Does Your Pooch Have What It Takes To Be A Therapy Dog?

If your dog has a knack for brightening someone’s day, it may be time to harvest his natural charm and skills and train him to be a therapy dog! Maybe you’ve heard of dogs bringing cheer to kids and hospitals and think your dog might be good at that, but you don’t know how to go about making it happen.

Starting this Saturday, September 27^th, the ASPCA, along with licensed Delta Society instructors, will hold a series of classes to help prepare interested pet parents and their pooches for a formal evaluation to become Delta Society Pet Partners.

The classes, held by the ASPCA in conjunction with the Delta Society, provide training for human/animal teams in Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) and Animal Assisted Activities (AAA). Following certification, these teams dispense love, hope and cheer in major New York City medical and mental health facilities as well as schools.

For more details on the specific classes and what they cover, and to sign up, check out our website.

Animal Assisted Therapy on the ASPCA Online Community:

You might find it useful to have a first-hand account before you decide to enroll your pet in classes. Check out the transcript of the online chat we held with Greer Griffith, ASPCA Manager of Animal Assisted Therapy. Greer also runs an Animal Assisted Therapy discussion group. To participate or browse, go ahead and join in!

… Because bark-ter is the best medicine… Bark-ter? Groan. We tried.