The vast majority of therapy pets are dogs, because they can be easily trained. Therapy dogs can be any size, breed, color, shape, or gender. Primarily, they must enjoy being around people!

To be a therapy dog, your dog:

• must be well house trained; no accidents.
• must wear a 6-ft leash, harness or leader at all times while on a visit. Smaller dogs may be leashed or harnessed and transported in a stroller or basket.
• must be comfortable around all breeds of dogs. Being calm around cats and rabbits is a bonus!
• most importantly, must love people. A skittish or overly excitable dog can be unpredictable, which means therapy work may not be the right fit for him/her.

Hands and Paws Inc. utilizes its skilled, experienced and certified volunteers to evaluate, train and certify pet therapy teams.

Human volunteers and their well behaved and loving pets are evaluated by our AKC registered evaluators for obedience and temperament. Then they are trained with their humans on the fundamentals of performing therapy work by accompanying experienced and certified members on visits in the community. Once they have completed the required training hours; they are then certified to serve their community on individual visits and/or group visits.