Shih Tzu Therapy Dogs

Overview

Therapy dogs, encompassing all breeds and mixes, offer comfort to people in various settings like hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and disaster-affected areas. Unlike service or medical alert dogs, therapy dogs, accompanied by their owners, volunteer to bring joy and comfort during short visits.

This practice, initiated in 1976 by Elaine Smith, has grown significantly due to the positive impact on individuals facing illnesses, recovery, or loneliness. Visits from therapy dogs have been shown to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and boost overall morale, all on a volunteer basis without financial compensation for the owners.

In this article, we cover:

The qualities that make a Shih Tzu a good candidate for being a therapy dog
What Shih Tzu therapy dogs do
How to get your Shih Tzu ready to become a therapy dog
An introduction to Gracie, an amazing Shih Tzu that is a certified therapy dog, along with a Q&A session with her human

Porter, a 16-month-old Shih Tzu from Saratoga, New York, and his human, Laura Toma, have been active as Therapy Dogs with Therapy Dogs International since May 2015.

They visit assisted living facilities and plan to extend their outreach to a school for children with developmental disabilities. Porter's mission is simply to spread love.

The Qualities of a Successful Therapy Dog

While every Shih Tzu is beautiful and each are endearing in their own way, not every Shih Tzu has the particular disposition that is needed to work as a therapy dog. With this said, when you look at the personality traits required for a dog to be a successful therapy dog, it is common for this playful, outgoing and friendly breed to embody them all:

A genuine affection for all sorts of people. Some dogs are super-lovable with their owners, but a bit shy or untrusting of strangers. For a Shih Tzu to work as a therapy dog, they must have a happy outlook towards everyone that they encounter, no matter the situation, and without needing to warm up to anyone.
Ability to stay cheerfully calm. To be successful working as a therapy dog, a Shih Tzu needs to be calm enough that new settings do not faze them and they do not get overly excited when meeting new people (such as barking or jumping up). This also includes the ability to handle sudden noises (hospital buzzers, loud voices, etc.) and the possibility of lots of people crowding around the dog.
Aware of the needs of others. While the sight of any cute dog will often be enough to make a person smile, working as a therapy dog goes way beyond this. If a Shih Tzu is cut out for this sort of work, they will naturally be alert to the needs of others, initiating contact with those that are shy and truly enjoy making connections that bring joy to others.
Obedience. To earn a certification, there is quite a bit of testing that involves perfectly listening to commands (more ahead).

If You Think Your Shih Tzu Could Work as a Therapy Dog:

If you feel that your Shih Tzu could possibly do well working as a therapy dog, that's great!

Whether you have 2 hours a month or 10 hours a week to bring your Shih Tzu to places to cheer people up, it will make a huge difference in the lives of others.

In order for a dog to be an official therapy dog, being sociable and obedient are two non-negotiable qualities that they must possess. If you are not quite sure if your Shih Tzu would do well with this, you can start off by bringing them to a senior center or other such facility (with permission) and see how things go. If you see that your Shih Tzu enjoys this sort of volunteering, you can then plan on having them earn their certificate to make things official.

Do know, however, that training for this is very involved and can take quite a while.

Steps that Lead to Becoming a Therapy Dog:

Gracie, 2 years, 10 months old, ready to see patients at the hospital

Pet parents: Steve & Carol

We'll see more of Gracie ahead

At-home or group obedience training: You'll want to make sure that your Shih Tzu is right on point with all needed commands, including heeling. You can do this at home; however enrolling them into group training classes may be the best course of action, as this will add the elements of being with other dogs and other people, learning with distractions, and so forth.

CGC: You may want to start off with having your Shih Tzu earn the AKC's Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Award. While not necessary for the next step, this award that is earned by displaying good manners and obedience can give you a good idea if your Shih Tzu has the right temperament and skills in following commands that is needed for therapy work. As a side note, this is a good first step if you plan have your dog perform in AKC events such as obedience, agility or performance.

Therapy Training & Programs: To start on the road to your Shih Tzu becoming an official therapy dog, you may wish to register with a large, country-wide organization or with one of the over 100 smaller groups that are centered in cities and districts around the U.S.

Therapy Dogs International is one of the largest volunteer organization that educates, tests and awards certificates to dogs all over the United States and some parts of Canada. There are over 25,000 dogs currently registered with them. There are a few initial guidelines:

A dog must be at least 1 year old
The dog cannot have bitten anyone in the past
The dog must have a clean bill of health and be up-to-date with all vaccinations

And, testing is quite extensive. Just some of this includes:

