the dog from jumping on people accidentally scratching someone if they're sitting down. They're being calm. And so even though that dog is there to be petted, there might be a time when the handler might say, give me a minute, you know, we just walked in the building. Let me let him get settled down so he doesn't jump on you. So always ask first and that kind of clarifies. You know whether or not you should even be asking.
Well, let's talk a little bit about the situations in scenarios in which therapy dogs are useful. It's a wide variety, what are some of the experiences that you've had, where therapy dogs have been helpful to people?
I see probably the most visits that we have are in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, and we get asked to come to schools to special needs programs. And so what I see a lot is just a change in people's expressions when the dogs walk in. Memories are stirred up by a childhood dog or an interaction. We've had residents in memory care Alzheimer's units that all of a sudden just open up and can share very precise childhood memories about a dog that they had and have the caregivers at the facility say You've never heard this person talk, you know, and it's nothing that we've done. It's just that there's something magical about a dog that it just opens people's worlds up.
I know, in some instances, it also helps educators with special needs kids, because they maybe can interact with the animal in a way that focuses them differently than just regular interaction people.
Kids especially are so in the moment, and so our dogs, and so the connectivity is very strong, because they both kind of balance each other out that it's going to be okay. But that's where having the proper temperament of a dog that's doing therapy work is so important. What is the
ideal therapy dog? If somebody comes to your class, what are the characteristics you're looking for, for a suitable therapy dog,
mostly just a dog that enjoys meeting people, and interacting with people if they're fearful if they don't really want that, they're going to react in a way that could be aggressive, even if it's not an aggressive dog. So sometimes people think their dog is too obnoxious to forward, that's a lot easier to dial back, we can train that, like I said, we teach the behavior that the dog has to be sitting to interact. And so it kind of counteract some of that obnoxiousness. Just by having basic obedience, but a dog that's fearful or shy, the risk is too great that they're going to be defensive and may snap or do something we don't want. Are there
certain breeds, you found are more suitable to be therapy dogs and certain breeds that are not?
No, it's really temperament. And you see chihuahuas that are very feisty, and bitey. And you see chihuahuas that love to just be cuddled, and we've had everything from the last class, we had Chihuahuas and we had bullmastiffs. So we had, you know, 150 pound dog and a three pound dog, it just really depends. And we work on the size of the dog to interact. If it's a large dog, it's easy for people to pet from a wheelchair, if it's a tiny dog, it might need to be placed in their lap or on their bed. And so those are things in the class that we teach how to do we put a barrier down so we're not spreading germs and just being conscious of things like that.
Does the age of a dog come into play here to dogs tend to be a little bit more suitable to be therapy dogs, if they've kind of gotten out of that jumpy puppy stage?
Yes, I think mostly however, it kind of depends on the venue or the facility that we're in. Because we have different dogs that go to schools than we have go to nursing homes. Some people enjoy seeing a dog spin and jump and be very happy to be there. And that might be frightening. And another situation. So before we send a team, we always kind of evaluate what's the expectation?
What can get a dog expelled from therapy, dog school,
not being housebroken, obviously, jumping on people, because even the sweetest dogs if you think about the skin of elderly people at tears very easily. And so even if they're going to hold a very gentle dog, the dog can't be scrambling around because it's going to scratch them.
Does it help or do dogs have to get along with other dogs
separately, we keep a rule that there should always be at least four feet between dogs at all times. For one reason for safety, just because, you know, we don't want there to be any kind of altercation which there shouldn't be, but you never know. The other thing is that we don't want the dogs they are socializing with each other. And if the dogs don't learn to ignore each other, they just want to play with each other. They don't want to sit quietly and be petted. And that's what they're there for.
The measurement of dog's behavior in this course in therapy dog training comes from the American Kennel Club.
It just depends. Each place has its own rules of what criteria or certification is allowed. There are therapy dogs certifications, there are therapy dog organizations that actually insure you in case there's an incident. You can have an event sanctioned with an organization but that is not mandatory. Basically, you can go to any organization, any nursing home and say, I have a friendly dog. Can I bring it to see grandma? And they'll they'll usually say yes, I mean, it should be vaccinated. You know, it should be housebroken. A lot of times they don't ask those. And so it's on us to make sure we're responsible and covering our bases.
So if someone has an organization, whether it be a nursing home, whether it be a hospital ward, whether it be even a daycare, what are the questions that the folks that are operating those facilities want to ask if they're thinking about bringing a therapy dog? Well, definitely
is it housebroken. Has there ever been a bite incident with this dog? Has it ever had a fight with another dog? Has it been around wheelchairs, oxygen machines, elevators nurses you know all the things that they encounter it for us, we require the Canine Good Citizen, which is through the AKC. It's a 10 criteria test. Five of them are obedience walks nicely on a leash sits lays down come when it's called and stays. The other five are sociability, can it be touched everywhere? Is it okay with a wheelchair going by another dog going by somebody stomping or running? Those are the 10 things that we're going to be stressing in our class here at Heartland to make sure if these dogs can do those 10 things by the time they're done with the class, they're going to be good for any organization, the other certifications, they'll have enough training to be able to pass those with flying colors.
So Tina, how long have you been doing this?
Huh? 30 some ish years. I'm 50 Something ish. And I've been doing it a long time.
Well, that is a long time. And I bet you You've really seen the applications of therapy dogs change dramatically. Since you've been working with dogs.
I have and just to see it firsthand. I was visiting a veteran in the hospital who was having a lot of blood pressure issues. And I was actually in the room with the dog. I'm lying on the floor and the nurse took the man's blood pressure and it was off the charts. And I said to him, the dog lay on the bed with him. And she said, I don't care. And he got in the bed and I said take it again. And the gentleman's blood pressure had dropped to normal just for petting the dog. I mean, I've seen effects like that. I've seen people who have lost a dog and it happened today. Someone was petting one of our dogs and just broke down in tears and said I lost my dog not too long ago and it just feels so good to be able to pet a dog again. You know, that's that's what we're doing.
Well, Tina, thanks so much for talking to us today about therapy dogs and dog training and the class at Heartland.
Sure. Thank you for having me.
Thank you. Zimmerman conducts therapy dog training for dogs and their owners. If you're interested in learning more about therapy dog training, visit the American Kennel Club website@akc.org This has been random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College if you enjoyed this podcast don't forget to subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, radio, public or audio boom. Thanks for listening
