Dogs can be trained to provide comfort and affection to certain people in need. A therapy dog may be trained to help people in nursing homes and hospital settings and much more. They may be trained to help disabled people.
Therapy dogs should have a friendly temperament. They are usually gentle in nature, patient and confident. The Poodle may be a good dog for this type of work. The Poodle is known for it's intelligence and pleasant personality. Is your Poodle social? A therapy dog should enjoy interacting with people. Is your Poodle well-mannered and adaptable to new situations? Some things that are important for a trained therapy dog are:
Accepting a friendly stranger: the therapy dog is usually trained to allow unfamiliar people to make physical contact with it. For example, children in particular, and also adults may enjoy safely petting the trained therapy dogs. Some therapy dogs can actually perform small tricks during their visits.
The therapy dog is often trained by it's handler to sit and stay in place and to come when called. The dog should behave politely around other dogs.
The dog may be tested around medical equipment, such as a wheelchair or walker, or other medical devices which you might normally see at a medical facility. They may check the dog's reactions to these things during training.
Trained therapy dogs are sometimes used for the following:
To help the disabled.
Trained seeing eye dogs help the semi to permanently blind person.
Some dogs are actually trained to know when a person is going to have a seizure.
Sometimes children with difficulties will relate well to a dog or cat.
Therapy dogs are sometimes used in nursing homes for the elderly.
Poodles can even become excellent "therapy" dogs because of their affectionate, gentle nature.
You may wish to read The Toy Poodle as a Therapy Dog: "Toy Poodles are especially well suited to pet therapy work. DOES YOUR POOCH HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?"
