It’s been a while since my last post, a lot has happened during that time. Gustav celebrated his first birthday in April and a couple months after that passed his certification exam. Its fairly uncommon for a dog as young as Gus to become certified as a Social Therapy animal. There is a lot of training and work that goes into exposing him to every kind of noise and stimuli imaginable in order for him to remain calm and collected in every type of situation. But I take little credit for him passing, Gus was born for this job and has the personality that fits the job perfectly. Test day itself was composed of about 20 minutes of various people approaching Gus, different noises and visual distractions. Gus had to demonstrate basic commands of sit, stay and down. He had to leave both food and toys alone and needed to have minimal startle response when exposed to loud noises or strange looking objects. Gus did great throughout the test. The most difficult for him was leaving the toy alone, but hey, I can’t fault him for that.

What this now means is that Gus is certified to work within various settings, such as school, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities or any other place that welcomes therapy animals. Gus is not a service dog. I am often asked about the difference between a social therapy animal and a service dog. First of all you are not supposed to interact with service dogs, social therapy animals are meant TO be interacted with. Social therapy dog are not partnered with a disabled person and are therefore not allowed in grocery stores or other food facilities. Social therapy dogs are not born into their profession like service dogs are. Social therapy animals are first off pets that are then trained to become social therapy animals.