Ziggs,Therapy Dog

The process to certify Ziggs to be a therapy dog was very long. He was two years old when we adopted him. He had no manners and no concept of rules. But he loved people and dogs. So he was perfect to be certified.

First step was to learn basic manners. This included learning: to respond to his name, sit, down, stay, and come. We worked on each command one week at a time for about ten minutes a day. This was our daily homework. Each time pairing a command with his name.

Obedience two included all the commands of basic manners training plus the commands: watch me, leave it, touch, loose leash walking, and no jumping on people. Given that Ziggs is already kid height, the easiest to learn was to not jump on people. Loose leash walking was the most difficult. We used a gentle leader headcollar to help him learn not to pull while walking. He hated this very much so he learned to walk gently very quickly.

Obedience three included everything in basic manners and obidience two plus the commands: accepting a friendly stranger, sitting politely, appearance & grooming, walking through a crowd, sit & down & stay (20ft), come (15ft), reaction to a neutral dog, supervised separation (3 minutes). Most of these were very easy for Ziggs. From the first day we adopted him I made sure to rub his ears, paws, and gently open his mouth. This helped him become comfortable with apperance and grooming. Ziggs had difficulty with reacting to another dog, since he is very dog friendly he wants to immediately go play. However, with many years of practice, he will sit and whine a little and wait for a release to go play.

Once he passed all these classes we practiced all the comands (studied) a few times before taking the Good Canine Citizen Test. Ziggs passed his test on December 9, 2014!

Therapy Workshop consisted of all of the above with training focusing on being calm around medical equipment and sudden noises. Ziggs did very well and completed the workshop on July 15, 2015.

We recently recertified as a team through PetPartners. 

There are many benefits to working with therapy dogs. Here are a few articles that highlight these benefits.

• High school counselor makes request for therapy dog in district schools

• Behavior of Children with Learning Disabilities Interacting With a Therapy Dog

• Effects of social support by a dog on stress modulation in male children with insecure attachment

April 30 is National Therapy Animal Day!