Sara is now 6. She was certified by TDI at 2 1/2 years old. Our first few visits were with a small group with some experience in therapy work. For several months after that we visited with a friend and her deaf TDI Dalmatian, Trevor. Trevor is now retired but he was a very good therapy dog. Because of his deafness, he was scheduled to be put down by his breeders. My friend was a vet tech and asked the breeders to give her a chance with Trevor. She trained him with hand signals and he had a long and successful career as a therapy dog. :) My point in all this is that help from experienced therapy dog teams was very valuable to me. It takes a while to learn the ropes.
We've been visiting a convalescent home regularly for over 3 years now. At first much of the staff was afraid of Sara simply because she's a Rottie. They soon fell in love with her and now they look forward to seeing her as much as the residents! I was chastised at the volunteer banquet this year for not bringing Sara along!! Occasionally a new hire is afraid of Sara, but they are quickly educated. ;) Last year, the home was carefully scrutinized by the state for months over some record keeping matters. I think we met every nursing home inspector/official in the state!
Those are the days you hope the dog is really "on". Sara never let me down! We got a couple of raised eyebrows, "what, a Rottweiler??", but they were won over. ;)
Amazingly the residents have never been afraid of her because she's a Rottie. Some were a little taken aback because of her size, but not because of her breed. The home we visit is not a retirement home, but a home for the very ill. Most of them don't watch much television and haven't seen all the Rottie hype. I suppose they don't know to be afraid of Rotties. ;) We are almost always well received by residents' family members as well. They are thrilled that the facility has a therapy dog program.
Therapy work has been very rewarding for me and Sara loves it. When we get within few blocks of the facility she starts whining like crazy with excitement! We get pretty attached to the residents and when somebody dies it's tough. I can only think of about 4 residents who have lived there the whole time we've been visiting. :( It's just part of the "job".
We visit other facilities occasionally and attend special events. Sara also pulls her cart in local parades. It's not really a part of her therapy work, but it's a wonderful educational and PR opportunity, and besides, she is CRAZY about parades. Talk about a doggy grin! :D The local nursing homes usually bring a few of the residents out and they love seeing "their" Sara in the parade! :)
[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: SarasMom ]