Greetings Pets and Pet Lovers, 

The mvPTa is an all-volunteer community-based organization whose purpose is to promote the use of highly trained domesticated pets for helping people improve their health, independence and quality of life. 

The members of the mvPTa provide Animal Assisted Therapy and Animal Assisted Activity services to individuals in many health care facilities throughout the Greater Miami Valley area.  There are over 100 Therapy animals and their human escorts in the mvPTa.  Therapet teams are typically made up of a pet and their owner (dogs, rabbits, cats, birds, and hand-held pets).  However, we do have some escorts that do not have a pet of their own and are certified to work with another person’s pet.  mvPTa volunteers visit in facilities throughout the Miami Valley area.  Some of these facilities include Miami Valley Hospital, Children’s Medical Center, Community Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, and numerous Nursing/Assisted Living Facilities.

How can you and your pet be a part of this volunteer opportunity?  The mvPTa helps offers a Therapy Pet Training Course two times per year.  The 10-week Therapy Pet  training class serves several purposes (and none of which are to teach obedience).  Our expectation is that pets have ‘good manners’ before they start class.  This means that pets should have reliable and consistent basic obedience skills (sit, down, stay, come, heel). The main purpose of the class is to teach the handlers all the ins and outs of volunteering in the different health care settings.

Our training course covers animal behavior, teaches students how to identify stress in their dog and other species, teaches students how to de-stress their pet, and gives them an opportunity to practice the skills required for certification in a testing environment.  A mental health professional also visits class and talks about what to expect on different kinds of visits and how to interact with people. At the end of the class, students present their pet to the rest of the class as if they were going on a visit and the following week pets and their handlers actually go on a visit to a local facility where there is an established pet therapy visiting program. Finally, students are required to take a written assessment and then participate in a Practical Test with their pet. It's a great class, a lot of fun and really prepares animals and humans for pet therapy work.

What is required of the pets?  Basically, pets need to have the aptitude for pet therapy (calm, confident, good manners) and the handler and pet need to work well together as a team. The ‘skills assessment’ involves such exercises as walking on a loose lead, sit, down, stay, sit while greeted/petted by a stranger, walking past an unfamiliar dog with only mild curiosity, walking calmly through a crowd (we add some medical devices), tolerating crowded petting without jumping up or getting overly reactive, or shying away, not overly startling at a loud noise, and being left with a stranger for a few minutes without getting anxious.  I probably didn't list all the skills, but those are the essentials.

Handlers should also be working very hard at making sure their pet is very well socialized to other animals, all types of people, and different situations. Dogs should go to the park, the pet store, friends' houses, and anywhere else you can think of, and encourage people to pet and interact with your dog. Get your dog used to walking on different types of surfaces (carpets, tile, grates), riding on elevators if possible (parking garages are a great place to practice), etc. 

What is required of Humans?  Commitment to working your pet as a Therapy animal at least once per month (at least 12 times per year) and completing at least 4 continuing education hours in a 2-year period.  We have more facilities requesting Pet Therapy services than we can accommodate. 

For more information about our pet therapy course  please call (937) 286-0028 or e-mail mvPTa@yahoo.com.