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A therapy dog has to have the right temperament to work in this field. The dog must not be aggressive or a barker. Gentleness and understanding are extremely important as these dogs visit hospitals and nursing homes and are around sick and elderly patients. How do I know this? I have one.

My wife and I were looking to get a dog and the first place we checked out was the local animal shelter. I had my eyes set on this special dog who looked like a Finnish Spitz. After we got him, we wanted to know the exact breed and we found out by taking him to the Vet. They have a blood test they perform that can tell the breed and he is half Pomeranian and half Pembroke Welsh Corgi. The dog, whom we christened with the name Yoshi, is about twenty pounds. He has the face of a fox, and a light brown luxurious coat. When we got him however, he was underweight and frightened. The animal rescue found him wandering on a dangerous street. He was about two years old then. He is about four years old now. Of course, the shelter didn't know his exact breed. They thought he might be the Japanese breed Sheba, hence the name Yoshi that we gave him. Anyway, we took him home.

After the proper care and feeding, Yoshi began to improve. Gaining weight and getting along with our birds (we had one cockatiel at the time) we knew we had made the right decision. But we also knew we wanted to get him some training in obedience. By the way, neither my wife or I hadn't the slightest clue what a therapy dog was. When we took him to Petsmart, our trainer suggested that he might make a good therapy dog. A therapy dog visits hospitals, nursing homes, hospice, libraries etc. and provides companionship and love to sick and elderly people. We thought it over and decided why not? Let's give back to the community and share the love that Yoshi is so good at giving. We went full steam ahead.

After Yoshi graduated with flying colors at the local Petsmart(he even skipped intermediate training he was so smart) we entered him into the K-9 national test for therapy dogs. Check out your community and enter in therapy dogs in your computer, you should find a group close to where you live. Again, Yoshi passed with flying colors. In brief, the test given to potential therapy dogs is pretty basic. For instance, a handler will take your dog while you wait and walk with him. They will have him sit, giving him the appropriate commands, and walk away. As long as the dog stays until called, that part of the test is passed

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