What is a therapy dog?

A therapy dog is a dog that loves people. They go through a lot of obedience training and are often registered with a therapy dog organization.

Therapy dogs are not service dogs. They can’t detect changes in blood sugar or turn on the lights. They don’t guide the blind. They’re just very well behaved, friendly dogs that have an affinity for people.

Where do therapy dogs go?

Therapy dogs visit people in lots of places. Some therapy dogs visit patients in the hospital, rehab or nursing homes. Other therapy dogs visit children at schools or libraries. At University of Akron, there is a program for dogs to go on campus during finals week to help students cope with stress.

It’s up to the facility to decide what type of therapy dogs are welcome and what type of training or certification they need. For instance, the nursing home I take Mocha to doesn’t require any certification. They just wanted a dog that was friendly. Some hospitals, like Akron Children’s, have their own therapy dog program and train the dogs on site. This program is called Doggie Brigade. 

More on therapy dog organizations:

This is where I was most confused when training Mocha. There are lots of organizations. Mocha is registered through Therapy Dogs International (TDI). I chose them because they’re a national organization and their certification could be accepted at many different types of facilities all over the country. (We’ve moved a LOT…) I could also take a training class for TDI and take the test at the club we train at in town, the Akron All Breed.

Summa Hospitals in Akron have their own pet therapy program called WAGtime, and going through this program certifies the dogs through Pet Partners. Pet Partners doesn't just certify dogs, they accept all kinds of animals. You could also look into Paws for People. 

You need to check this FB page out:

My favorite Facebook page is Gizmo’s Frens, and he’s certified through Paws for Friendship, Inc.. I love that little dog. he was my main inspiration for getting Mocha certified.

Do you have a therapy dog? Where do you visit?

Come back tomorrow to learn what it takes to become a therapy dog.

I'm back!

Ok so here's what happened, and it's totally my bad. I was working one full time job and two part time jobs, plus fostering dogs, taking Mocha to nursing homes (he's a therapy dog now) and volunteering with dog training classes. I was too busy, and forgot all about the blog.

But, now I've made a career change! I quit my day job (which was really stressing me out) to be a piano teacher from home. It's awesome, the best job ever. I love all my students, I love teaching them and I love playing the piano. Here's my website for that: Barford Piano Studio

So, now I have the time to invest into Inspired By Mocha a bit more. I've added some new stuff, like bandanas that slip over the collar. And I made my first knitting pattern to sell. I think the biggest move I've made was opening my own shop independent of Etsy--> Inspired By Mocha

I'm still going to donate 10% of the sales from both the Etsy shop and my independent shop to animal rescue. In honor of Teddy (see the last post), these donations will go to the National Mill Dog Rescue--> milldogrescue.org Last year I donated $46. I'd like to more than triple that this year. This is my goal for my shop and this blog, to help those puppy mill rescues.

Training:
I've done a lot of dog training with Mocha and Ninja over the past year. They both have their CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and Mocha is a certified therapy dog through Therapy Dogs International (TDI). I also helped with puppy and obedience classes at my local dog club, and I got a lot of training experience with our foster dogs last year.

I'd like to share some basic training advice on my blog each week. Simple stuff that you can do at home with your dog. I made a big list of topics this week and had a hard time choosing, but I think the easiest to start with is a recall game you can play at home any time.

"Cookie"
Here's how this game works. And it's going to work this way every day for you and your dog from now until forever.

We have a recall word for our dogs. It's a word that they know gets them a treat, no matter when, where, what, how, why, whatever, if I say "Cookie!" they come running for that treat.

You can make this word whatever you want. We thought about making it something silly like "broccoli" or "sassafras," but "cookie" just seemed to fit for our boys.

Step 1: Create the response. Spend a couple days with a few treats in your pockets. When your dog is paying attention to you, hand him/her a treat and say the magic word. (I'm going to use "cookie.") If you do this 5 times in a row 2-3 times a day for a couple days, your dog will start associating "cookie" with getting a treat. Do this for at least three days before moving to step 2.

Step 2: Add a little distance. Have your dog sit and back a few steps away. If your dog doesn't know how to sit and wait for you, then do this when s/he's at the other end of the couch, or when s/he just walks in a room. Say "cookie" and reach out with a treat in your hand. You'll be amazed, your dog will jump right to you. If you dog doesn't respond, go back to step 1 for another day or two.

Do step 2 for a couple days, maybe a week.

Step 3: Hide in the house. Start small here. Go into the kitchen and yell out "cookie." Your dog should come running, and if s/he doesn't, go back to step 2. Make sure you give them the cookie when they come!

Make a game out of this, dogs love games. A couple times a day, when you're in a room and they're not, yell out "cookie."

Step 4: Moving it outside: Doing this in the comfort of your own home is all well and good, but anyone who's done any dog training knows that once you get outside, most of that training goes right out the window. Here's how my husband and I did this (you're gonna need a friend for this part):

Keep your dog on the leash. Go stand in your backyard to start, then move to a park or the front yard once your dog has the hang of this. One person has the dog on the leash, the other takes 10 steps away and faces the dog. Yell out "cookie" as excited as you can. Your dog should come running. Give him/her the treat. Then switch positions. You hold the leash and your friend/husband/partner/whoever takes a few steps away and yells out "cookie."

Just keep increasing the distance. Eventually, you'll be able to have your dog off leash just about anywhere and yell out your recall word and they'll come running.

