FOR POTENTIAL THERAPY TEAMS:
If you would like visit a few of our facilities
with our teams--with or without your dog--before
making your decision to join Helping Paws, you
may do so, by contacting one of HP’s Facility
Directors. They are
listed in the table located on our locations
page. Without
your furbaby, you can just shadow the teams
working that day. If
you bring your furbaby, you will need to be
evaluated as a potential therapy dog team before
entering the facility. Each
HP Facility Director is HP certified to conduct
this evaluation. A
copy of the evaluation is available on request.
Just contact the HP Facility Director and tell
her/him you are a potential new member and wish
to be evaluated. The
HP Facility Director or someone appointed by
them will meet you at the site early and do the
evaluation. You
will make some visits with her/him and be
allowed to accompany the whole group if you pass
the evaluation that day. We
suggest you make your first visit without your
furbaby, and then try 2-3 visits with your pet
before making a final decision to join Helping
Paws.
Until you become an official Helping
Paws member, you will not be covered by
Helping Paws liability and accident insurance
plans. Therefore,
if you choose to do the evaluations describe
above--before becoming a member—we request
that you fill out and sign the enclosed
RELEASE OF LIABILITY FOR PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS
and give it to the Helping Paws Facility
Director on the day of your visit.
Helping Paws is a therapy
dog-assistance animal organization. We provide both
animal-assisted therapy activities (AATA) and
animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and full
assistance dogs on a limited basis. Helping Paws is a
national, professional organization somewhat
like other national training organizations but
are organized and operate quite differently.
1.
We always know where our teams are
working and how well they are doing. We have
Helping Paws facility directors, who are HP
certified evaluators, monitoring and evaluating
our teams when they are working on site at least
once a month. We are not a therapy training
organization only. Call or email for more
information on other programs.
2.
We visit our facilities mostly as a group
lead by a HP Facility Director (HP-FD). This allows the
members to get to know each other and for new
members to receive the support and expertise of
the experienced members. It
also ensures that our dogs are always capable of
working with other dogs or meeting dogs at the
facilities and homes they visit. Additionally,
it allows the patients and residents to visit
with a variety of dogs and people at each visit. However, we also work
with patients on a one-to-one basis.
3.
Our certified therapy-assistance animal
training program requires the dog to earn its
AKC-Canine Good Citizen (AKC-CGC) and/or HP
G.O.O.D dog certification in a separate class
and test BEFORE it can take our
therapy-assistance dog certification class and
earn its therapy and or therapy-assistance dog
certification. Our
therapy dog certification test is designed to
make sure that the dog-handler relationship is
one in which the dog totally trusts the handler
to be a benevolent and protective partner in any
type of situation they may encounter.
4.
Helping Paws does not allow therapy teams
who have not earned their CGC and TD
certifications in separate training classes to
visit hospitals or work with children. This allows our animal
behaviorist and/or trainers to evaluate the dog
and handler over an extended period of time (5-6
months) in various situations to determine the
true temperament of the dog and its relationship
with its owner/handler. We do NOT make
exceptions for dogs that have been certified
through other therapy dog organizations since most of them allow the
dogs to take one test and grant both the CGC and
therapy dog certifications at the same time.
5.
We retest our certified therapy dog teams
every two years and the Helping Paws Facility
Directors are evaluating the dog and its handler
on every therapy visit. Each
Helping Paws Facility Director has the authority
to refer any team to our Trainers/Animal
Behaviorists for evaluation for additional
training and to stop a team from visiting until
our animal behaviorists gives their permission
to continue.
For working
therapy-assistance dogs, Helping Paws requires
our Therapy-Assistance Dog Certification for
membership in Helping Paws. However, we do have
associate memberships for people who do not have
dogs or therapy quality dogs who want to assist
our certified teams or management.
MEMBERSHIP
: THERAPY DOG
Requirements for
membership:
1)
Animals must be at least one year old and
not have any communicable disease.
2)
All working certified teams, are required
to make AT LEAST ONE
FACILITY VISIT PER MONTH.
3)
We
have a long list of volunteer opportunities list
on the Volunteer Profile. Most
committees should not require more 1-2 hours per
month plus drive time. If
a committee is working on a special short-term
project then more time may be required during
the project time.
4) Due to HP's
affiliation and contact with children and
others that cannot protect and defend
themselves, all perspective new members must
pass a criminal background check.
PET
VACCINATION RECORDS:
Healthcare
certification requires
nursing care facilities and hospitals to be able
to produce the vaccinations records of any
dog/pet on site. If
the facility can not do this, they could be
fined or lose their license to operate. So you will not have
to carry your fur therapist's records with you
constantly, Helping Paws keeps the records on
file and up-dates all of the facilities we visit
on a monthly basis. Helping
Paws requires that all fur therapists be current
on their rabies shot. As
for other vaccinations, Helping Paws is
following the current recommendations of
veterinarian immunologists since recent studies
have shown that many of the vaccination are
causing an increase in cancer and autoimmune
diseases in our pets. Helping
Paws current policy requests all vaccinations
for the first 3 years of life to build up
immunity levels. After
that, Helping Paws will accept antibody titers
showing immunity in place of vaccinations. Exceptions are made on
the three-year requirement for dogs with medical
problems that might be aggravated by excessive
vaccinations.
For further
information, contact helpingpawsintl@gmail.com
For further information Florida division, contact
a3greymom@gmail.com
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