Willie TDI

Keymaster

Thanks Guys!

Vally,

“Therapy Dogs International (TDI^®) is a volunteer organization dedicated to regulating, testing and registration of
therapy dogs and their volunteer handlers for the purpose of visiting nursing homes, hospitals, other institutions and
wherever else therapy dogs are needed.”

Therapy Dogs International (TDI®) was founded in 1976 by Elaine Smith.
The First TDI Therapy Dog Visit took place in 1976 in New Jersey with five handlers and six dogs. Five of the dogs were German Shepherd Dogs and one was a Collie.
TDI was formed so that dogs could be tested, certified, insured, and registered as volunteer Therapy Dogs.

Willie will begin by visiting the same nursing home that Chance visited. It is the easiest thing for him to start with. But TDI has many other facilities it partners with:

Assisted Living, Children Reading to Dogs (Tail Waggin’ Tutors), DSRD (Disaster Stress Relief Dogs), Home Visits, Hospice, Hospitals (Children’s), Hospitals (General), Libraries, Nursing Homes, Schools and Shelters.

If I wasn’t working I would love to take the specialized training for Disaster Stress Relief Dogs. You have to travel to disaster locations and that would be a tough thing to do with a big dog. These dogs are trained in many situations such as traveling on public transportation and working in hectic situations.

See pictures of the work TDI dogs have done at disasters:

http://www.tdi-dog.org/OurPrograms.aspx?Page=DSRD+%28Disaster+Stress+Relief+Dogs%29

But in the future I would like to take him to the library and school, they are in our backyard. I also think he would like doing home visits, something Chance also did. A visit can be anything, TDI is not restrictive about that. But if you want to be officially visiting, you must be wearing your badge and it must be documented by the facility. Each time we make a visit we are covered by insurance.

Linda,

I’m sorry you had to give up the training, it really is a fun job for your dog. You are right, the trainer has to be properly trained to help with this kind of specialized behavior from a dog. It’s not purely obedience, but cultivating a desire to be friendly with people. The obedience is only there to help you control your dog in all situations.

Willie is just 3, merely a teenager considering he is a Giant Schnauzer! He has always loved to be around people and is always a happy dog. I have found the right trainers to help me. Being a big friendly dog, obedience is critical, but it’s not how you train a dog to do therapy work!

I’ve had a couple of trainers in the past that trained obedience and they made their dogs fearful, you could see it in their eyes and behavior. One trainer told Mark and me that Cassie would never pass the Canine Good Citizen test! But the independent CGC tester that came to administer the test did pass Cassie and told us “you have a happy and exuberant dog, congratulations!”

So training a dog for therapy involves building trust and teamwork. A dog that trusts you will gladly work with you as part of a team because you do things that are fun! The more work you do, the more eager the dog is to go along.

Out of all the dogs that tested yesterday, all but three small dogs made it to the end and passed. The small dogs couldn’t perform the required obedience. During certain parts of the test they had to sit and down on command. These small dogs that wouldn’t do those things were eliminated. The evaluator said that the Come test was the most important test. It must start from a down. If you can’t get your dog to lie down you can’t complete the test. It was heartbreaking to watch the owners being bumped out of the test.

The examiner, however, seemed to ignore some things with Willie that I wouldn’t have let get away. So I think perhaps that they examine the “whole package” and not just the individual elements. I’ll tell you why I think that.

Taking that possibility into consideration, Willie was the dog who clearly had the most desire to visit with the “residents” and was very friendly. You could see the difference, he was enjoying it! Many of the other dogs seemed likeable enough, but didn’t seem to know what to do when visiting a patient.

So one of the tougher tests involved a simulated nursing home hallway. You and your dog must walk through a group of residents who have crutches, wheelchairs and walkers. One resident is screaming that they don’t like dogs and trying to hit you with their walker. They are all actively getting in your way so that you have to maneuver through them. Once you are through that maze, you encounter a staff person who drops something big and noisy. Yesterday it was a fake flowerpot with fake flowers. Throughout this you are to control your dog and he may not appear extremely skittish or react aggressively. Your goal is to get through this hallway quickly.

Most dogs jumped back startled when she dropped the pot and then moved on with some urging by their owner. Willie saw the flowerpot drop and walked over to briefly smell it. Then he gently moved to the “staff” person and looked up at her wagging his tail as if to say “Are you ok? Do you need me to help you?” I saw no urgency to keep moving at that point, which was probably not a good move on my part considering the goal of the test was to get through the hallway quickly. But really, this is something I would allow him to do if it was a real visit! I could have lost points for stopping like that during the test, but for some reason I didn’t. I guess I thought he needed some reward for all the crazy things that were happening.

Well, I thought he wasn’t going to pass, but he did. Today we took a walk over to the nursing home. I can’t go inside yet, but we sat outside with a woman and her mother. Willie had a brief visit with them and the woman brought him some water. Perhaps once I get my paperwork done we can go visit her in the room!

my best, patrice

Details