My husband and I use to always say the same thing, if won lottery.
The dogs that visit places are called therapy dogs. Difference because therapy dogs don't have the same "rights" I guess you can say as service dogs, like going into food stores or restaurants, planes, etc. And service dogs actually are trained to do a specific need for their person.
A therapy dog basically needs to be a little more trained than your normal pet & be calm around weird noises & smells like in a hospital, they are generally associated with a therapy dog company that basically say your dog is well trained & has been tested to do the work without any incident. I only know all this because my dog & I were a therapy dog team. And they were very strict about saying they were therapy dogs not service dogs.
My Great Dane (who adopted us from a rescue ;) ) & I were a Therapy Dog team. I trained him myself, we visited a rehab center once a wk for years, along with visiting the Alzhiemer's Center, Ronald McDonald House, and occassionally we stopped into a hospital to visit a friend who had surgery. In the rehab center he was a huge hit with everyone who wasn't scared of giant dogs, lol, which was just a few staff members, patients loved him, he was a Big Boy (150 lbs. & shoulders came to the top of kitchen counter tops, he was all black except his chest was white). Each week we walked around the center with the Activity Director & she usually had a list of residents that requested for us to visit & then some where the same people every week, my boy had his favorites of course. When your pup can get people who don't move their head side to side, to actually turn their heads from one side of the bed to the other so they can follow my pup is awesome, or when they try to reach out to pet him or even smile or try to speak or make noises, it's truly amazing to see. That's how he became a big hit, becasue he was able to do what people couldn't. And for others he brightened their day with his visit. I heard he became a topic frequently at staff meetings, lol. I was very proud of my big fella, I miss him so much, because he made such a difference in my life also.
He passed away a few years ago to bone cancer at 6 yrs old. And what's even worse is he became an angel the day before my mom did, she had lung cancer (she never recovered from her 3rd chemo), I was with my mom in another state when my pup passed so I didn't get to say goodbye to him, my husband was with him though till the very end.
Sorry so long, I get carried away with talk of my big pup :) he was the goodest boy!
My husband and I use to always say the same thing, if won lottery.
The dogs that visit places are called therapy dogs. Difference because therapy dogs don't have the same "rights" I guess you can say as service dogs, like going into food stores or restaurants, planes, etc. And service dogs actually are trained to do a specific need for their person. A therapy dog basically needs to be a little more trained than your normal pet & be calm around weird noises & smells like in a hospital, they are generally associated with a therapy dog company that basically say your dog is well trained & has been tested to do the work without any incident. I only know all this because my dog & I were a therapy dog team. And they were very strict about saying they were therapy dogs not service dogs.
My Great Dane (who adopted us from a rescue ;) ) & I were a Therapy Dog team. I trained him myself, we visited a rehab center once a wk for years, along with visiting the Alzhiemer's Center, Ronald McDonald House, and occassionally we stopped into a hospital to visit a friend who had surgery. In the rehab center he was a huge hit with everyone who wasn't scared of giant dogs, lol, which was just a few staff members, patients loved him, he was a Big Boy (150 lbs. & shoulders came to the top of kitchen counter tops, he was all black except his chest was white). Each week we walked around the center with the Activity Director & she usually had a list of residents that requested for us to visit & then some where the same people every week, my boy had his favorites of course. When your pup can get people who don't move their head side to side, to actually turn their heads from one side of the bed to the other so they can follow my pup is awesome, or when they try to reach out to pet him or even smile or try to speak or make noises, it's truly amazing to see. That's how he became a big hit, becasue he was able to do what people couldn't. And for others he brightened their day with his visit. I heard he became a topic frequently at staff meetings, lol. I was very proud of my big fella, I miss him so much, because he made such a difference in my life also.
He passed away a few years ago to bone cancer at 6 yrs old. And what's even worse is he became an angel the day before my mom did, she had lung cancer (she never recovered from her 3rd chemo), I was with my mom in another state when my pup passed so I didn't get to say goodbye to him, my husband was with him though till the very end.
Sorry so long, I get carried away with talk of my big pup :) he was the goodest boy!
Sometimes I wonder if us humans deserve dogs, as good as dogs are compared to human. I know how it is to lose a close friend that's a dog though.
Sorry you lost your friend. Because we let them into our hearts, it's like loosing a friend or family member.
Yup, he may just a dog to some but not to me. It's been almost a year and I still miss that little fucker.