Hello all, I'm not sure which forum is best but since our lad is a pup I thought I'd post here I feel drawn to working with Taiyo as a therapy dog in the future and am wondering if anyone has any advice. I read through a thread by Charlie I believe it was (I'm on mobile or I'd double check!) and it does sound so rewarding, albeit difficult at times. I'm wondering how I should best go about preparing him for that kind of work. I suppose first step is asking PAT but I respect all of your advice and experience Taiyo is only 8 weeks old so it's very early days, but I'm a planner! lol I wonder if schools or hospitals would let me visit when he's had all his jabs, or if it's off limits for non-affiliated people.
I think you'll probably find that you'll have to meet certain requirements which mean he'll need to be several years old before becoming a PAT dog - thing like no mouthing, no jumping up, no taking food, completely steady to potentially scary noises or movements etc etc. All things that wouldn't be reasonable to expect a young puppy to do. I suppose it depends what sort of people you'd be dealing with, though, and in what sort of environment.
Thanks Snowbunny. I believe PAT requires minimum 9 months of age but never having had a Lab, I don't know what 9 months is like for them. I suppose different breeds are at various stages by that age? And I suppose each dog is different too but I imagine there are similarities at each stage in their lives.
9 months is smack in the middle of adolescence for Labs. I was lucky with mine and it wasn't too bad. Others have a much, much harder time. I certainly couldn't have trusted them not to jump up at people then, though.
Ah ok, good to know! I think maybe we threw ourselves into the deep end having our first puppy be a Lab from the sounds of it My only other experience of having a dog at a youngish age was our 4 month rescue but she was really easy to handle (not a Lab, after DNA testing ended up being a Chi/Doxie/Pug/Poodle lol). I will look forward to the day when it may be a possibility
Hah, well, my first puppy was a Lab ... and I had TWO of them! If I wasn't a bit mad before, I certainly was afterwards
Harley is 3 years old and often comes to work with me and has done since she was about 9 months old. I work with a lot of families and children, several of whom have additional needs. Harley has been used for respite with the children by doing dog agility with the children running her. She also comes for walks with some of my young people as a reward to them for achieving a positive change in their lives. She is amazing with children - won't jump up at them, won't take things out of their hands etc. We are still working at jumping up at adults, but this is only usually with people she knows. She isn't a PAT dog yet but we are looking to get her assessed in the next few months. I look forward to hearing about your journey if you decide to do this
It may depend upon which organisation you want to join but what barred us when we looked at this a while ago was the stipulation that the dog must not use either a head-collar (like a Halti) or a harness. It's collar and lead only and no pulling whatsoever. So, if I were you, I'd work on your basic obedience, loose-lead walking, and general socialisation (exposure to lots of different people - different ages, both genders, people with hats, people with facial hair, people with walking sticks, tall people, short people, etc etc). Good luck
Thanks for the advice, good to know! That is very stringent, I shall have to see how we get on over the coming year(s). I don't really like the idea of just using a collar, even if he never pulls. It just feels safer all around to use a harness as a backup just in case.
This is something that I have been thinking about. Storm is only 9 weeks. I'm not even sure they have PAT dogs where I live. My son was treated at a hospital in Southampton for Leukaemia and once every 2 weeks 2 golden retrievers would come round and they really brightened his day!
That's so heartwarming! I hope your son is doing well? This is something I would like to do, if my lab's temperment suits. I don't see why it wouldn't though, he's completely unphased by any and every one, regardless of shape/age/disability, everyone gets treated the same - wags and licks if they want it! I suppose it'll be mostly up to us to get the training sorted. Never too early to start though, especially with the loose lead walking (a work in progress )
