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Therapy Dogs
 After
Joy was released from Loving Paws Assistance Dogs in December 2001, I decided to
register her as a therapy dog with Therapy Dogs Inc. We completed the
registration process and were accepted by Therapy Dogs, Inc. in
January 2002. Joy became the first registered therapy dog in the Helena, MT area
and was one of nine registered therapy dogs in MT. Joy was an immediate success
as a therapy dog when I took her to visit hospitals, nursing homes, churches,
schools, home care services and various groups. In December 2002, Joy won the
local Pet Hero of the year Award from the American Red Cross for her work as a
therapy dog.
Click here for more info.
Buddy
In June I was looking for a small lap dog
to accompany Joy as many patients wanted to hold the dog and 
Joy was too big for that. Luckily, I found Buddy, a purebred Shih Tzu. His
family of 6 years was looking for a good home for him since they now had a 19
month old child who was a bit rough with Buddy. I went to “interview” Buddy to
see if he could possibly work as a therapy dog with Joy. I was immediately
impressed and took Buddy home that night for a trial over the weekend. He turned
out to be a natural therapy dog and I soon had him registered as well. He makes
a great team with Joy, is such a sweetie and loves nothing better than a lap to
sit in.
 While
Joy, Buddy and I worked for a couple of months as a therapy dog team, it became
quickly apparent to me that we could not fulfill all the needs in the Helena
area for a therapy dogs. It was then that I applied to Therapy Dogs Inc. to be a
Tester/Observer. I tested my first team in May, 2002. Since then I have tested
several teams and helped one of the team members, Kim Gould, also become a
registered T/O with TDInc. Not only is Kim a therapy dog handler and
T/O for TDInc., she also owns Rocky Mountain Dog Training .
There are several other Montana TDogger
teams in the registration process. Even with this many therapy dog teams, we
cannot meet all of the needs in the community, but we try!
In addition to visiting nursing homes, hospitals, assisted living homes, etc.,
the Montana TDoggers have a school program, READ To Me!, which consists
of t aking our dogs to
elementary classes and letting the kids read to them. Numerous similar reading
programs have demonstrated that therapy dogs can be instrumental in improving
the literacy skills of children in an effective, unique and, most importantly,
fun manner. This is especially true for children who are below their peers in
reading skills as they are often intimidated by reading aloud in a group, often
have lower self-esteem, and view reading as a chore. But, these same children
can easily feel comfortable reading to a dog. A canine reading program also
benefits the child physiologically by increasing the positive effects of
relaxation.
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