Participants in our December Class practice techniques taught in class while others role-play as patients.
Making New Year’s resolutions? How about making a resolution to start Bright Spot Therapy Dog Training with your sweet, friendly, outgoing, well-trained dog?
Perhaps you’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time, but just haven’t set your mind to do it. What better time to start than the beginning of a new year?
Bright Spot Therapy Dogs will begin its first class of the new year on Sunday, January 21st.
Our Therapy Dog Team Training Course runs for two, 2-hour sessions from 9:30-11:30. Classes are kept small to offer each handler and dog personalized attention and opportunities to practice and ask questions during class. Participants come away from our classes with the skills and techniques needed to conduct meaningful therapy dog visits in all types of healthcare, educational, and business settings.
Upon successful completion of our Therapy Dog Team Training Course, the participating teams move on to the evaluation process.
Each team is evaluated individually in an actual nursing home setting where a Bright Spot evaluator observes the team performing the skills and techniques learned in class while interacting with the nursing home residents. The evaluator offers tips and suggestions throughout the evaluation that takes 45-60 minutes.
Our trainer and our evaluators are all Bright Spot volunteers themselves.
They all have two or more Bright Spot certified therapy dogs and have years of experience visiting in a number of environments making them well-prepared to train and help new handlers and and their dogs become Bright Spot certified teams and speak to you about the many kinds of places you can visit with your own dog.
This December class team is practicing skills needed to participate in our special Reading Buddy Program held in schools and libraries.
If you’ve been thinking about do therapy dog work with your dog, now is the time to act.
Please visit our website and click on Certify Your Dog where you will find directions on how to get started. While on the website, click on Therapy Dog Training where you will find the information about our upcoming class. Come! Join in the fun! Soon, you and your certified therapy dog will be among the more than 200 Bright Spot Therapy Dog Teams throughout New England bringing comfort and caring to those who need it most.
Keep in mind that Bright Spot certifies teams from all over New England and New York state…
and has a members-only List of Visiting Opportunities with over 185 healthcare, educational, and business facilities requesting the volunteer services of our well-trained certified therapy dog teams.