"Peer Support with Therapy Dog & Sponsorship" is my concept of what I would like to do as paid employment. In 2010, I attend training in Augusta to be a Certified Peer Support Specialist and in the same year, 2010, undergo training sessions with my dog "Patch" to certify Patch as a therapy dog. "Patch, the dog," is the only dog out of the group of dogs who passes tests proctored by a professor in the Recreation and Leisure Department at the University of Southern Maine.
Patch and myself visit a children's ward in a hospital once per week for a six month duration during 2010 and also visit six different retirement facilities in the State of Maine between 2010 and 2013 for a total of logged visits at about 75 visits to different facilities. PSWTD is not new to me as during 1998-1999, my previous dog "Russ" and myself visit a retirement facility in West paris, ME once per week for approximately one year.
The "sponsorship" part of the PSWTD is also my brainchild as a way to help pay for expenses related to the dog's well being and performing the visits. "Sponsorship" consists of soliciting contributions from people in the community for visits. While I manage to solicit some funds for Patch and my visits from some people, it is difficult to solicit contributions without the ability to issue a tax deductible receipt. To issue a tax deductible receipt for contributions (as I find out), I must form a 501c organisation or else be sponsored by a 501c organisation. Unfortunately, I am neither able to form a 501c nor secure a W2 or 1099 position with a 501c so as to be able to issue a tax deductible receipt for contributions.
Further and on the broader subject of what is and is not considered a "therapy dog," there are inconsistencies with what one organisation considers a therapy dog from another organisation due to the fact that there is no national registry of therapy dogs.
For example, of the six retirement facilities that I visit in the State of Maine over the years: staff at facilities have different requirements for therapy dogs. At one facility in Portland, ME upon initial visiting, staff does not require any paper work so that I insist that staff photocopy my ID and the dog's shot records. Other facilities only require the dog's shot records and I always insist that staff photocopy my ID. No facility requires that a dog undergo training in pet therapy for certification. The 501c that offers the certificate in pet therapy is in Wyoming, USA. Probably the most absurd anomaly about the system for registering a pet therapy dog is that the City of Portland and the University of Southern Maine only consider a dog a pet therapy dog if a doctor signs a note in spite of a current pet therapy dog certificate in training, which leaves me wondering if I could have a doctor sign a note for a pet therapy duck: as to the sense it makes to me about what a doctor knows concerning dogs.
Lastly, PSWTD is an act that my dog and I perform on visits with the objective of spreading good humour, smiles, warm feelings, witty quips and a generally good time in what might otherwise be a low point in the peoples' lives whom we visit. Two examples are of Patch on a 95yo patient's bedside whose reaction to Patch on her bed was a wide grin and probably the only utterance the 95yo could utter, which is an "aaaawww" while petting Patch for at least ten minutes during the visit. Another visit is at a children's ward at a hospital and a child of four or five is outside, but must go "potty" before he is able to pet the dog. The boy races in the go "potty" at behest of staff orders and emerges from his room on the ward to see Patch, the dog, with his knees buckling in ecstatic excitement to pet Patch.
Finally, I look forward to an endeavour whereby I may incorporate my therapy dog Patch into paid employment working with a variety of individuals in the community: especially the elderly, homeless and refugee populations bearing in mind different peoples' reactions or perspectives of dogs and whether Patch and I are an accepted modality by a client or another for what the objective of Peer Support w/ Therapy Dog is: spreading good humour, smiles, warm feelings, witty quips and a generally good time in what might otherwise be a low point in the peoples' lives whom we visit.
Thank you, –JSB–
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