depends on what you mean by training. Dogs used as therapy dogs are NOT just dogs that a person feels comfortable having them around or that the dog makes them feel good. They actually are trained to notice things that are causing a stressful reaction, they pick up on body language, even pulse and heart beat, ect and react accordingly. Most of this comes natural to a dog, but the training is the part that fine tunes those natural tendencies and teaches a dog how to put those tendencies to work. Let me give an example to make it clearer. Dogs are now being used to detect certain kinds of cancer. Now this detection comes naturally to a dog, but if we take our run of the mill dog into a cancer ward, while they may detect that something isn't right, they do not know how to convey that to someone or even consider that it needs conveyed. But a dog that has been trained, knows they are there to detect that cancer and knows that they need to alert the proper person to that fact and they know HOW to alert them. The same goes with therapy dogs, seizure alert dogs, and even hearing dogs, ect. It is so much more than just bringing comfort....it is a matter of acting on the natural tendencies. "Hey my person is suddenly showing signs of extreme distress, I need to make sure they know how their body is reacting and then I need to do my job of leading the person from the area or holding the person still, or even causing the person to focus on my eyes to distract them from what is going on around them"
So yes, training is necessary to fine tune those skills and to make sure that both SD and handler knows what is being conveyed, but that doesn't mean that a professional dog trainer has to be the one to do that. Many people with a disability choose to train their own SD because they can be more specific to their own needs than to what is generally needed by a person with the same disability. And ALL SD's need to have proper obedience training of course, Man, get me started on the subject of SD's and I will talk your head off, lol.... Marsha ----- Original Message ----- From: dasha48 To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 8:28 PM Subject: RE: [Chihuahuas] Re: Pebbles Shopping Trip ok certification aside, which is really just a piece of paper. Do They do need special training to be a therapy dog like they do to be service dogs? Sheila ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of marsha Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 8:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Chihuahuas] Re: Pebbles Shopping Trip You can certify a therapy dog, but it is not required. In fact, certification is not required of any SD under the ADA. Some states do have a cert requirement, but if those cases are ever taken before the Supreme Court, the state will loose because ADA is federal law and trumps state and the ADA says that all that is required is that the animal (not even required to be a dog) meet a legitimate and recognized need to enable a person with a legitimate and recognized disability to fully participate in things that a non disabled person can participate in. OTSD's (owner trained service dogs) are as a legitimate as a certified one. Bottom line,...is the person disabled and does the dog assist with that disability? Marsha ----- Original Message ----- From: dasha48 To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 7:45 PM Subject: RE: [Chihuahuas] Re: Pebbles Shopping Trip Can you just certify a therapy dog? I mean don't they need special training like a service dog does? Sheila (My daughter has actually been looking into getting Rein "certified" so that I would have proof as to what she does.) I can understand how angry the "fakers" make you and I would take a stand against them also, but I assure you I'm not one of them. Mindy .
