Annie's Dogs: Therapy Dog Training

Official Test #3 Obedience- Recall one at a time. Result: ✔️ All Passed Dogs could not do this prior to the course starting. All obedience is taught during the course. Next available therapy dog course is April 14-17, 9am-3pm, Ararat, $2000.

Official Test #3 Obedience -Loose lead walking, dogs infront, behind and at sides, your dog still needs to follow you not the other dogs. Result: ✔️ All Passed Obedience taught during the course. Participants could not do this prior to starting the course.

Official Test #3 Obedience- Leaving your dog to pat other dogs; your dog receiving pats calmly without you with them Result: ✔️ All Passed All obedience taught during the course.

Official Test # 3: Obedience- Impulse control Result: ✔️ All Passed A therapy dog's role is to bring joy and love to others. They can't do this without obedience. An elderly resident wants to be able to interact with your dog without the threat of a skin tear, or walk your dog without fear of being pulled over. A young child wants to approach your dog without being jumped on and pushed over, or to pat your dog without them going crazy. A staff member wants to be able to talk to your dog without over excitement leading to paws all over their work uniform. A sick person wants to have your dog being comfort without having your dog bump or push on their injured parts. And so the list continues. These examples show the importance of a therapy dog having manners, obedience and responding to their owners voice. My course does not require your dog to already do all of these things prior to starting. Instead, in 3 days I teach you the obedience required. Could any of the dogs this week do any of the obedience tasks before today? No. Yet here they are smashing them.

Official Test #2: Angry Man Result: ✔️ All Passed Why do I include this test? Because it would be a sad day to find out your dog reacts to intimidating situations when a child has a meltdown in your classroom, or on a school excursion when you meet a member of the public are acting intimidating, or a resident with dementia becomes aggressive. We need to know that our dogs won't react, no matter how a person is behaving. That's not to say they need to want to go and play with the person, just to say they need to trust you to protect them rather than feeling the need to protect themselves or defend you. Importantly, I never include this test early on during the week. I wait until we have done a lot of prior work on trust and relationship with our dogs to help prepare them to turn to us during it rather than hold their own. If you watch this video you'll also see people get up and leave, this is because behind the camera I'm telling them to leave. I have seen their dogs initial reaction is to want to get away- rather than defend/protect, and therefore they don't need to stay for the rest of the test. They haven't failed this test, they have passed it. Even the dogs barking in this video, still passed. It is normal for a dog to bark. What I need to see is that their reaction is one to retreat not rush forward. All dogs in this video passed. For those who are following along our journey and are interested, my next therapy dog course is April 14-17, Ararat. Spaces are limited. Reach out if you would like to book or to request further information or to consider hosting an Annie's Dogs: Therapy Dog Training in your area.

My 3 day obedience course is a recommendation of prior learning before doing my therapy dog course but it is not a requirement. Many past grads do my 3 day obedience course prior to attending my therapy dog course, and they express that this makes their experience that bit richer (they can take in more information) and easier (because they've had time to master by far the hardest part of the course). This is not required, but is 100% recommended. The benefits of doing my 3 day course are: 1. In my course you will be bombarded with new information. A new way to train- probably unlike anything you've learnt before with dogs; new information about the theory of dogs; legalities of animal assisted intervention; research surrounding the practice and more. If you already are familiar with some of it - namely the obedience- it makes the information overload somewhat less during the course, allowing you to take in more during the course. 2. You get to proof your skills before the course and put those nerves to rest. 3. You get to see where your weaker points are as a team and go and work on them without the stress of an impending assessment. 4. Your dog has the opportunity to practice with a less stressed you. (Because there's no pressure). 5. You lessen the stress load on yourself because you already know who I am, how I train, I've already met your dog and things are more familiar. As humans we are often nervous for the unfamiliar. So 100% I recommend doing the 3 day obedience course prior. But do you have to? No. I do include obedience training in my therapy dog course, but if you're stressed, nervous, prone to anxiety, or your dog possibly could do with a lot of obedience help, then coming along to my 3 day course before the course starts isn't a bad idea :) My next availiable courses for 2025 are: January 6-9, Therapy dog, 9am-4pm, $2000 March 16, 23 and 30, Obedience, 9am-12pm, $660 March 17-20 Assistance Dog Boot Camp, $2,500* April 14-17, Therapy dog, 9a