Here's the catch: Every time you say your recall word, you need to give them a treat. If your recall word is cookie, then every time you say cookie, whether you're saying it to them or in conversation, you'd better give them one. In our house, we say "C-word" for cookie when we're talking about the cookies we eat. Otherwise our dogs are in our face so fast and we have to get off our butts to get them a treat!

Here's Ninja all of 2 seconds after I say cookie.

Try it! Let me know how it goes! And if you have questions or problems, I'll try to help. inspiredbymocha@gmail.com

Hello 2014

Hello everyone! Hope we're having a great 2014 :)

This month, we've had a lovely foster dog, Teddy the Pomeranian. He was a rescue from a puppy mill. He stayed at our house for a whole month, but found his forever home yesterday. We miss him, but we're really happy for him too.

So now what? Both our boys are kinda happy that Teddy's gone, he was too big of a drain on the attention they normally get from us. We're going to do a little more agility soon. Mocha's knees have been hurting him since it's been cold, so we're sticking to Teacup agility until it warms up. I'm also going to put Mocha in a CGC class the next time our All Breed offers one. I think he'd make a great therapy dog :)

Oooohh the other new thing I've been into is Blogilates! It's pilates, but the videos are on youtube and they're free. Oh, and they'll kick your ass real hard lol. But the instructor, Cassey Ho, is super positive and kinda silly, and that really helps me push through the pain. (And oh there's so much pain!) Man if I could look like her.... well I guess I'd have to eat like a rabbit and I like cake so, some things just weren't meant to be.

Here's her beginner's video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCg_gh_fppI

First OH Craft Fair

Hello world! Did my first craft fair in Ohio last weekend. It was sooooo slow. Unnervingly slow, really. But, we did ok and got lots of compliments! Here's some pics of my setup:

I hung the dog collars on wire shelving from our pantry. And that white box there in the bottom photo was actually a plastic crate that I covered in white packing paper to make it look a little nicer. I'm going to sew a cover for it soon.

They wouldn't let me have Mocha with me because it was an indoor craft show and they were selling food (to the 20 people that came...) so I brought my laptop and had a slideshow playing of Mocha and Ninja modeling the sweaters.

So, now what? We're doing another show, of course! December 7th at the Falcon Academy of Creative Arts (FACA) in Mogodore, OH. Sure hope it goes well!

Also... I opened a shop on Zibbet. It's a website that's really committed to selling handmade, like Etsy used to be. So, here's the link (I'll try to find a widget too): www.zibbet.com/inspiredbymocha

Just a couple things on there, but a super nice community. I'm interested to see how the site does.

Excellent October

What a wonderful October we've had. Both pups did great at a CPE trial a few weekends ago, and I'm so proud of them.

Here's a picture of their ribbons from that first Saturday. They each had a perfect day. Mocha did all five events and Ninja did two :)

And here's a couple videos. Ninja's in level 1, and Mocha finished level 1 and is now in 2/3. (There are 5 levels in CPE Agility.)

This is Mocha's level 2 standard run. It was his first time seeing the teeter and weaves in competition. He did perfect and I'm so proud :)

And here's Ninja! He's very different from Mocha. Mocha is cautious and watches me very carefully. Ninja is... a ninja! He's fast, really fast, but he's still young and doesn't always watch. I hope one day he'll be a little more cautious, I worry about him hurting himself.

Well, so there they are, hope you enjoy seeing my furkids.

Happy Fall

Hello all!

It's been forever, I know. I've been thinking about the blog recently and wanting to share with more people what we're doing with our pups.

Ninja has taken some advanced obedience classes. We're hoping to certify him as a therapy dog and take him into nursing homes and hospitals. Honestly, we're pretty sure he'd pass the test, however he's a little vocal so we're holding off in order to let him grow up just a little bit more. I mean, he's just turning 2 years old this month. He has plenty of time, right? And by vocal, I mean that he sings a little bit. He very rarely barks, just kind of... whines I guess. But we like to think of it as singing :)

Mocha has been doing fantastic. A little over a year ago, we entered him in agility classes and he's really grown into a wonderful dog. He loves agility. I mean, he lives for it. It's his favorite thing and I really enjoy it too.

We have a trial this weekend, probably the last for the year, and I know he'll do great. Ninja's running too, but he doesn't really enjoy it as much as Mocha.

I also reopened the Etsy shop. Not much new yet, but I'm getting a fancy pair or scissors this week so that I can finish a rag quilt I started ... oh... over a year ago! So I'm excited about that. I really liked the quilting process, just not the cutting at the end. Hopefully, getting the scissors will help with that.

And just one more pic, in case you weren't sure that Mocha loves agility:

Almost August!

How did this happen?  Ok, since my last post, we've moved from Missouri to Ohio and we live in an awesome subdevelopment outside of Cleveland.  Here's us and the puppies enjoying the back deck :)

Then we went to Chicago and got married!!!!  It was an awesome day :)

Then we went to Jamaica for our honeymoon!  Just FYI, it's very hot there in June and apparently a little nicer in the winter.  We had no idea lol

And now Ninja, at 9 months old, is the same size as Mocha, who's 17 months old.  Guess he's gonna be a big doggie :)

So what's next?  I need to find a job!  But in the meantime I keep adding to my Etsy shop.  Check back often for new designs!  There're already some Christmas sweaters up there and a Halloween sweater is on it's way.