Recycled Pups: from rescued dog to therapy pet - Tapa blanda

Recycled Pups provides you with the information needed to select and adopt a rescue dog with potential to be part of a confident and successful animal assisted activity team. By sharing their years of personal experience working with therapy dogs, the authors’ guidance will help you understand the desirable characteristics of both pet and handler, rules and regulations of certifying organizations, the pet- handler evaluation process and components of an actual pet therapy visit.

Lee Gaffney and her husband, Tom, live in River Ridge, a suburb of New Orleans. They share their home with four rescued mutts-Tallulah Marie, Andrew Thomas, Stanley Watson and Gabrielle Pearl, all of whom work as therapy dogs and hold their Canine Good Citizen titles. A mixed-breed devotee, Lee’s personalized license plate reads “MuttNut”. Her degree in social work opened her professional life to a variety of careers. Since 1991, Lee has been an active part of the Visiting Pet Program in New Orleans and has served several terms as President. Through the years, she and Tom have rescued, trained and had 12 dogs successfully evaluated for therapy work. Lee is an avid gardener, therapy dog evaluator and trainer. Malay Ghose-Hajra is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the University of New Orleans in Louisiana. Malay was born and raised in India. He moved to the United States in 1998 for higher education and has lived in this country ever since. Malay joined the Visiting Pet Program in New Orleans in 2007 with his beloved rescued Golden Retriever, Mita. In 2011, Malay added his rescued German Shepherd Dog, Tej, into the VPP program. Malay serves on the board for VPP and regularly participates in their handler orientation, pet handler evaluation and new volunteer mentoring activities. In his spare time, Malay enjoys travelling, photography, camping, hiking, and motorcycle riding. He lives in Metairie, Louisiana with Mita and Tej.