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.

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?

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!