Toby's First Therapy Evaluation

To pick up where I left off in the last flashback: I went online and found the Delta Society website, and Delta's local affiliate in Des Moines, Paws & Effect. They appeared to be the only animal therapy training and support group of any kind in our area. Their next training wasn't posted, so I got in touch with the director, Nicole Shumate. She promised to let me know when their next Pet Partners weekend workshop would be held in Des Moines. It appeared that it would be early the next spring, so I decided to go ahead on my own until then, making my own facility contacts and visiting wherever possible.

My husband discovered the Intermountain Therapy Animals website as he was searching for therapy animal information. They are another therapy animal organization operating in Utah, and have developed the Reading Education Assistance Dog (R) (R.E.A.D.) program. I was intrigued by this program, as I had heard of children reading to animals in schools and libraries. I pored over the website myself, watching their inspiring online videos and learning about the program. I ordered their training manual and began teaching myself how to run a R.E.A.D. program in libraries and schools. I could not become an official R.E.A.D. practitioner until I had registered my animals and myself with an organization like Delta, but that didn't stop me from contacting my children's school to see if I could work with any of their students.

One of the special education reading resource teachers asked if I would come read with one of her third grade students, a boy I'll call Bobby. Each Tuesday I would bring Toby to her classroom, and we would spend the last 15 minutes of Bobby's resource time sitting on beanbag chairs and reading a book of his choice. He worked very hard for Toby, and we helped him sound out the words and read with expression. At the end of the school year Toby and I visited his regular classroom and presented him with a certificate. (More about Bobby another time.) His teacher said he had made great improvements in his reading that year, and Toby and I hoped we had been a part of his growth.

Back to waiting for training: I happened to meet a woman in a grocery store when I was socializing Toby one autumn day, who told me she had her registered therapy dog -- a golden retriever -- in the car outside. We started talking, and she said she had tested with Therapy Dogs International (TDI) in Des Moines, and it only cost a few dollars. No prior training required. That sounded great to me, so I looked them up online and saw that their next evaluation was to be held in November. I talked it over with my husband, and we decided it made sense for Toby and me to go ahead and get tested and registered with TDI, so I could be an official therapy dog handler right away. I figured I could wait and test the cats with Delta, as TDI only tested dogs.

After talking it over with our obedience trainer, however, I realized that TDI does not allow multiple registrations: if I registered with them, I could not train and participate in the R.E.A.D. program. I could start my own "Tail Waggin' Tutors" program under the guidance of TDI, but it doesn't include animals other than dogs, training, or a local support group. I decided to take Toby to the TDI testing as a spectator rather than a participant, just to see what the test was like.

We went on a Sunday morning. There were quite a few teams there at the dog training facility where it was being held. I spoke with the person at the registration desk, and discovered that the test included elements of both the AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test and the therapy dog test. I could take the whole test (there was no separating the parts) and accept just the CGC for $10 if I wanted to. I was hungry for any kind of validation to take into the facilities with us, so decided to go ahead and participate in the evaluation. Luckily, I had brought Toby's brush, so I could give him a quick spiff up before it started. Grooming is part of the evaluation.

I won't go into any details right now about the test itself, but I will say Toby and I passed with flying colors. I was so proud of him! We got our paperwork and ordered the certificate and collar tag from the AKC. Even though we weren't a registered team yet, I could at least say that we had passed an evaluation for therapy and earned the CGC. When it came down to it, what we did and how we behaved in our visits mattered more than how many tags or certificates we had. We comported ourselves as confident professionals, and our clients were content to wait for our credentials.