Quote:
Originally posted by JoJo
Question.......Is there a protest portion of this evaluation?!!  What's up with these evaluators? You would think that they would really appreciate a well mannered, well behaved dog who "tolerates" THEM!!! They need to try and evaluate me..........I would NOT pass!
JoJo |
Chill. The thing is that some of the patients that your dog will see may not reasonable in their behaviour towards dogs. Others may be reasonable towards dogs but are in fragile health and would be injured by an over-exuberent dog.
Fair is good, but I would much rather an evaluator were overly harsh and failed a dog that could later be retrained and pass than if one were too nice to a dog and did not really push a dog to find out its tolerance to stress. And if an evaluator perceives a possible weakness, the right thing to do is to apply MORE of that kind of stress to check it out.
It is the health and trust of vulnerable people that is at stake here. That and the reputation of therapy dogs. Not the dogs and certainly not the pride of their owners.