Juls wrote:
However, he's a licker - two or three hand licks usually just to say hello. I've heard that's a huge no-no for a therapy dog. Do you know if that's true across all therapy organizations?
It depends -- it's more of a no-no in hospitals than it is in, say, a school. Venice may offer a couple of licks on meeting a new person and lots if said person begins crying. The important thing is that as the handler you remember to ask "Are you comfortable with being licked?" And if the person says no you can tell your dog no more kisses and have that request promptly honored. Most therapy orgs mostly seem to want to know that that behavior is under control like that rather than non-existent.
They may test you as the handler to see if you notice non-verbal cues that someone is not yet comfortable with a physical greeting from the dog yet and give an anticipatory "no kisses" or "lay down over here and let little Susie come to you" type direction.Also - some therapy dog orgs will direct you to offer hand sanitizer after every visit. I keep some in Venice's therapy work tote bag... Literally no one has ever accepted the offer, but I keep on making it
I wonder if that will change post-covid?
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