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Caring Canine Toronto Therapy Dogs |
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A Brief Overview of our Current
Programs |
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Animal-Assisted
Therapy (AAT) Programs:
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Animal-Assisted
Activities (AAA) Programs:
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Volunteer Programs for
Children:
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Reading with Professor Dogs
(AAT) for Children |
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The goals of
this program are to promote healthy self-concept and facilitate interest in
reading among children with literacy and/or learning challenges. Literacy skills would improve
significantly as a result. Published research has shown that grade-2
students with literacy challenges could improve their literacy by two grades
after reading to a therapy dog weekly for a year. The program is AAT oriented. The children participate weekly. While they choose their books, a
teacher/coordinator records and facilitates their progress. |
Scratch for a
video on Reading with Professor Dogs by the Canadian Press… |
The program
runs on weekdays in class at schools and also on weekends at
a library. Volunteers commit
weekly or bi-weekly. Every child
reads one-on-one for 20 to 40 minutes to a a Professor dog. The child is also encouraged to write and
read a weekly journal to the dog. Students may
be in special education (literacy), language-impaired classes, special
education (learning challenges), or regular classes but are behind in
literacy. Thanks to our sponsors, every student receives a new
hardcopy book and a certificate from his Professor Dog yearly. |
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Social Skills and Empathy with
Prof. Dogs (AAT) for Children & Teenagers |
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The goals of
this program are to promote healthy self-concept and facilitate empathy and
social skills among students/children with special emotional and/or social
needs. Published research has shown that students with
difficulties in emotional control and social skills could improve
substantially in both areas after spending eight weeks with a dog at school
on a daily basis. Further, these
students developed a more positive attitude towards their school. The program
is AAT oriented. The students
participate weekly. A social service
worker or a teacher sets specific and individualized goals for the students
and records their progress. |
The program
runs on weekdays at schools.
Volunteers commit weekly or bi-weekly. Every student spends one-on-one time with his Professor
Dog. But the student may also join
the dog for group activities. The
student is encouraged to share a weekly journal entry with the dog. Students in this program have special emotional
and/or social needs. They are often
under the care of social service workers at school or in special education
(behaviour) classes. Thanks to our sponsors, every student receives a new
hardcopy book and a certificate of excellence from his Professor Dog every
year. |
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Doctor Dogs Visitation
Program (AAA) for Adults |
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The goals of this program are to promote and
facilitate the emotional well-being of adult patients at hospitals and
residents of long-term care facilities. All Doctor Dog spends quality one-on-one time
with every client to provide the client with its full presence, exclusive
attention, and active listening.
Interaction focuses on the individual client instead of the dog,
the volunteer, or the staff member.
Hence, our Doctor Dogs do not interact with, or perform tricks
for, a group of clients at the same time. |
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The program is AAA oriented. It runs on both weekdays and
weekends. Volunteers commit weekly or
bi-weekly. Volunteers in this program should be flexible and
be ready to travel the distance they specify on their application form. In general, new volunteers would join an
existing program that needs more volunteers.
They are welcome to initiate a new program only after visiting their
current facility for 50 or more sessions.
Our volunteers are responsible and committed. |
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Doctor Dogs Visitation Program
(AAA) for Children and Teenagers |
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The goals of this program are to promote and
facilitate the emotional well-being of young patients, children or teenagers
of adults with health or physical challenges, children with autism,
developmental delay, physical challenges, or multiple exceptionalities. All Doctor Dog spends one-on-one quality time
with every client to provide the client with its full presence, exclusive
attention, and active listening.
Interaction focuses on the individual client instead of the dog,
the volunteer, or the staff member.
Hence, our Doctor Dogs do not interact with, or perform tricks
for, a group of clients at the same time. |
Our Doctor Dogs visit young patients as well as
children and teenagers of adults with health or physical challenges. The program is AAA oriented. Moreover, our Doctor Dog program runs on weekdays
at schools for students with autism, developmental delay, or physical
challenges, etc. Volunteers commit
weekly or bi-weekly. The program is
AAA-oriented. But we strongly
encourage teachers to implement a goal-directed and progress-tracking AAT
program instead. In addition to
having fun, students in an AAT could develop skills for the long-term. |
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The goal of this program is to foster healthy
self-concept, a responsible attitude towards volunteering, and strong
community spirit among the children participants. In addition to assisting the evaluators at our
Doctor-Dog evaluations, the children participants also engage in activities
related to volunteering. Examples
include writing a journal reflection on their volunteer experience, sharing
with other children a book/video about volunteering they have read/watched,
or expressing their volunteer experience in arts. |
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We
especially courage children with special emotional or social needs, literacy
or learning challenges, or a desire to develop a healthy self-concept to join
the program. All
children volunteers are candidates for the Ontario
Volunteer Service Youth Award
after volunteering for two to three consecutive years. (Only dogs
that have already passed an evaluation with adults would participate in an
evaluation with children.) |
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Disclaimer: The views expressed on our website are not
influenced in any way by our sponsors. |
Last updated:
01-2012 |