The Shih Tzu must allow the evaluator to check all areas of the body, including paws and tail and the dog must show that he/she is fine with being touched.
The Shih Tzu is walked by rooms with people in the hallways, displaying the ability to greet them and show friendliness.
Owner and Shih Tzu must enter rooms a certain way: The owner enters first (to see if a particular person wishes to have a visit) and then the dog enters only if that is confirmed.
Commands of 'Heel', 'Sit', 'Down', 'Come' and 'Leave it' are tested. This last one is perhaps the most difficult, since it involves a dog obeying the command to not touch food that's being offered to them and/or not drinking from a bowl of water that is placed on the floor. This is to keep the dog safe since a patient could accidentally offer medicine to a dog instead of a piece of food and liquid on the floor could be hazardous. The Shih Tzu must not even lick the food being offered and cannot lap at the water at all, or he/she will fail the test.
The Shih Tzu must show a willingness to greet and be petted by a variety of people. This includes those in wheelchairs (the dog is put on laps for some of this), with crutches and with walkers.
The Shih Tzu will be tested regarding distractions and their ability to stay by their owner's side and maintain their composure. This can include such things as someone dropping a heavy object or even someone skateboarding up behind the dog as they are being walked. At some point during the exam, there will be test volunteers letting out mock cries, moans and other such unsettling noises that one may encounter in a hospital setting.
There will be a 3 minute period when the owner must step away out of sight. During this time, the Shih Tzu is expected to remain unfazed and is not allowed to bark, whine or show any agitation.
The Shih Tzu will be tested as to how they reacts to other dogs (since other therapy dogs of any breed may also be volunteering at the same time).

In all, there are 13 tests, divided into 2 phases.

Any growling, snapping or biting will automatically disqualify a dog. Even such things as not immediately recovering from being startled, acting shy or licking the offered food will result in not passing the course.

If you register with Therapy Dogs International, you'll be given a manual and a DVD to be able to thoroughly practice with your Shih Tzu and then you can decide when you think he/she is ready.

Meet Gracie, a Certified Therapy Dog

Gracie is a 2 year, 10 month old Shih Tzu that found her calling as a therapy dog beginning at the age of 1 year old. She shows a remarkable ability to be friendly with people of all ages and handles herself like a pro. She visits both senior citizens and hospital patients, showing an extraordinary level of empathy and affection.

Q&A with Gracie's Humans

Gracie's owners, Steve and Carol Tamerius of Glendale, California, were kind enough to answer some questions about their Shih Tzu's work as a therapy dog:

Q: Hi guys, thanks so much for introducing us to Gracie. Can you tell us how it is that Gracie came into your life?

A: Well to begin with, we were looking for a Shih Tzu puppy and started searching various shelters in the area but were unable to find a Shih Tzu. I contacted the Shih Tzu Club of America for a list of breeders. One breeder of show dogs had a puppy she couldn't show because it had a "defect", one brown eye and one blue eye. We thought it was cute and fell in love with the little fuzz ball.

When we picked her up, we hadn't decided on a name yet. When we turned on the car to head home, the first thing we heard was George Burns yelling, "Gracie!" on the old time radio channel on Sirius/XM. Gracie was one of five or six names we had on our list.

Q: What made you even think about having her start work as a therapy dog?

A: Ten years ago my mother was in a hospice facility in Ohio for cancer. Several times when I went to visit her, I met volunteers with their dogs. I saw how much joy it brought to the patients and I always thought that if I got a dog I would like to do that. Once I had Gracie, I took her with me to a senior center. She was so good with the people that we began going regularly. After that, we started training and she eventually earned her certification from Therapy Dogs International.

Q: Do you have any tips for pet parents that think that their Shih Tzu might do well as a therapy dog?

The first step should probably be to take an obedience class to learn the required commands and to socialize your dog. Introduce them to as many other dogs and people as possible. As soon as Gracie received her required vaccinations as a puppy, we enrolled her in an obedience class and began taking her with us wherever we went to acclimate her to various situations, sounds, surroundings, and people.

Q: Can you tell us more about what it is that Gracie does during the visits?

A: Gracie has her own photo ID badge that has to be scanned to enter the hospital area where she works! Once we're in the hospital, she make a bee-line for the administration offices where she greets everyone. Then we go to the various floors to visit with those patients who desire to see her. She also greets the nurses and hospital staff on the floors.

After asking a patient if he or she would like to see Gracie, I either put her on the bed with them or on their lap (if they're in a wheelchair) so that they can pet her. Sometimes you discover that the patient has a dog at home that they dearly miss or that they recently lost their pet. So Gracie brings them a little cheer and they are grateful for the opportunity to be with a dog for a few minutes.

When we are done for the day, Gracie enjoys going with me to the cafeteria to get a treat for a job well done.

Q: Does Gracie seem to know when it is time to 'work'? Does she ever have an 'off' day?

A: She's always ready to go to work. I really think she looks forward to it and seems to have a sense of what she's supposed to do. When we are on the floors with patients, she knows that it's work time, not play time. However, in the administrative offices, she's all play.

Q: What do you think is the most rewarding aspect of this… from Gracie's perspective and then from your own perspective?

A: Gracie loves being with people. She loves being petted and she senses that people are happy to see her. That's her reward. For me, I just love seeing the pleasure she gives to patients and the smiles she puts on their faces.

Thanks so much for sharing Gracie's story and photos with everyone; she is an amazing Shih Tzu!

A Final Note:

The Shih Tzu breed, in general, are popular as therapy dogs with their super cute expressions that can light up someone's day and their natural ability to be in tune to how others are feeling.

While not every dog will have just the right temperament for this sort of volunteer work, if you feel that your Shih Tzu might be a good fit for this and enjoy it, why not give it a try? At the very least, working together to learn commands is an excellent method to bond with your dog. And if your Tzu someday becomes a volunteer worker, it can be a great way to give back to the community and share some love.

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