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Stay Out of Their Way

I believe that good therapy dogs are born, not made. It is mostly a personality and temperament thing. They don’t have to be a particular breed; a therapy dog can be any breed or a mixed breed. While some breeds are inherently better at it than others, it is still an individual thing that is also dependent on the handler.

Therapy dogs need to have positive, happy, accepting personalities. Sure, they need some basic obedience training, but more important, they have to be able to tolerate and withstand, with help from their handlers, loud noises and awkward situations. They have to enjoy attention and being around people, but not necessarily all people. Some therapy dogs enjoy rambunctious kids, while some of them prefer more sedate seniors. Some of them love lying quietly with patients on their beds, and some of them need to chase a ball and roll over to have their stomachs rubbed.

The human half of the therapy dog team—and it is important to remember that it is a team—can mess things up. It can come from trying too hard, from being too protective, or from pushing a dog into a situation that he doesn’t like. Or it can just be because the person doesn’t get it. Therapy is about the dog and the patient, not about the handler. In that sense, it’s very similar to what I always say about handlers in the dog show ring—the best handlers are almost invisible. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have a presence and an important role, but the best therapy dog handlers are guiding, not leading, and protecting, not pushing.

Angel On A Leash was a subject for a piece on the Today Show a couple of years ago. It was a wonderful story that was reported by Jill Rappaport, featuring interviews and video from Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and from Ronald McDonald House, and closing with Teigh, Belle, and me in the studio.

Host Meredith Vieira asked me, “David, when you’re out there doing your thing with your dogs, what is going through your mind? What’s the most important thing that you are thinking about?”

That was an easy answer.

“Just stay out of their way,” I said.

I get a lot of people who come up to me and say something like, “My dog will make a great therapy dog; she’s ready to go right now. You’ve seen her out here in the neighborhood. Why do we have to go through the training class?”

I tell them that the training is almost more for the people than the dogs (and occasionally I think, especially you). Sometimes I tell them that with a little wink, and sometimes I just send a little thought to the dog: “Good luck with your human.”

There are a number of therapy dog organizations out there that train, evaluate, and register therapy dogs. My personal favorite is Delta Society of Bellevue, Washington, which is our preference and recommendation for all of our Angel On A Leash facilities. I am a past board member and public relations consultant for Delta and have been familiar with their work for a long time, dating back to my days in Seattle.

Delta Society was formed in 1977 by a number of visionaries from the human and veterinary health fields. Psychiatrist Dr. Michael McCulloch and veterinarians Dr. Leo Bustad and Dr. Bill McCulloch were the leaders of a group of professionals who had seen the human-animal bond providing positive effects on their clients and patients.

Delta grew into an international organization emphasizing animal-assisted activities and animal-assisted therapy. From Delta’s website (www.deltasociety.org):

Animal-assisted activities (AAA) are basically the casual “meet and greet” activities that involve pets visiting people. The same activity can be repeated with many people, unlike a therapy program that is tailored to a particular person or medical condition.

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is a goal-directed intervention in which an animal that meets specific criteria is an integral part of the treatment process. AAT is directed and/or delivered by a health/human service professional with specialized expertise, and within the scope of practice of his/her profession. AAT is designed to promote improvement in human physical, social, emotional, and/or cognitive functioning.

Today, Delta Society has more than 10,000 registered Pet Partner teams (dog and handler) across the country, along with a nationwide network of evaluators and instructors. The heart and soul of the Pet Partner program is the twenty-two-point evaluation process for potential teams. Each dog also must undergo a thorough veterinary health screening before the team can be registered.

Unlike most other therapy dog registries, Delta Society requires Pet Partner teams to be reevaluated every two years. This is important for many reasons. Sometimes dogs change after passing the initial evaluation. For example, maybe a dog had a bad experience on a visit or he just doesn’t like therapy work anymore. Maybe his body has changed, and he now is experiencing new pain issues. Perhaps a dog has developed some tender spots due to arthritis and aging or perhaps from an injury. What happens if a patient accidentally touches the wrong spot, and the dog cries out in pain or turns and nips someone? Is that the dog’s fault? I think it’s the fault of the handler either for not knowing his or her dog well enough to be aware of the problem or for knowing about it and putting the dog in an untenable situation anyway.

Delta’s requirements for timely (at least twice a year) veterinary exams and evaluations by certified instructors/evaluators can head off potentially troublesome (or dangerous) situations. These evaluations, health screenings, and registration renewals every two years make me a big fan. So does the $1,000,000 liability insurance coverage of its teams. That should also make any facility a big fan.

Unfortunately, not all therapy dog organizations are alike.

I spoke to a person who runs a therapy dog training organization, which will remain nameless. I asked her if her group had liability insurance on its teams. She said, “No, they don’t need it. They are trained so well that they will never have a problem.”

I was stunned. I think that I am a good driver, but I would never get behind the wheel without insurance. We all believe that our dogs will never create or be a problem, but what if?

I had another issue with the same organization. When teams “graduated” from the program, they were given vests that said “service dog” on them and were told that they could now take their dogs on airplanes, into public places such as restaurants, and the like. Now we’re talking criminal activity, and this leads me into a rant that I have to recite way too often.

Therapy dogs are not service dogs. There is a significant difference. Because of this difference, therapy dogs do not get the same kind of access, guaranteed by federal law, as service dogs.

According to Delta Society, a service dog is “any dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.”

A disability is defined on the Delta Society website as “any physical or mental condition which substantially limits a major life activity such as caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.” Many people have hidden disabilities (e.g., epilepsy, heart disease, hearing problems), and that complicates compliance and enforcement issues.

