We’ve been talking about therapy dogs over on the WAHM.com boards this week, started off by someone wondering about training her puppy to visit in hospitals and nursing homes — what’s involved, how soon she should start, and so on.

That inspired me to update and expand my post called “Is There a therapy Dog in the House,” an introduction to the concept — and to write a new post, here, to talk a little bit more about the kind of training it takes to be a therapy dog.

It doesn’t take an obedience champion to be a good therapy dog — and it doesn’t matter what size or what breed of dog you have. Temperament of the dog is the single most important factor, so therapy dogs are screened and tested before joining a visiting program.

Although the actual formal training that is required of the dog-and-handler team will depend on the program and location, “company manners” are essential. A good starting point for interested dog-owners would be the Canine Good Citizenship (American Kennel Club) or Canine Good Neighbour (Canadian Kennel Club) training program. These are non-competitive evaluation programs that are all about good manners, both at home and out in the community.

Testing for both the AKC and CKC programs aims to evaluate the relationship between the dog and its handler, the dog’s social interactions with both people and other dogs, and obedience to a few standard commands.

No fancy tricks are required, and the evaluator is not looking for the kind of precise response that would be expected in the obedience show-ring. This is a test for your average well-manner family pet — for companion animals — and it is normally judged on a “pass” or “needs more work” basis.

There are some slight differences between the Canadian and American tests, but here is the basic line-up of tasks to be performed:

1. Accepting a friendly stranger
2. Patiently sitting for petting: a test for shyness and resentment
3. Appearance & grooming: showing the owner’s care & sense of responsibility
4. Out for a walk: loose-lead walking shows the handler’s control of the dog
5. Walking through a crowd: the dog moves through a crowd under handler control without showing over-excitement or distress
6. Commands: sit, down, stay, come: this illustrates that the dog has been trained and responds well to its handler/owner
7. Praise/interactions: shows the dog’s relationship with its owner and that it can be calmed down easily
8. Reaction to passing dogs
9. Distractions: shows that the dog is confident when faced with common distractions (e.g. an object dropped loudly on the floor, shouting, etc.)
10. Supervised separation: this test shows that the dog can maintain its training & good manners if left with someone other than the handler.

Many people who hope to enter a therapy dog program with their dogs will start out by completing a Good Citizenship/Good Neighbour program. Therapy Dogs International, one of the larger certification organizations, adds a few refinements to the CGC test — dogs can’t wear choke collars; greyhounds don’t have to sit; wheelchairs are used as distractions, etc. — but essentially the testing requirements are almost the same as outlined briefly above.

At the very least, training to the Canine Good Citizenship or Canine Good Neighbour level of achievement as a dog-and-handler team can only improve your relationship. Your well-mannered dog will be welcomed by friends and family, in the course of his daily life, as a sheer joy to be around — and well on his way to a richly rewarding volunteer job as a nursing-home visiting dog!