animal assisted therapy training

[whiteboxerboy]

so... my boss has asked me if i would be interested in training her male G-Doodle to be an AAT dog & i would be his handler at the clinic.

this would be an amazing opportunity to earn some much needed $ - she'll pay me to train him and then i'm sure i'd have a huge number of kids wanting to have the dog participate in therapy sessions with them.

the problem is i have no idea how to go about training a dog to do this. i know there is one group that offers continuing education for this but i don't know if that is just general info or specific training.

i don't know for sure that this dog is appropriate for this kind of job, either.

i have some research to do for sure but thought i'd start by asking here for any thoughts/suggestions you guys have.

i'd LOVE for this to happen but also don't want to get in over my head and have it turn into a full on disaster.

ETA: if her G-Doodle isn't appropriate i sure would love to do this with my sweet Gringo. if he wasn't so totally weird about hands approaching his head i'd totally consider it. think i can train him to not get so jumpy when people go to pet him? i don't think it's fear at all, i think he just anticipates the attention and gets too excited.

[PaulaS]

Sorry, I have zero experience with this. But it sounds like an amazing opportunity, and if I were you, I'd at least explore the possibility. Can you contact the training/education group and find out more information? I'm sure that you'll know after a short bit of training whether the G-doodle is a candidate for therapy work, or maybe they can evaluate the dog beforehand?

Good luck with whatever you decide!

(and hey, way to get me to log onto ODO for the first time in forever, )

[Calypso]

See if the Pet Partners website has any information on training. Here, if you are going to be registered with Pet Partners you need to take a human only class first and they cover some of the questions you might have.

[QBert]

I'd locate a local therapy-visit group and get some direction just to get you started. Basic obedience is never a bad foundation, and a CGC is a good step-off baseline. (ie if you can't get the dog a CGC with pretty minimal effort, it may not be a great candidate for therapy visits of any sort.)

[connie]

Yes, what Kara said. Alex Flappy will be starting in September to visit a grief therapy group for kids, and I can ask the administrator of that program for suggestions, but that doesn't do you much good now. Alex did have to pass the CGC test to qualify for the program, though. I would make that your starting point and build from there as you get more information.