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Therapy Work.

Therapy dogs are dogs who go with their owners to volunteer in settings such as schools, libraries, hospitals, and nursing homes.

From working with a child who is learning to read to visiting a senior in assisted living, therapy dogs and their owners work together as a team to improve the lives of other people. Therapy Dogs must have a true love of people and enjoy meeting new people. They must be also be obedient and well-mannered in new environments, around children and elderly, and sometimes near medical equipment. We require the Therapy Dog Teams to take and pass the AKC Canine Good Citizen, Community Canine and Urban Canine Testing and be a year old before becoming a certified member of our local therapy dog group. Certification is granted after the successful completion of 3 supervised visits with a senior member of our Pets Helping People Therapy Team. After these visits, the team will receive a therapy vest for the dog, a patch for the owner’s shirt, a member guide, and a copy of the Pets Helping People Therapy Team CIMA Insurance. To help teams prepare for testing and visitation, we offer several training options.

 Therapy Dog FAQs

  • Therapy dogs work as volunteers to serve their community. Therapy dogs receive special invitations to visit college campuses, library reading programs, sites of natural disasters, hospitals, assisted living facilities and many more places to provide comfort, companionship, and a calming presence to individuals in need.

  • Because of the diverse environments a therapy dog may be asked to visit, it’s important that they are obedient and well-mannered. Therapy dogs are often asked to work with or around medical equipment, hospital beds, elderly or disabled individuals, or people with unique needs. This requires dogs to be comfortable and calm in new environments and to genuinely enjoy meeting new people.

    To be a member of Magic Valley’s Pets Helping People Therapy Team, your dog must be at least one year of age, and have successfully passed their Canine Good Citizen (CGC), Advanced or Community Canine Good Citizen (CGCA), and their Urban Canine Good Citizen (CGCU) tests. We offer a special Therapy Dog group class that focuses on teaching dogs how to safely approach and interact with medical equipment and to navigate stairs, elevators and more.

  • NO. Therapy dogs are only able to visit certain businesses at pre-arranged times, when their presence has been requested by those in charge of these businesses. Outside of these pre-scheduled visits, the therapy dog functions as a pet, and does not have any rights to visit public locations that a pet would not be welcome.

  • Therapy dogs may visit schools, libraries, hospitals, assisted living facilities, natural disaster sites, and more, provided they have been invited there in advance. Therapy teams have no special rights beyond this.

  • No. Emotional support animals and therapy dogs are both pets, but therapy dogs are extensively trained to offer therapeutic intervention to groups of people with the aid of their owner. ESA’s provide affection and support for one individual (usually their owner) and do not require extensive training. Neither ESA’s nor Therapy Dog’s have public access rights, as they are both pets.

  • Therapy dogs and psychiatric service dogs (or PSD’s) are both dogs trained to behave in a variety of different environments. Aside from this, their roles are very different. Therapy dogs are trained by their owner or an organization to volunteer and serve in their community, when invited. They do not have rights to accompany their owners in public.

    PSDs are owned and handled by individuals with a mental illness that meet the ADA’s definition of a disability. These dogs are trained to accompany their owners in public and to provide tasks that improve their owner’s independence and quality of life. Tasks and public access training take years to teach reliably, and PSD’s reflect this in their behavior and comportment in public. Click here to learn more about service dogs.