I have been teaching a Therapy Dog Training class for the past 6 weeks. It was geared towards getting dogs ready to test so they will be certified to visit nursing homes, hospitals, libraries, etc.

Last night was our final class so we briefly had our dogs don costumes. I’m not a big fan of putting costumes on dogs but the people we visit draw so much enjoyment from it. I think it is worth it to make our friends at the nursing home smile. I do tend to reserve this for our October visits to celebrate Halloween. For the final class, I wanted to teach how much laughter this can bring, and what a great thing it is to share with others.

Above is my dog Shelby being a movie star. Shelby is already a certified therapy dog so I use her as my training and testing dog. Shelby is proud to say that she goes to school and has a job. I was surprised but she actually walked around the class room smiling in this get up. Of course she is still on pain meds so that may have something to do with it. You can read about why she is on pain meds in my previous blog post. https://sanctuaryacres.wordpress.com/2018/02/27/a-trip-to-the-vet/

In class we also had Bella, a chihuahua mix, dressed as a sports fan.

And Greta, a possible Dane/Boxer mix, who came as a pirate.

Here Greta and Shelby greet each other. It was a fun time but alas, I will not be teaching this class again until fall.