12 Skills Your Dog Must Master To Become A Therapy Dog (Therapy Dog and Canine Good Citizen Test)

Medical Centers

Compassionate Care Therapy Canines (CCTC) teams visits hospitals and rehabilitation facilities where they work in numerous programs, including:

• Adult and pediatric intensive care

• Adult and pediatric rehabilitation

• Behavioral units including adolescent and geriatric psych

• Cardiac telemetry

• Grief therapy

• Hospice

• Medical and surgical inpatient bed visits

• Oncology centers

• Outpatient clinics

• Palliative care

• Partial hospitalization

• Pediatric units

• Stroke and neurology units

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​Some CCTC hospital programs are geared towards visitation: comforting, helping to reduce pain or discomfort, humanizing the complexity of medical treatments, and increasing patient morale. Others are focused more on goal-directed interactions.

Therapeutic Programs

Riley, 8, is comforted by a therapy dog after undergoing treatment.

Schools

Therapy dog teams visit local libraries, where these gentle and understanding dogs create a welcoming environment for children to read aloud. With their non-judgmental nature and patient demeanor, the dogs offer unconditional support, allowing young readers to build confidence in their abilities while enjoying the companionship of a furry friend.

Therapy dog teams engage with students across a range of educational settings, from early learning centers to high schools, particularly during testing periods. Many programs offer weekly therapy sessions tailored for students with special needs, fostering emotional support and comfort. Additionally, Dog Safety presentations are provided for all grade levels, ensuring that every student can learn about interacting safely with dogs.

Therapy dog relaxes as Kennedy reads and shows the therapy dog pictures.

Outreach Program

Corporate Events

In today's fast-paced and demanding business environments, finding effective ways to provide emotional support to employees is essential. At CCTC, we recognize the proven benefits of animal assisted therapy to increase well-being, productivity, and morale in any workplace.
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CCTC Presentations
At CCTC, we're passionate about telling our story and spreading awareness about what we do. You can contact us to schedule a presentation about CCTC and/or the general benefits of animal assisted therapy. All presenters can be accompanied by certified, trained therapy dogs.

​Community Response Unit (CRU)

We are in the process of implementing the Community Response Unit (CRU) which meets the varied needs of the community, helps calm and support survivors during a crisis or disaster, and aids rescue workers, first responders, or volunteers during a trauma situation.

Composed of certified therapy dogs and their handlers, the CRU would often responds to high-stress situations such as a shooting or other public emergencies. The dogs are trained to remain focused and to offer emotional support.

The CRU partners with disaster, mental health, and emergency response agencies to provide emotional rescue, recovery, and ongoing support.

Contact with therapy dogs can improve stress levels of the participants by lowering blood pressure, slowing heart rate, and reducing stress hormones.
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CCTC Community Response Unit therapy dog teams would undergo extensive training including psychological first aid and the emotional effects of crisis, trauma, and disasters.​

We are looking to implement this program in 2026.