Sky’s First Day: A new speech therapy dog learns the ropes of animal-assisted interventions
It was Sky's first full day in the office!
Though still training for our Canine Good Citizen test, the wonderful families and Arlington Speech & Reading welcomed her in for a day to learn the ropes.
She has already been a few times before without seeing any kids to adjust to the environment and a couple partial days to meet families as a transition into the expected workload.
Follow along for ideas of how to transition your own speech therapy dog into your work:
New therapy dog Sky wanted to be a part of everything during her first full day on the job providing animal-assisted speech therapy.
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Preparing a new therapy dog for a day of animal-assisted speech therapy
Before our first client today, Sky got to play fetch for a bit to burn off a little adrenaline from the car ride, then got a calming neck massage and engaged in a little focus work (sit, down-stay, heel, watch). To watch our plan in action, click here.
I also put a spritz of Dog Appeasing Phermone on her bed as well as we’ve found that keeps her calmer when home alone.
She is still a bit overly excited greeting people as they walk through the door, but with our morning plan executed she did better than I had expected. This may become our routine as she starts to come a bit more often.
Even with my more experienced speech therapy dog, Delta, I try to arrive with enough time for her to get a drink of water and sniff around the office for a few relaxing minutes before jumping into a session with a client.
Attention needed throughout a day of animal-assisted speech therapy
Sky needed lots of potty breaks from all the excitement, which meant bringing some paperwork home at the end of the day instead of getting it done between clients.
That's ok for now, I just need to remember to keep my expectations for work completion low as Sky improves her tolerance for office life.
She’s still learning to conserve energy throughout the day as her outgoing nature means she wanted to be included in each session. Based on past experiences with my other speech therapy dogs Delta, Johnny Utah, and Bodhi I’ve found that this can be one of the hardest things to “teach” and really requires on-the-job experience.
Fortunately, Sky was already familiar with her extra-comfy bed from time spent in the office without clients, so she did independently lie down briefly on a few occasions.
New therapy dog Sky needed a lot of bathroom breaks from all the excitement of helping with animal-assisted speech therapy.
Sky’s future as a speech therapy dog
Overall I was pleased with how Sky interacted with families on her first full day.
Yes, she was a bit overly excited.
But she seemed comfortable interacting with a wide variety of ages and ability levels and was moderately able to be redirected to give clients a little space when needed.
I intentionally chose a day when I wasn’t seeing any kids that would possibly become dysregulated and be loud or act out and potentially scare her, though she did work with some kids with very high energy levels.
I’ll continue to build on her ability to respect boundaries by not jumping up or giving unsolicited kisses and to stay more independently on her bed when a child needs some space.
I will also need to start gradually introducing time alone in my inner office for future situations when she may need to be separated from a client for her own welfare or the child’s comfort.
I'm hoping to bring her one day a week by summer, letting Delta continue two days a week.
New therapy dog Sky was still ready for more after her first full day of animal-assisted speech therapy!
And yes, I hear Delta was pretty sulky at home.
As I was packing my work bag this morning I had serious guilt over leaving her behind, but I know in the long run she will appreciate working a little less as she ages. She's somewhere between 8 and 10 years old (she's a rescue) so I don't want to overburden her or push her to burn-out.
Check back for an upcoming blog post on what else I'm doing to help extend Delta's career longevity.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to partner with a speech therapy dog, please follow on Instagram @Speech_Dogs and check out the other resources available on the www.speechdogs.com site.
Stay tuned for how to get your copy of Paws for Progress: Integrating Animal-Assisted Interventions into Your Speech-Language Pathology Practice, coming from ASHA Press fall ‘24!
May your days be filled with puppy wiggles and children’s giggles,
Sharlet
