What Exactly Is A Therapy Dog

[piggynose]

And how are they trained?

[pixie374]

It depends... they are for elderly people, people.with dementia, anxiety, autism, etc. etc...

[spathiphyllum]

A therapy dog is a dog that's been specifically trained to provide affection and comfort to someone, usually someone who is distressed or facing a hard time, such as a cancer patient.

I'm not sure if the dog knows that it's offering affection, but they are trained to act certain ways around certain people to allow the person to feel comforted.

[spathiphyllum]

A common place to see a therapy dog would be a nursing home, or a childrens hospital

[Buenchico]

Links to two relevant charities:
http://www.tdn.org.uk/

https://petsastherapy.org/

[pixie374]

I took my smallest dog to two ladies with disabilities yesterday teatime. She is not officially trained , but loves people. They all loved her.

[Toorak]

Another interesting project:

https://dementiadog.org/

[sherrardk]

My kids’ high school has ‘emotional support’ dogs (but I think it’s just an excuse for the staff to have doggy day care) :)

[piggynose]

Amazing animals

[hereIam]

Worth their weight in gold.