This question came to me recently; "I have multiple dogs so I do I chose the right one to go through the Therapy Dog training with me and what do I do to prepare for the training?"
The way to tell the perfect Therapy dog is to see which one LOVES people the most. It needs to be a dog that is very outgoing without being obnoxious. It is the dog that runs to strangers to get affection. At the same time you can walk it on a leash and it will mind you. You can practice by taking your dog out with you to Petsmart and/or Home Depot since both allow dogs and are a great place to expose your pet to new environments. You can also take the dog for walks in the park, like Harmon Field or Fence.
It also seems that size matters - small dogs are very popular because you can pick them up and let people pet them and big dogs are large enough to just walk up next to a bed or wheel chair and be touched. Medium size dogs are often too big to be picked up but yet too small to be reached by those in bed. This is not saying that there are not some very good medium sized Therapy Dogs but it is just something to consider when you have multiple dogs to chose from.
Taking an obedience class with the dog beforehand is also a great idea just so you learn how to handle a dog correctly. We will cover a little bit of this during the Therapy Dog training but you would be ahead of the learning curve if you made this extra effort. It will add to your experience and knowledge as well as be a good learning tool for you and your dog.
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