Pet Selection

What animals are used for Pet Therapy?
While all different kinds of animals can do Pet Therapy (including horses, cats, birds, rabbits, ferrets, and others) dogs are most frequently used.

Pet Therapy dogs can be full pedigree or mixed breed. They can be almost any size. Some were purchased from pet stores or breeders while others were adopted as pets from local shelters. Some were rescued from bad or dangerous situations (such as the greyhounds).

The main thing in common Pet Therapy animals share is that they belong to interested owners/handlers who volunteer their time and service to help others.

What are some characteristics of a Pet Therapy animal?
Judy Stein's class suggests the following good qualities:

• calm
• loving
• obedient and well behaved
• people-friendly and good with strangers
• good with other animals
• able to be in a crowd and not react to loud noises
• clean
• gentle but strong
• not a jumper