Certified Therapy Dog Training in Virginia

At our dog training lessons in Virginia, we offer certified Therapy Dog Courses for dogs of all sizes, ages, and breeds!

Of course we love our cats, hamsters, rabbits, chinchillas, goats, chickens, and any other pets we have. But only one pet has been ever deemed consistently as “man’s best friend” and that is our dogs. In these loving and loyal creatures, one can find comfort, love and companionship. These are things that many people in confined living situations such as hospitals or assisted living homes often need. That is where therapy dogs come in.

Therapy animals serve to bring love, comfort and happiness to places ranging from hospitals to schools or universities. There are many cases where family and friends cannot seem to visit and connecting with a therapy dog often times fills that void. Scientific research has demonstrated that interaction with a therapy dog helps improve all facets of a patient including their mental, emotional and physical well being, which then results in a better and faster recovery. Some of the health benefits include decrease in stress and anxiety, blood pressure, and loneliness. In addition, contact with therapy animals creates an increase in socialization, level of fitness, and mental stimulation.

Do you have a loving dog who would make an amazing therapy dog? Therapy animals must absolutely adore human contact and excessive petting. Additionally, they must be comfortable staying one place regardless of whether it is the floor or a lap. No tricks are necessary, however, ability to follow basic obedience commands is a must. But the thing that distinguishes an ideal therapy dog is a gentle, loving and patient temperament.

If your dog fits the above description, you may not even need to undergo therapy dog training. To test them out, at our facility in Northern Virginia, we do the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen Testing and perform the tests with your dog before doing a formal evaluation. If they can successfully achieve all the objectives, head straight to evaluation!  We are certified Therapy Dog Trainers/Evaluators through TPU (Therapy Pets Unlimited). We provide extensive training to handlers and therapy dogs before pursuing certification.

Once you and your dog have undergone your necessary training, you must head to an evaluation. There are a few organization that only requires submission of a copy of AKC Canine Good Citizen certification and your application, however, a majority of organizations also require testing by members of their own organization. The evaluation includes your dog’s ability to accept a friendly stranger, sit politely for petting, an evaluation of appearance (is your dog well groomed), ability to stay in one place, and a few more skills. As the handler, throughout the evaluation, you will not expected to stand by as your dog performs skills. You should act proactively, as you would on the job, by foreseeing any misconduct. For example, if you enter a room with another dog, gently tell your dog there isn’t a need to bark rather than doing nothing or trying to calm them down after they’ve begun barking.

After you pass your test, you are required to submit a health evaluation done by your vet. The once you’ve register your therapy animal organization, you will officially have therapy dog certification and can serve your community freely!

If you are interested in your dog becoming a Certified Therapy dog, please contact us at info@offleashk9training.com or 571-252-5536

https:// www.offleashk9training.com

-Nick White
Owner/Founder
Off Leash K9 Training

About Off Leash K9 Training

My name is Nick White, I am the owner of Off-Leash K9 Training. I am a former US Marine Iraq War Veteran, and former US Secret Service, also, I currently have 12 locations in the United States. We specialize in basic obedience, advanced obedience, personal protection, and drug detection. About us: As you will see, our client list includes: NBA Star John Wall, UFC World Champion Jon "Bones" Jones, World Champion Boxer Roy Jones Jr, UFC Announcer Bruce Buffer, film star Ron Jeremy, 3x UFC Champion Rich "Ace" Franklin, WWF World Champion Iron Sheik, Kane Hodder ("Jason" from the Friday the 13th movies), the staff from the hit show "Operation Repo," and Elliot's dog from Elliot in the Morning on DC 101! See them in our highlight video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T17ZgrOc7k&list=UUv67Xn3BwFJgPLigquueb4A&index=5 We also had yahoo do a special on us, as well! http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/driven/dog-training-secrets-milit As you will see on our website, we are getting a lot of publicity and it's continually growing! We've had American Legion, US Military Veterans, NoVa Dog Magazine, Military Times Magazine, Smart CEO Magazine, and The Virginia and Maryland Dog Magazine do stories on us (just to name a few). You can see all of these articles if you go to our "About Us" page of website and scroll to the bottom. We are also the official trainers for ABC's "The Pet Show with Dr. Katy Nelson." Recently, we were named one of the top trainers in the world by the Dogington Post! There are over 400 videos of dogs we have trained on YouTube so you can see the amazing results we get verse us just tell you about it, so we would highly encourage you to check out our Youtube Channel and was some of the stuff we do! Thank you for your interest in our amazing training. -Nick

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