Obedience. Let's be real: I know a lot of people are often worried about whether their dog is "obedient enough", and what they'll need to be able to do before the course and by the course's end. So let's start. First off, I want to start you from a position of confidence, and to do that, I want to give you a snippet of my background. I have been a dog trainer for the past 7 years. This means I know what I'm doing. Before starting my therapy dog business I trained thousands of dogs in obedience, reactivity, aggression, and more. Today, I still train dogs in all of these areas. Regarding high level obedience, my course is different than the normal weekly attendance for months/years on end. Instead, I take dogs from being unruly, unlistening and unresponsive, and to helping them become well mannered, a good listener, and obedient to you in just 3 days. (You can see my work by visiting the 3 days and a new dog: Training page). In fact, I structure my therapy dog course with the belief in mind that very few dogs will have "therapy dog" obedience before arriving. This is why I built my 3 day obedience course into the therapy dog course. So when you arrive, I'm not expecting your dog to listen to you all the time, or not jump, or have perfect recall. No, when you first arrive all I want is that your dog loves people (even a little too much) and is non reactive to other dogs, people or the environment. Everything else, I teach. As a result, let's start with confidence- if you think your dog is a therapy dog candidate (kind, calm temperament; and not dog or people aggressive) then it's very, VERY unlikely I won't be able to teach it obedience. My next availiable courses for 2025 are: January 6-9, Therapy dog, 9am-4pm, $2000 March 16, 23 and 30, Obedience, 9am-12pm, $660 March 17-20 Assistance Dog Boot Camp, $2,500* April 14-17, Therapy dog, 9am-4pm, $2000 May 11, 18 and 25, Obedience, 9am-12pm, $660 July 7-10, Therapy dog, 9am-4pm, $2000 Puppy Scho

"If I don't pass, is there anything else I get?" Like a 16 year old driver on the road just learning to drive - you know they're not going to be perfect, but they have to start somewhere. You also know that somewhere has to be on the road. So what do we do? We give them L plates. These L plates alert everyone else using the road to be more considerate and aware, to give the L driver more space and more patience. It's the same with what I do with most dogs (sometimes not all dogs) that don't fully pass. Enter my Therapy dog in training certificate and bandana. Essentially, this certificate says your dog is like a learner on the road, not perfect, will make mistakes, but is capable of learning. If I'm confident your dog does like people, isn't a risk to anyone, and does listen to you but might have a few brain farts along the way, pulls on lead still, or wasn't able to pass our obedience tests but was close enough, then you would be a candidate for a therapy dog in training bandana. There are however times when I don't give a therapy dog in training bandana. These include: if I'm concerned your dog might hurt someone, if your dog doesn't listen to you the majority of the time, if you can't control your dog, if your dog doesn't enjoy the role/like people etc. Why do I give the in training certificate if "their close enough, but not quite there?" Without the in training bandana you would more likely here "oh, and THAT'S a therapy dog?!" Or, "I thought they were a therapy dog, they shouldn't do that." Whereas when you have an in training bandana on, the comments usually change to be more kind, "oh he's just learning." Or "child, you need to be a bit calmer as the dog is just learning, you've got to help him." Another big reason is my certificate needs to mean something. That's in your best interest too. If everyone going through my course came out fully accredited even if they didn't meet the standards, then there'd be nothing in the name "Annie's Dogs." So

This video shows why I love agility training for therapy dogs, and just kids in general who have a dog... Working with your dog to teach them something builds relationship. Practising and having fun with your dog builds investment. Children taking caring ownership builds respect. When people (but kids specifically) get involved with their dog in agility, the sky is the limit. In this video Jem had done one session with me in agility, but is now looking at ways to practise with Chaz all the time. Go Jem! I love your creativity. My next therapy dog training is January 6-9, 9am-3pm, $2000. My next agility course runs every Sunday at 9.30am-10.30am, $20 a session or $150 for ten.

Another one from today's agility session! Last week our dogs learnt to weave between our legs. Today they had a race :) ... and I learnt that I should never be a commentator 🤣🤣🤣 Join us next week, 2.30pm, $20.

Agility while you wait

Elise and Rusty have completed my obedience course, and are awaiting the therapy dog course in January. After finishing my obedience course, Elise asked if my agility course would be beneficial for them while they waited for the next therapy dog course. I said yes. Why? Because agility training gives therapy dogs a few nifty tools in the tool bag: 1) What a handy skill it is to be able to have kids create their own agility course and your dog be pretty proficient at moving through it. 2) Or just an activity on the school playground to weave the dog through the equipment and win lots of friends. 3) The level of focus it builds with your dog... they have to learn to ignore all of the other people and dogs and listen to you. 4) It teaches them how to learn. New tricks (today's being to push a soccer ball through a goal) become easier and easier the more a dog has unlocked the key of how to learn. 5) It increases your relationship with them. Which is always a win. So, if you're thinking of doing my therapy dog course at some point, 100% I'd recommend my agility course while you wait. :) $20, Sundays, 2.30pm. I'd love to have you.

You can see the joy. Not only in the humans... but also the dog. This is what makes a good therapy dog- when it's not just a human initiated choice.. but a clear enjoyment for the dog also. :) My next available therapy dog course is January 6-9 Ararat $2000, 9am-3pm.