Therapy Dog Corner

Leon at a Therapy Gig with a New Friend

Many of you know that my little Chihuahua, Leon, is a registered therapy dog with the Delta Society and involved heavily with our local group LAPP.  Leon and I have been to many different facilities, meeting all different types of people, but the therapy facilities we like the best involve children.

We recently had the pleasure of visiting a behavioral health facility that houses teenagers ages 13-18.  The staff has recently begun to really take advantage of our visits by turning them into group sessions.  We were visiting that day with an Aussie and a Chocolate Lab.

The group session was about fear and how you relate to that fear; do you face it or run?  The Chocolate Lab faces her fears, but the Aussie avoids them….and Leon tends to run from his fears…well, when you’re only five pounds!

Each teenager evaluated themselves against the dogs and then we all had a healthy discussion about what we fear the most and how we handle it.  Leon didn’t like vacuum cleaners so I encouraged him to face his biggest fear (with lots of his favorite treats), so that he would learn that it wasn’t going to hurt him and that it’s alright to be in the same room with a loud piece of equipment.

One thing I did notice was how willing each teenager was to relay their fears to us and the dogs and how they all nodded in agreement with each other…and how we did as well.  No matter how old you are, or how old your dog is, we all still fear some things, but it’s how you learn to deal and face them that matter.