Pet Therapy
Pet Therapy Work:
Pet Therapy is also known as Animal Assisted Activities (AAA) or Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT)
There's no universal or national "certification" for AAA work in the U.S. The AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) title involves testing a dog's obedience and social skills, grooming appearance and being handled by unfamiliar people. It is not connected to any pet therapy organization. AKC gives out patches for dogs based on the number of pet therapy visits they perform. Most facilities that allow pet therapy want a dog to past the CGC test, however, the facility you want to visit might also have their own review and testing process.
There are various national pet therapy / AAA registries which allow an animal to be tested under their program to become a member for an annual fee (usually $40 to $70). The owner and dog are protected with a huge liability insurance policy, but only during the pet therapy visits. Pet Partners (https://petpartners.org/) and Alliance of Therapy Dogs (https://www.therapydogs.com/) are well known organizations. We highly recommend anyone doing this type of work have liability coverage as no dog is one hundred percent reliable and owners can’t predict all possible circumstances.
Important: Pet Therapy Dogs do not have access rights to go anywhere like a valid service dog. Florida now has a law against those which try to pass their dog as a service animal. To learn more about what constitutes a service dog, review the American Disabilities Act (ADA): https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
K9 Obedience Club of Jacksonville, Inc. offers different levels of pet therapy courses to get teams ready for formal evaluation by national organizations. We first pre-assess the dog’s current obedience and social skills to see if additional training is needed. Educating owners to recognize their dog’s stress and calming signals is essential for the safety of everyone.
Teams move on to one of the following three courses.
Family Dog: Dog needs basic social and obedience skills.
Pet Therapy Obedience Level 1: Obedience and/or social skills need improvement.
Pet Therapy Obedience Level 2: Teams are almost ready for pet therapy work.
These sessions help teams hone essential skills, learn tricks, and gain insight into how they are actually working their dog. The Level 2 teams will get a chance to take all they have learned and go out on two practice visits at a nearby facility with the instructor. The practice visits give teams invaluable experience before they face the evaluation and visiting on their own.
Instructor: Colleen Whalen: cwhalen@bellsouth.net
Colleen has performed pet therapy visits with three dogs over the last 15 years at a nursing home, Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. She chaired the program at Wolfson Children’s hospital for three years and is a past Auxiliary President. Her dogs were registered with Alliance of Therapy Dogs (formerly Therapy Dogs Inc.) and with Pet Partners. Colleen is an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator for all three titles (CGC, CGCA & CGCU), plus teaches the popular STAR Puppy and Advanced Puppy courses. She is one of the Original Founders of Therapy Animal Coalition (TAC), “Your Resource for Sharing the Healing Love of Pets.” TAC hosts annual expos drawing national speakers to help educate the community about pet therapy. https://therapyanimalcoalition.org/index.html
Pet Therapy is also known as Animal Assisted Activities (AAA) or Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT)
There's no universal or national "certification" for AAA work in the U.S. The AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) title involves testing a dog's obedience and social skills, grooming appearance and being handled by unfamiliar people. It is not connected to any pet therapy organization. AKC gives out patches for dogs based on the number of pet therapy visits they perform. Most facilities that allow pet therapy want a dog to past the CGC test, however, the facility you want to visit might also have their own review and testing process.
There are various national pet therapy / AAA registries which allow an animal to be tested under their program to become a member for an annual fee (usually $40 to $70). The owner and dog are protected with a huge liability insurance policy, but only during the pet therapy visits. Pet Partners (https://petpartners.org/) and Alliance of Therapy Dogs (https://www.therapydogs.com/) are well known organizations. We highly recommend anyone doing this type of work have liability coverage as no dog is one hundred percent reliable and owners can’t predict all possible circumstances.
Important: Pet Therapy Dogs do not have access rights to go anywhere like a valid service dog. Florida now has a law against those which try to pass their dog as a service animal. To learn more about what constitutes a service dog, review the American Disabilities Act (ADA): https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
K9 Obedience Club of Jacksonville, Inc. offers different levels of pet therapy courses to get teams ready for formal evaluation by national organizations. We first pre-assess the dog’s current obedience and social skills to see if additional training is needed. Educating owners to recognize their dog’s stress and calming signals is essential for the safety of everyone.
Teams move on to one of the following three courses.
Family Dog: Dog needs basic social and obedience skills.
Pet Therapy Obedience Level 1: Obedience and/or social skills need improvement.
Pet Therapy Obedience Level 2: Teams are almost ready for pet therapy work.
These sessions help teams hone essential skills, learn tricks, and gain insight into how they are actually working their dog. The Level 2 teams will get a chance to take all they have learned and go out on two practice visits at a nearby facility with the instructor. The practice visits give teams invaluable experience before they face the evaluation and visiting on their own.
Instructor: Colleen Whalen: cwhalen@bellsouth.net
Colleen has performed pet therapy visits with three dogs over the last 15 years at a nursing home, Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. She chaired the program at Wolfson Children’s hospital for three years and is a past Auxiliary President. Her dogs were registered with Alliance of Therapy Dogs (formerly Therapy Dogs Inc.) and with Pet Partners. Colleen is an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator for all three titles (CGC, CGCA & CGCU), plus teaches the popular STAR Puppy and Advanced Puppy courses. She is one of the Original Founders of Therapy Animal Coalition (TAC), “Your Resource for Sharing the Healing Love of Pets.” TAC hosts annual expos drawing national speakers to help educate the community about pet therapy. https://therapyanimalcoalition.org/index.html
Jay Marks and his dog Gambit, recently graduated for our pet therapy course and passed the national organization, Pet Partners, evaluation. Jay and Gambit visit patients at the Baptist Medical Center.
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Laura Wilbur and her Lab, Rosie have completed pet therapy training and are now members of Pet Partners.
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