SHA Small Heath Alliance

Has anyone on here volunteered with their dog through Pets as Therapy or any other dog therapy organisation?

My dog meets all the criteria & I get 3 paid volunteering days off work per year which I’ve never used so been considering applying and actually making the most of them for a change.

Already had a chat with them and think it’d be a really good fit, just need to sort out an assessment day with them, but curious if anyone’s done similar with their pet and what a typical volunteering session looks like?

Cheers

Seriously considering doing this with my eldest collie who thinks he's a human being.

Keep us posted if you could 👍

I’ll drop you a PM when I’m further down the line, the volunteer co-ordinator reached out to me a day after I’d signed up offering support, seems good so far 👍

👍

Didn't even know that was a thing, but what a great thing to do. Good work, both. :)

Great thing to do

Dogs are magnificent and really do make for the best therapy

Thanks both, I think the dog will enjoy it most truthfully, like Tony said he thinks he’s a human and has a particular affinity for children.

My nieces (who have given me a bastard virus that I’m still not over after a week which is stopping me from finishing the application) stayed with us recently, both quite frightened of dogs, were absolutely obsessed with him and he’s done wonders to help them. One of them has a learning disability and can sometimes get a little too excitable, it was incredible to see how tolerant he is of children.

Having chatted to the volunteer co-ordinator you get a lot of freedom in what events you volunteer at, they don’t make you do anything you’re uncomfortable with so it sounds like a good set up. He’s very friendly with other dogs but can sometimes get too excited so I think we’ll stick to doing solo stuff for now until he matures a bit. Don’t think him flying around a care home trying to play with another dog would be particularly conducive

Having had their dogs formally assessed and trained, my partner and several of her colleagues take their dogs into school a day per week as Therapy Dogs - apparently they have made a significant difference to the engagement of pupils with SEN in their learning.