[nagdu] Therapy dog

Sun Jun 28 23:03:33 UTC 2015

The agency that requires therapy and service dogs to be completely separate entities is therapy dogs international. The other larger therapy dog organization, pet partners, does not have this requirement and is happy to accommodate people who are blind if they wish to utilize their dog guides as therapy animals. 

With pet partners, their certification process is rather in-depth, more information about them can be found at www.deltasociety.org if interested.
Shanna 
Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 28, 2015, at 4:58 PM, Cindy Ray via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Well, I can't remember the name of the agency; I will have to ask again next
> time I go to the hospital to volunteer as a chaplain. They are one of the
> bigger ones in the country I think. They said that the dog would have to
> have retired as a guide because it would confuse the dog if it switched
> between guiding and a role of therapy dog. I kind of suggested that this
> might be my decision and that I thought he was plenty capable of telling the
> difference, and they got just a little snarky with me.
> Cindy
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Applebutter Hill
> via nagdu
> Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2015 4:53 PM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> Cc: Applebutter Hill
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Therapy dog
> 
> Even with the harness off, it's still a guide dog, and harnesses are not
> necessary for service dog accessibility to apply, if they're trying to claim
> that. Who are they anyway to tell you what functions your service dog can or
> cannot perform? Are they guide dog trainers? This just sounds like prejudice
> to me.
> Donna & Hunter
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cindy Ray via
> nagdu
> Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2015 4:21 PM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> Cc: Cindy Ray
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Therapy dog
> 
> Except that the therapy dog program that refused me the opportunity to
> certify my dog said that it confuses the dogs if they are doing both guide
> work and therapy work. For instance, in a hospital, you would take the
> harness off and let the person love on them or whatever, and at that point
> the dog would not be a guide. Now, theoretically, in the read program you
> would be taking off the harness. Of course, I'm just playing devil's
> advocate there because I think it should all be a no brainer, and with those
> kind of credentials and a well trained dog I don't see the difference
> either.
> Cindy
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jody Ianuzzi via
> nagdu
> Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2015 10:31 AM
> To: the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List
> Cc: Jody Ianuzzi
> Subject: [nagdu] Therapy dog
> 
> Hello Karla and all,
> 
> I have been thinking of Karla's post and I have a few ideas I would like to
> share.
> 
> First of all and most important is the issue of therapy dog.  The purpose of
> getting a therapy dog certification is to be able to take a dog places where
> a pet dog is not allowed.  A guide dog already has this certification.  To
> be a READ dog the dog sits quietly and pays attention to the child who is
> reading. 
> A guide dog would do this.    Therefore the whole idea of getting the 
> certification is totally unnecessary.
> 
> As for safety, I love the way schools always throw that out as a barrier to
> anything they don't like.  Some schools even say a blind child can't use a
> white cane for safety reasons.  This is just hysteria to put up another
> barrier.
> 
> As for Karla's qualifications, they should be thrilled to have a PhD and
> retired professor assisting with their students.  Instead they don't
> understand how a blind person can help a child read.  Really?  Give me a
> break.  When my children were learning to read they would read out loud to
> me and when they came to a word they didn't know I would have them spell it
> and we would sound it out together.  Again, the school is putting up another
> barrier.
> 
> So lets remove all the barriers and what do we have left?  Plain and simple 
> prejudice.   If it were me I would first decide if I really wanted to be in 
> such an environment or if there were a better place to volunteer where I
> would be appreciated like the public library reading program.  If I decided
> to fight the prejudice I would first  talk to the person putting up all the
> barriers and I would tell them exactly how I felt discriminated against by
> their behavior.  If they still insisted on their position I would go to the
> next level up all the way to the Superintendent of schools and if they still
> closed the door to me I would contact the media.
> 
> Just my two cents but really the therapy dog certification is not the issue
> here.
> 
> JODY ??
> thunderwalker321 at gmail.com
> 
> "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." 
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> om
> 
> 
> 
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