What is your opinon?? *Therapy dog experts*

[critter crazy]

This is a video of a Rotti Therapy dog.
Rotti Therapy dog (http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=3527755&version=1&locale=EN-US)


I am very proud, as a Rotti owner to see such great dogs in action. And it is great to see a chilld have such a bond with a dog, as it is obviously helping with his treatment. But this Video was posted on a Rotti forum I belong to, and I got jumped on, as I showed concern that the dog was a tad Rambunctious to me. Seems as a Therapy dog, he should be a bit calmer, and more reserved. Maybe it is just me, but My dogs dont jump on kids, and knock them down, so I would expect a Therapy dog to be just as well behaved, if not ten times better. I was concerned as you can clearly hear the childs head hit the door, as he falls back from the dog. Seems as a cancer patient, he would be more suseptible to injury, because of his treatments. Am I far off base??

[Freedom]

There is a difference between a therapy dog and a service dog. Trent, in the video, is a therapy dog. It is up to the handler to control a therapy dog. I could never have let a pet do this in pet therapy in the nursing home where I did pet therapy. BUT those people didn't bond with the dogs and other pets the way this boy has done. Trent and this boy have known each other for a long time; I think it said 2 years. And I'm not sure it IS his head hitting the floor -- you can hear him chuckle right after the noise of him rolling backwards. Mostly, to me, it looks like a boy and "his" dog goofing around.

In general, I'd say the handler was wrong in letting that happen while the camera was rolling.

[K9soul]

I watched it but he's not a service dog, he's a therapy dog. Those are two different things. A service dog has a specific job to do for its owner that it has been specifically trained to do. A therapy dog just is basically a dog that is very good with people and kind of a canine good citizen so to speak. They go in to be petted and play or whatever may make a patient smile and feel better. I don't think the rottie looked out of control. The boy was laughing and playing with him and the dog was responding, which is what he is there for. A lot of therapy dogs are even trained and encouraged to jump up, either front paws or even all the way, on patient's beds so patients can touch and see them and interact with them. In my personal opinion, as a therapy dog he wasn't doing anything inappropriate. If the owner had asked him to sit or lie down he should do so, but it seemed to me the boy and dog were playing and having fun together and I didn't get the feeling the dog was out of control or being overly rough. Just how I saw it :)

[critter crazy]

My applogize for calling him a service dog, My bad. Anyways, I guess being a mom, I just saw it as being a bit too rough. But I guess it is just me. :)

[Giselle]

In this case, the kid seemed to be enjoying the 'roughhousing' immensely and I don't think it was too rough. I do think that it seemed a bit more rough than normal because the dog was so big and the child so small. In general, therapy teams are told to err on the side of caution because we generally visit people who aren't as healthy and, due to liability reasons, we *must* be safe rather than sorry. Additionally, most (not all but most) therapy teams visit elderly people who are much more susceptible to small nicks, scratches, and bumps. It is imperative, thus, that we keep our dogs on a tight lead - literally. But I think because this child has known the dog for so long and is initiating the play, it's okay.

It all just depends on the dog, the facility, the organization, and, most importantly, the human :)