About Canadian Therapy Dogs Support Services
“Am I allowed to pat your dog?”
This is often the first question people have when they meet a therapy dog team.
Our answer is always a wholehearted “yes!"
What is the difference between a therapy dog and a service dog?
Service dogs have been carefully trained to perform tasks for a single individual (think seeing eye dogs) and they only work with that individual. Well-trained service dogs should ignore all other people and dogs when performing their jobs and should not be touched by others. Service dogs also have legal access to anywhere their handlers need to go.
Therapy dogs are well-behaved dogs who love people and whose job it is to interact with everyone around them. Therapy dogs can only go any place regular dogs can - unless of course they are invited!
In recent years the benefits of interacting with a therapy dog have become more widely known and we are being invited into more and more places. Science is now showing us what dog owners have always known. Patting a dog makes you feel better! Talking with a totally non-judgemental dog, who is very good at listening, is extremely therapeutic. When humans pat a dog, blood pressure goes down, heartrate slows and the feel-good hormones are released into the blood stream. In fact, these changes are seen in both the person and the dog.
Canadian Therapy Dogs Support Services
Our teams can be found in a variety of settings. We might be providing love and comfort to seniors in residences and long term care facilities. We might be found in schools at exam and vaccination days to destress students of all ages. We visit in libraries mingling with the public and we are very popular in business settings during mental health awareness events.
Our teams are often called to help in the Ottawa Courthouse. Some visit with courthouse staff to provide love and smiles. Some attend specialty courts like Mental Health Court, Drug Treatment Court and Youth Mental Health Court. Teams meet with the participants outside the courtroom and then attend the court sessions. In the courtroom the dogs may respectfully mingle with the participants, providing a soft head to pat and comfort where needed.
Some of our very special dogs assist with persons who have to testify in court. Many of these persons are vulnerable individuals and/or children. These special dogs stay with that person each time they are in the courthouse, from pretrial preparations through to their testimony.
“Having a dog by our side was a great comfort and reassurance, and helped us get through the stressful court proceedings.” That is how one family expressed the value of the therapy team to them in a recent court situation.
