Therapy dog training program

[Anonymous]

Hi - I am thinking about getting my dog trained as a therapy dog - any advice from anyone that has BTDT? I have no idea how to get started or what the requirements are but will be checking google on that. Wondering if anyone has any real world experience. TIA!

[Anonymous]

You’re going to do the training yourself, right? Does your dog have the right temperament? Therapy dogs need to be fairly bombproof in terms of reactivity.

I would start with getting the Canine Good Citizen certification and taking some beginner obedience for competition classes. I believe there’s one specific class that one of certification organizations requires, but I’ve only heard about it so I don’t know much. When I looked at testing for one type of certification, it contained everything required for the CGC, plus some more elements.

Does the AKC website have information?

[Anonymous]

They have to be chosen, as particularly smart / receptive to training. You can't just get your pet trained to do this stuff. It starts as soon as they're puppies.