Outreach for Librarians: Therapy Dogs

Things to Think About: 

• This is one event where you should NOT have food available for anyone – even the furry visitors.  Putting out chocolate could be fatal for the dogs, and in my experience, the therapy dog handlers have their own preferred treats with them.  You don’t even need to put down water bowls.
• If you’ve cleared this event with your on-campus management once, it’s just a matter of letting them know when the dogs will visiting, and often they want to visit the therapy dogs, too!
• Put out chairs for people to sit and visit.  The handlers will also want a chair – especially because some of the volunteers are senior citizens and can’t stand for long periods of time.
• While some libraries have regular, monthly visits from therapy dogs, I’ve limited it to Finals Stress Relief so that it becomes a special event.

Therapy Dogs

Objective:  Students will be able to release stress by interacting with the therapy dogs.

Supplies:  certified therapy dogs, chairs

How To:

• Clear this event with your on-campus management.
• Contact a therapy dog group and arrange for them to come out.
• Depending on what kind of therapy animals they have, they might ask you what kind of animals you want visiting - dogs, cats, bunnies, etc..
• They may also ask you what size dog you want to visit.  I suggest you get a variety of sizes. 
• Decide how you want to manage student-dog interaction.  Do you want students to make appointments, or do you want to have an open-house style visit?  Open houses are easier to manage, and you will get many more students.
• The therapy dogs and their owners will arrive a few minutes before the event and leave promptly.

Working with the Therapy Dog Organization

• Generally, there is no cost involved with a therapy dog visit as these are volunteer organizations.
• While therapy dogs are also someone’s pet, these are no ordinary house dogs.  They’ve been through training, have passed tests and are certified as therapy dogs.
• When you contact the therapy dog organization, make sure that they have insurance.
• When organizing the visit, the organization will want to know where their people need to park, if it’s free parking, and directions to the library.