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your dog on overall interest in people. A great assistance dog has a strong love for people.

10. Overall reaction: This examines how well you and your animal work together as a team in unpredictable settings.

Part Two is called the Pet Partners Skills Test and it is the same as the AKC Canine Good Citizen Test. You can take this test at the same time as Part One, or as a separate entity.

1. Accepting a friendly stranger

2. Sitting politely for petting

3. Appearance and grooming

4. Out for a walk (walking on loose leash)

5. Walking through a crowd

6. Sit and down on command, and staying in place

7. Coming when called

8. Reaction to another dog

9. Reaction to distraction.

10. Supervised separation

If you follow the steps, as outlined in Part One, you and your dog should have no problem passing Part Two. The commands (Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Walking) are mastered in basic obedience courses, and those may only need a brief fine-tuning on your part. To work on reactions to other dogs, ask a friend and his/her dog to assist. You and the other owner must be able to walk towards each other, stop, have your dogs sit, greet the other owner, and continue on, WITHOUT your dog moving towards the other dog. Your dog can show mild interest, but must not walk over to the other dog. This can be trained with enough repetition and praise (basically, desensitizing to other dogs). All the other steps should be covered under the Part One training.

Becoming a therapy team is very rewarding, a great experience. Dogs with relaxed temperaments are excellent candidates. But, I feel that any dog can be (eventually) trained for therapy work; it just takes a lot of patience and dedication. Stick to it and don't give up! Not only is the therapy work rewarding, but going through the training process is a wonderful way to bond with your dog.

Good luck!

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