2020 was a challenging year for a lot of people, not only with financial and work-related stressors, but also in the areas of physical and mental health. In fact, according to Mental Health America, by September of 2020, there was a 93% increase in people taking anxiety screening tests and a 62% increase in people taking depression screening tests compared to 2019 data. Over 70% of the people who exhibited significant signs of anxiety or depression said that loneliness and feelings of isolation were among their top three contributing factors.
Therapy dogs are an incredible asset for people living with mental and/or physical disabilities. Whether you’d like to share your dog with nursing homes, hospitals, or as a traveling therapist, there are a lot of different ways therapy dogs can help people. If you’re considering purchasing a therapy dog or putting your own dog through therapy dog training and certification, you probably have a lot of questions to answer before you can move forward. We hope to address some of those today.
What is the difference between therapy dogs, service dogs, and emotional support dogs?
Good question! The names sound very similar, but there are some key differences. Service dogs are specifically trained to help people with disabilities do everyday tasks. They have such rigorous training and perform such vital tasks for their owners that they are protected under the American Disabilities Act (ADA) and have many legal rights.
Emotional support dogs have a lot of the same responsibilities as therapy dogs, but they are generally only meant for a few specific humans. They are exceptionally good at helping people with depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems, and they have some – but not all rights – that service dogs have. To be considered an emotional support animal, a licensed doctor or therapist has to write a prescription saying that the dog is necessary for that individual’s health and well-being.
Unlike emotional support dogs and service dogs, therapy dogs generally aren’t trained for one specific owner. Usually people who own therapy dogs volunteer their dogs to help people in hospitals, nursing homes, in-home care for adults and children, and disaster areas. Their training is specifically to give comfort and love, and they don’t have the same rights as service dogs covered under the ADA.
How do therapy dogs help people?
Interacting with therapy dogs has benefits all across the board. On the physical side, it triggers “happy” hormones, reduces pain, and lowers blood pressure. It also lifts depression and boredom and encourages self-confidence and socialization. Therapy dogs can improve focusing skills and help patients in physical therapy with faster recovery time and improved motor skills.
Can any dog be a therapy dog?
The answer to that is both yes and no. Any breed of dog can produce awesome service animals, but some breeds are more consistent than others. Labradors, border collies, corgis, dachshunds, beagles, golden retrievers, pugs, and poodles are some of the standard breeds for therapy dogs because they often have even, calm temperaments.
That said, the most important factor is a dog’s individual temperament. Some dogs are just too excitable and energetic to be good service dogs, and even with the right training, their temperament wouldn’t work as a service animal.
What personality traits are best in a therapy dog?
Certain personality traits are essential for therapy dogs to help people they visit. To be a good therapy dog, your dog needs to be:
- Calm: There is a lot of stimulation in most environments that need therapy dogs, so your dog needs to be calm most of the time. That means sitting patiently while getting petted and loved on, even when the people petting and loving aren’t being as gentle as the dog would like.
- Gentle: Being gentle is another crucial characteristic for therapy dogs. Some dogs are born with a naturally gentle temperament, but some dogs become gentler with age. Having a gentle mouth is a must (especially around children), but that behavior can be learned through training if necessary.
- Confident: Good therapy dogs should be confident enough to go up to people that they don’t know. Therapy dogs often spend time around unfamiliar people, smells, equipment, and noises. Additionally, the people therapy dogs visit sometimes have unfamiliar movements and a lack of coordination. These environmental factors could upset some dogs, but a good therapy dog will have the confidence to be calm and loving no matter the environment.
- Well-mannered: Having good manners is a little bit of temperament and a little bit of training. Any dog can learn good manners through obedience training, but a good therapy dog will have a naturally obedient disposition and will want to use his manners even without an incentive.
- Quiet: Therapy dogs are naturally quiet and don’t get overly excited. Of course, all dogs bark and communicate through grunts and whines, but a good therapy dog will be quiet most of the time.
- Responsive but non-reactive: When a dog is responsive, that means that he seeks out and responds positively to attention and love. Sometimes when that attention is more aggressive than he prefers, he needs to be non-reactive and either remove himself from the attention or endure it patiently.
- People-loving: Probably the most important service dog characteristic is that he loves people. He needs to love being touched and meeting new people all the time. It’s ok if he loves other dogs as well, but when he’s working as a therapy dog, he needs to be able to ignore other dogs and focus on the people he’s helping.
Temperament and training are key factors to a dog’s success as a therapy animal, but potentially more important is that the dog needs to want to serve as a therapy animal, too. If your dog shows no interest in helping those outside of your family, he probably won’t do very well as a therapy dog.
If you are interested and feel your dog would be a good fit as an emotional support or therapy dog, contact us today to begin that process by enrolling in our emotional support animal training or therapy dog training and certification program.
