Riley and the quest to become a therapy dog!

Ha ha.. sorry, I couldn't resist the cheesy name for the thread

Either way, since I always share about my reptiles, I thought it would be nice to include my furry pets for once Now, I have been trying to train my chiweenie (dachsund-chihuahua mix) for the past two years to become a certified therapy dog. She is perfectly qualified in every way, except that she CANNOT receive vaccines, which immediately disqualifies her from being certified...

unfortunately Daisy (the chiweenie) came from a home where breeding was unsupervised and the animals were neglected, which resulted in her parents (who are brother and sister) having a litter of inbred puppies. And I ended up with my sweet little girl! But because of some genetic flaw (most likely due to the inbreeding) whenever she recieves vaccines she has violent seizures that last up to ten minutes, and prevents her from properly using her legs for more then a day. We and the vet cannot figure out what triggers these episodes in her. She has had seizures without the vaccinations, but giving her a vaccine is a surefire way to trigger them.

Regardless, I want to get one of my dogs certified as a therapy dog since the people at hospital, nursing homes, and hospices have changed my life, and I want to visit those people who just need someone to visit when they are feeling most alone and vunerable in their lives. But I refuse to put Daisy through the painful seizures in order to have her certified. And my bulldog, Bruiser, is a lugnut of a dog, (even though he is sweet and well mannered) and has the attention span of a fruitfly. Plus he snots on everything... So there goes that option!

But about six weeks ago, my two purebred labrador retreivers had a litter of puppies at my dads house. The mother unfortunately was overcome by a mastitis infection, which caused her breast to explode, leaving a hole the size of a fist on her chest. She had to go onto some powerful antibiotics, and we were forced to seperate her from her pupppies at only two and a half weeks old. We then had to bottle feed and wean all of the puppies. But my dad allowed me to keep one of the puppies so that i could care for him at my house. We (me and my mother) have had him since he was four weeks old now! He is a very intelligent boy, and I believe that I can realize my therapy dog goal through him! I created this thread to update you on how well his training is going, and hopefully see him go to work eventually!


well here he is! Riley Nonsense is his name! (sorry the quality sucks, but he doesnt hold still!)









He is currently six weeks four days old. He already knows "sit" and "down". I have begun leash training him to avoid future issues, seeing that he will be a very large dog (his mother is 110 and dad is 130. They are not overweight at all, they are just huge!) Hopefully he will keep learning at his current rate, but I want to teach him as much as I can while he is still this impressionable.

And here are my other dogs at the moment

This is Bruiser (or "Bubba"). He is a six year old, purebred english bulldog, and he will love you forever if you scratch his butt







and this is my five year old chiweenie, Daisy (or my mom calls her "Princess Puddin' Head"). Absolutely sweet dog who just loves attention! She would barely wake up for these photos though








And then i have to add my grumpy old man. We rescued him as a kitten about ten years ago, and is still an ornery old guy! He is an outdoor/indoor cat and likes to bring me pigeons. (yay...) He does have a sweet side hidden somewhere under the grumpy though! He loves going to sleep on top of us when we are laying down. Currently he is hiding in my room to escape the evil black thing in the living room (Riley). So this is him being grumpy, and keeping my paints warm for me






Well that was a picture filled post! Ill let you know how he is doing on his "quest" to be a therapy dog! And I'll get pictures of his parents and his remaining siblings next time I visit my dads house. Thanks for reading!

Good luck with the training! Wonderful pictures of your furry family members.

Fun! I had both of my dogs certified as therapy animals through a local organization. We had lots of fun going to visit people at elementary schools, nursing homes and hospitals. it's an awesome time to spend some quality time with your pets and give back to the community!! Hardest part for my guys was a 3 minute out of sight stay and ignoring dropped food! Haha.

Rabies is required by law but some organizations will accept vaccine titers that show your dog has immunity from their original vaccine for the others. Most current vaccines protect for 8-15 years and there really isn't much of a reason to vaccinate as often as we do. The titers are a bit expensive though as they run $100-200 a pop instead of the $10 for the shot which is why most folks choose the shots.

Thanks for the support guys! I will get some better photos soon though! I will look into the titers for sure, but I'm afraid that the rabies vaccine always triggers one of her seizures (as do any other vaccines ). It breaks my heart every time she has one because they seem to get worse each time. I'm afraid that she may not recover the use of her legs on any such occasion. She already has an occasional limp that started after her last seizure .

But I am very excited to visit the nursing homes nearby, because I already visit them during Christmas time when their familys forget about them for the most part... And I love putting smiles on someones face when they need to smile most. And then I also want to vist hospices to help comfort the greiving families, and provide company to the ill people that are there. I have spent a lot of time in hospices myself, and I feel that I can sympathize with the families that were brought there due to their unfortunate cicumstances... Hospitals are pretty much the same. Too much time spent there with my family members leaves me wanting to help others through the same situations I just hope that I can realize this goal in the future and bring comfort to these other people