Our therapy dogs have been trained since they were puppies calmly let themselves be petted and hugged by the young and old alike. Children are turbulent and react unpredictably near dogs. People with spasms or other handicaps make unpredictable movements. The dogs are trained to respond in a safe way to this. Training a therapy dog therefore is a job with a huge responsibility. We work mostly with dogs that been trained since they were a puppy, but also some older dogs show themselves very adequate as therapy dog. Not every dog is suited for this job. They have to feel free to move around between large amounts of people, and feel calm and comfortable in small closed areas and let themselves be cuddled and petted by everyone. The big poodles Andrea owns are very suited for people with allergies, because they don’t only have a great character, but also their caught doesn’t lose any hairs, and do not trigger allergic reactions, so that is also very convenient for for the people we visit, because they will not find any hairs on their clothings or in their rooms after we leave. When this is not a concern, we also use dogs from our course members. These are dogs from different kinds of races who after a education and multiple exams have been found suited. But foremost a therapy dog must love people and be calm in nature!