For several months Kanzu has been in training to become a Therapy Dog. Therapy dogs volunteer with their owners to visit settings such as schools, hospitals and nursing homes. They are different from Service Dogs who are specially trained to perform specific tasks to help a person with a disability. Kanzu had participated unofficially in some of Linda’s speech therapy sessions with her speech clients. The children especially love that Linda has used her speech therapy skills to teach Kanzu to ‘speak’. It was a natural transition then to make his therapy visits official.

Many organizations provide testing and accreditation for therapy dogs. We chose to affiliate with Love on a Leash because there is an active local chapter headed by Elicia Casey and Chris Ashton of Enlighten Dogs who we know well through their work with Ema.

In the fall of last year Kanzu took a training class with Elicia and Chris. In December he passed a repeat Canine Good Citizen Test and additional observation and testing by a Therapy Dog Evaluator to make sure that Kanzu could handle situations he might encounter in therapy settings such as; sudden loud or strange noises, people with canes, walkers or wheelchairs, or unusual styles of walking or moving, etc.

We then embarked on our 10 supervised therapy visits. Kanzu has had a good time visiting schools and classrooms for emotionally, physically and developmentally disabled children. He has been a great sport and very patient with the children who we have to watch carefully at times. We still laugh at the one rather large girl had to be redirected when she started to climb onto Kanzu’s back and asked, “Can I ride him”. (At least she asked!) Kanzu enjoys doing his tricks for the kids, including talking, bowing, shaking and giving high fives. But we think he likes his visits to the local retirement home the best. There he has some special friends who really enjoy him and he gets to just lie down and get petted.

Kanzu’s supervised visits are now completed and he is a Certified Pet Therapy Dog with Love on a Leash. Kanzu and Linda will be able to do visits to any facility that requests Kanzu’s services. After 50 visits Kanzu will be eligible for the new AKC therapy Dog title (THD) that was established recently to acknowledge the contributions of therapy dogs who have worked to improve the lives of the people they have visited.

For more information about Therapy Dogs Click here/p>

For more information about Love On A Leash
http://www.loveonaleash.org/