Complicating things further, the law does not require a person to show any proof that the dog is a service dog; does not require that the dog wear any special tag, equipment, or vest; and does not require the handler to divulge any details about his or her disability. However, airlines recently have been given the right to require some kind of documentation for certain service dog requests.

Service dogs are guaranteed access to any place that their people go, including restaurants, taxis, airplanes, trains, stores, and theaters. This is a federal law covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

I learned a little about service dogs when I cowrote The Angel by My Side (www.angelbymyside.com) with Mike Lingenfelter in 2002 (see chapter 15). It was the wonderful story of Mike and his heroic service dog, Dakota. We were proud that the book won two awards from the Dog Writers Association of America that year, but prouder still of being able to tell the story.

Mike is my “go-to guy” for issues having to do with service dogs. Dakota alerted on Mike when Mike was about to have a heart attack (unstable angina). Dakota could sense Mike’s oncoming attacks before Mike could, and that gave Mike the chance to take his medication a little earlier and head off the worst of it.

Mike looked pretty normal (still does), so he spent a lot of time fighting accessibility battles with restaurants and other places when he came in with Dakota. Relating those stories in our book taught me about the challenges that people with service dogs have to face every day, and I found myself a firsthand observer of some of them.

Mike is one of those people with a service dog who also uses his dog as a therapy dog to help others. This happened because Dakota came to him as a therapy dog and by chance eventually also became his service dog. This can be difficult for the dog, because a service dog needs to be totally devoted to taking care of his human and to ignore the people around them, while in therapy dog work, a dog needs to interact with people other than his handler/human partner. It takes a special dog to be able to do both jobs well.

However, therapy dogs are usually not service dogs and, as I mentioned, do not have the same rights of access as service dogs. Therapy dogs are part of a human/ dog team and are used primarily in health care facilities to promote human health and well-being.

Unfortunately, the laws guaranteeing accessibility for service dogs are abused by dog owners who want their dogs to come with them everywhere for various reasons (including travel). These people are easy to recognize. I saw someone in Denver International Airport with a lovely Golden Retriever. The dog did not have a vest (remember, service dogs do not need one) and, admittedly, could very well have been a service dog. I watched the dog’s owner drag the dog onto an escalator, something that frightened (and endangered) the dog, in spite of the fact that there was an elevator within eyesight of this escalator. The “scam alert” bell went off in my mind. Whether you have a service dog, a therapy dog, or a pet, you do not take a dog onto an escalator unless you are holding him in your arms. I knew that if the owner didn’t already know this, he didn’t take his dog very many places, which made me think that perhaps this wasn’t a service dog who should be going everywhere with his human.

Another red flag was that this poor dog was frightened of the escalator, understandably enough, but his clueless handler put the dog in danger anyway. A trained service dog is unflappable.

Therapy dogs do wonderful things for people in need, but people who use the status of therapy dog certification to abuse accessibility issues are jeopardizing the rights of legitimate service dogs, and, more critically, they are making the lives of the human partners of service dogs much more difficult than they already are. I know a lot of people who depend on their service dogs every waking moment. They already have to fight battles every day over accessibility for their life-saving, four-legged partners.

People who abuse therapy dog certification in this manner had better hope that they don’t run into me. Or Mike. But I digress.

My original point when I began is that not all therapy dog organizations are alike. There are some, unfortunately, that may as well just ask you to send in three dog-food labels and a few bucks in exchange for your therapy dog registration. There are a few organizations out there that exist only on a website and will be happy to send you a certificate in exchange for something (usually money). You need to know that it is not that simple.

If a therapy dog organization that you are researching does not make you work at your certification, does not require your dog to be checked by a veterinarian, does not evaluate and reevaluate you and your dog, and does not provide some type of continuing contact, then avoid that organization. You won’t be properly prepared, and neither will your dog, and someone could end up getting hurt. Your dog could get hurt.

If a working therapy dog causes a problem in a health care facility because the dog or handler is improperly trained, unprepared, or unhealthy, or if the dog is not properly insured or not appropriate for visiting, then all of us involved in therapy work are going to pay for it, no matter what with which organization we are registered.

If you want to become part of a therapy dog team, please do something for me, for the facilities that our teams visit, for the people who volunteer, for the people who benefit from our visits, and for the medical professionals who believe in us and support our work—do us all a favor. And do yourself a favor. Maintain and protect the integrity of the work by dealing with therapy dog organizations that do it right, as described above.

For Angel On A Leash facilities, we ask that our teams be registered through Delta Society. That way, we know how they have been trained and evaluated, that they are being provided with $1,000,000 in liability insurance coverage by their registering organization, that their health status is continuously monitored, and that they are subject to timely reevaluations. Recognizing that you may face geographic challenges in finding an organization, you should know that there may be other registering bodies that do this, too, but keep these key points in mind as you move forward with your dog.

While the American Kennel Club does not certify therapy dogs, it now works with over fifty-five organizations that register therapy dogs, including Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, Delta Society Pet Partners Program, Love on a Leash, Therapy Dogs Incorporated (TD Inc.), and Therapy Dogs International (TDI), to recognize the great work that dogs do in this area. In addition to the AKC’s recognition of one outstanding therapy dog as part of its annual AKC Humane Fund Awards for Canine Excellence (ACE), in 2011 the club began offering the AKC Therapy Dog title (THD). The criteria for the title require that a registered therapy dog be either registered or listed with the AKC (this includes purebred and mixed-breed dogs) and perform no fewer than fifty community service visits. For more information, visit www.akc.org/akctherapydog.