Animals, Program, Pet Therapy Program available at Animal Rescue League

Animal Assisted Therapy

To become a therapy dog and visit hospitals, nursing homes, schools, etc., your dog must first be certified through a therapy dog organization. The two organizations working in Iowa are Therapy Dogs International and Delta Society. Both organizations base their certification tests on the AKC Canine Good Citizen test with some added components to test your dog in certain therapy related situations. You can read more about the individual test items at: www.tdi-dog.org and www.deltasociety.org.

There is a minimum age limit to be certified as a therapy dog of one year of age. Also, your dog must be current on all vaccinations and have obtained a city or county dog license where applicable. Most cities in metropolitan areas have their own licensing requirements and you can contact your individual city for details.

If you feel you and your dog need some help with preparing for either the CGC or therapy dog testing, the ARL offers a seven week CGC class, with the actual CGC test given the last week of the session. Although we do not offer therapy dog certification at the ARL, our class is designed to cover most items on those tests as well. If you feel a class would help you and your dog, please visit our events section and sign up for the next available CGC class. All CGC classes are currently taught on Wednesday evenings at Urban Pet Hospital in Urbandale by a CGC Evaluator. Once your dog is certified as a therapy dog, we can help you locate facilities that would like to have visits.

For more information contact Gloria Shipman at 515/262-9503 x118 or at gshipman@arl-iowa.org.

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