Top 3 Mistakes I Made When Starting Animal-Assisted Interventions with a Speech Therapy Dog
Perhaps there are speech therapists out there who always know exactly what to do, always execute their plan perfectly, and have amazing outcomes with every client. I am not one of those professionals.
However, I care deeply about my profession and helping the families I serve and I’m (usually) willing to learn from my mistakes. When I decided to start bringing a speech therapy dog to work, I honestly didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I did my best to figure it out as I went with the limited resources I could find at the time. Five years later I have learned so much both about the theory behind animal-assisted interventions and practical daily application in a speech therapy setting.
Let me share the 3 biggest things I wished I’d known when I started animal-assisted speech therapy:
Delta the speech therapy dog provides deep pressure sensory input as part of a transition routine for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
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#1 You can never know too much about dog behavior
As much as we love to think of our speech therapy dogs as little humans, the reality is they have their own species-specific communication, goals, and desires.
Dogs communicate with their tails, ears, body posture, vocalizations, and even breathing rate how they are feeling about a situation. Dogs use a lot of calming signals, sometimes called “appeasement signals” in dog training literature, to try to keep a situation under control.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to miss some of these signals or mistake them as signs of a happy or calm therapy dog. Not all tail wags are friendly. Not all quiet dogs are actually calm.
While I’m not a dog professional, I’ve sought out information from those that are and then practiced watching dogs out in public, at the vet, on television and within interactions at home to hone my skills.
Early on I didn’t always catch the signals my speech therapy dog would send that she was feeling a bit uncomfortable and we had a couple incidents that fortunately didn’t result in any harm, but were startling.
In hindsight these could have been easily avoided if I’d known what to watch for. Resource guarding in particular is a very normal and common behavior in which a dog tries to prevent something from being taken away, whether that’s food, a toy, a bed, or even a human companion.
If severe, it makes a dog unsafe to be around impulsive people (i.e., most kids in speech therapy!).
Fortunately, in Delta’s case it was mild and manageable once I learned to keep kids off her bed. As long as she has a safe spot to retreat to most of the time she can handle the occasional unavoidable intrusion to her space. But it’s something I have to stay vigilant about.
See some of my personal favorite resources on dog behavior by check out the Animal-Assisted Therapy Resources Books and DVDs page.
#2 You don’t have to incorporate your speech therapy dog all the time in every session.
When I first started, I felt pressure to make my therapy dog the star of the session, especially if a child was especially interested in dogs.
I quickly learned this can be exhausting for both of us, and with exhaustion comes crankiness and burn out.
However, dogs can help a speech therapy session just by being in the room without a specific expectation—depending on the therapy dog’s energy, they can be incorporated to calm a dysregulated client or alert a more passive one through observation and unstructured interactions. (To learn more about Active Presence vs. Passive Presence in speech therapy dogs, click here. To learn more about ways a speech therapy dog can assist in calming a dysregulated child, click here.)
Many child speech therapy clients will work more diligently on a task if they know they will later get to show their new skill to the therapy dog, allowing the dog down time within a session.
Some kids just aren’t that motivated by a therapy dog’s presence, and that’s ok too. Our canine co-therapists are asked to tolerate a lot throughout their day (strong emotions, high activity levels, impulsive behaviors) and they need to have as much time as possible to rest in a safe spot when their services are not directly needed.
And since dogs are crepuscular by nature, meaning that they naturally have the most energy at dawn and dusk, the typical human work day falls during much of their nap time. To get sufficient rest a therapy dog may need a totally separated safe area or a crate or bed in the therapy room away from the action.
I now feel more relaxed about bringing my speech therapy dog into the activity when it flows organically instead of trying to make up a task for her to do with every client, letting her rest in between.
Therapy dog Delta rests comfortably on her bed when not directly needed for animal-assisted speech therapy.
#3 Don’t wait for the perfect therapy dog, just start the training process and see where it leads
Raise your hand if your dog isn’t perfectly behaved all the time.
Yup, that’s my hand raised up high!
I’ve worked with four speech therapy dogs now: one rescue, one older dog, and two young pups. Each of them had their own strengths and weaknesses that I had to learn to flexibly work with, appreciating the magic they brought to the table while managing their unique challenges to keep the dogs happy in the work and clients safe.
Training a speech therapy dog is a long and involved process, so if you even think you might want to pursue this path the best time to start is now.
Do you have a dog with a reasonably tolerant temperament an affiliative nature (i.e., a drive to interact with humans)? They could have therapy dog potential, even if they don’t yet have the specific manners and obedience skills they will ultimately need.
Find a great trainer who understands your goals and can guide you in socialization and basic obedience. Research what testing and certifications you wish to pursue (it will differ depending on your goals and work setting).
Decide what you can afford to spend on training—do you want to try it on your own, take group classes, hire a trainer for one-on-one sessions, or put your dog in full time training?
Do you have a lot of time to take your therapy dog hopeful to public spaces to practice with distractions and desensitize to new sights/sounds/smells?
Recognize that you may have some setbacks along the way and that it’s a normal part of the therapy dog journey. Progress won’t happen overnight, and depending on your dog’s learning style it may take several months or several years to be ready for actual work. That whole time though you are building a mutually trusting bond and learning to read your individual dog’s unique communication, both of which will serve you well in therapy dog work.
(To find training and certification resources, visit the Resources page)
If you’re ready to get started or just want to see what it looks like to partner with a therapy dog as an SLP, check out the rest of the Speech Dogs website for informational videos, resource links, product recommendations, and more blog posts.
Follow on Instagram @Speech_Dogs and check back for how to get your copy of Paws for Progress: Integrating Animal-Assisted Interventions Into Your Speech-Language Pathology Practice, coming from ASHA Press in fall ’24.
And don’t hesitate to reach out using the contact link if you have questions.
May your days be filled with puppy wiggles and children’s giggles,
Sharlet
