While dog training itself is a tricky affair and requires significant experience and knowhow to be done right, training a therapy dog is exceptionally daunting at several levels. Because your dog might aid treatment at hospitals and homes for the impaired, it is important that they be perfectly trained and effective at their job. Moreover, therapy dogs in most countries require certain forms of certification from local authorities. Here are a few ways do dog training intended for therapy.
1. Keep your dog healthy
One of the most important aspects of therapy dog training is to ensure that your dog oes not get affected by illnesses and develops a strong immune system. Because a lot of therapy dogs bring joy to hospitals, your dog should be able to work in such conditions without falling ill.
2. Encourage your dog to like company
A great therapy dog is one that can light up anyone’s mood by being vibrant, enthusiastic and amiable. Therefore, your dog training should make it want and appreciate human contact.
3. Train your dog to trust strangers
This is not something that your dog will learn on its own – you have to introduce it to strangers every day who are routinely good to it, so that the dog does not get impatient or stressed when it is brought in the company of people it has to tend to. This is an important tip on how to train dogs.
4. Follow the requirements of typical institutions
Most institutions require your dog through to through testing before it is allowed a profession of being a therapy animal. When you do your research on how to train dogs for therapy, make sure that you keep in touch with what conditions your dog needs to satisfy and what commands it should be able to carry out.