“Un-Slumping” with a Team: Lessons from Dr. Seuss for Speech Therapy Dog Partnerships
“When you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
“Being a professional isn’t about not making mistakes. You’re going to make mistakes. Get over it. Get over yourself. Being a professional is about how you handle those mistakes.”
– Marc Goldberg
What do Dr. Suess and a professional dog trainer have in common?
They both recognize that life is not easy and straightforward. Sometimes we get stuck.
And sometimes it takes help to get unstuck.
I consider myself lucky to have curated a great team of professional guides to help me when I get stuck on a challenge in my therapy dog journey. At various points I’ve called on each of them for help “un-slumping” when I just couldn’t figure out a solution on my own.
This post is not intended to provide specific recommendations for who you to have on your team as you pursue a career as an animal-assisted speech therapist. Every therapy dog-handler team is different in their needs, background experience, and finances.
However, I hope it will provide some food-for-thought as you work to establish and improve your skills in AAI...
Speech therapy dog Delta watches while a child chooses her next activity.
I’ve experienced some challenges with Delta, but with help from a team of dog professionals we’ve been able to make our animal-assisted therapy safer and more joyful for everyone involved.
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Team Member #1—Our dog trainer
After trying out several classes with various local obedience trainers with previous dogs, by the time I adopted Delta I had found one who I respected and clicked with. I was able to jump right into training my first speech therapy dog candidate, confident I had a qualified mentor to guide me.
I needed a trainer who:
· could be flexible and focus on manners and developing a working bond with two-way communication instead of adhering to competition-level obedience accuracy,
· placed dogs in classes based on their needs instead of a specific age (i.e., Delta started out in “Puppy I” even though she was a young adult because she was fearful of everything and just needed some positive, low-pressure socialization; while Sky skipped right past some of the beginner classes for an adequate challenge),
· had options for adding in private classes to troubleshoot specific challenges as needed
For us it also helped that classes met in the back room of a local feed store, giving the option of gradually increasing distractions by taking “field trips” into the store aisles and eventually working by the sales counters where people congregate. If the pressure became too much, we could head to the back and work away from crowds.
Even after I finished with classes, I was able to schedule occasional check-ins as challenges arose at work.
In the first few months, when I was still learning through trial-and-error how to provide animal-assisted speech therapy, Delta had a couple incidents of air-snapping at kids. Though scary in the moment, our trainer was able to immediately recognize that I had not provided enough down-time for Delta and clear boundaries for the kids, as I was letting them sit on her bed while she rested.
(Note: This now seems painfully obvious and embarrassing, but remember that at the time there was very little “how-to” information available to aspiring professional therapy dog handlers—everything I found at the time was geared toward one-hour volunteer therapy dog visits or was human-animal bond theory. Fortunately times are changing and there is increasingly more concrete guidance now available).
With a little tweaking to our workplace accommodations, we haven’t had an incident since. Without my trainer’s guidance though, I would likely have just considered Delta unsafe and given up on my dream of providing animal-assisted speech therapy.
Team Member #2—Our animal behaviorist
Delta rests quietly nearby while a preschooler participates in play-based speech therapy. Sometime Delta becomes overly excited with high energy kids in animal-assisted speech therapy sessions, but a behaviorist has helped me refine my cues and better manage this behavior.
Animal behaviorists come from a variety of backgrounds and there are several different certifying organizations with different education requirements, which can make choosing who to consult complicated. Some start their careers as trainers, vet techs or animal shelter workers, and others come from an academic background in zoology, ethology, or psychology.
After searching online and feeling overwhelmed by choices, I ultimately got a referral from my veterinarian and she’s been a good fit for both my companion and therapy dog needs.
Over the years I’ve found consulting a behaviorist well worth it for several different challenges, ranging from helping put management practices into place so dropped food doesn’t escalate into war between two of my dogs at home to helping me decide to retire Bodhi when he was not enjoying therapy dog work. (See Bodhi’s Story).
Recently, Delta started getting overly excited when I was engaging in play-based therapy with a few specific kids that need me to get very animated to hold their attention. While it was nice to see her so energetic and eager to join in given her advancing age, it wasn’t appropriate for her to be bumping into these small kids or whacking them with her tail.
While she’s normally pretty solid at going to her bed and waiting to be invited, with these few kiddos she was consistently ignoring my cues. It got to the point I often had to separate her, after which she would act mopey from having been left out of the fun.
Not wanting this situation to escalate and cause my littlest clients to feel overwhelmed or for Delta to feel unwanted and shut-down, I decided it was time to make another behaviorist appointment.
As a non-biased, data-based observer, our animal behavior consultant was able to:
· recognize that by feeding Delta treats from my hand during these sessions she was becoming hyperfixated on my hand movements; then when I was moving my hands excitedly to try to engage the kids, Delta’s arousal level was elevated in anticipation of more treats
· give me ideas for teaching Delta to engage her brain and learn to self-correct by returning to a down position on her bed if I break off interaction with her instead of relying on constantly re-cueing her (i.e., nagging)
· make suggestions for how to improve her response to my cues outside of therapy sessions by incorporating my young dog Bodhi to incrementally increase the excitement level in the room as Delta works on longer down-stays away from me
(Note: these examples are situation-specific to my therapy dog needs and should not be taken as general training advice.)
An animal behaviorist’s services are certainly more expensive than a dog trainer’s. One online session cost about as much as three private sessions in town or two in-home sessions with our trainer, though it did include a month’s follow-up via email and the possibility for additional sessions at a reduced fee as needed. Also, while not applicable to Delta’s situation, the behaviorist I use also collaborates with a behavioral veterinarian if medication is considered.
Because we meet over Zoom, the behaviorist has been able to see my dogs in our actual home or work environment without being an intruding presence that could alter their behavior.
I’m also able to share clips from speech therapy sessions (with caregiver permission of course) or while dog training so she can see the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences we need to explore.
Team Member #3—Our veterinarian
Speech therapy dog extraordinaire Johnny Utah needed some medical management to enable him to work into his senior years. Having a vet that understood the challenges of his work was a tremendous help.
During annual examinations I remind my vet that the dogs work as speech therapy dogs. I specify that they work 8-16 hours a week with small children, to emphasize that these aren’t just occasional one hour volunteer visits.
My vet always does range of motion testing with my dogs to look for any signs of arthritis. Unfortunately arthritis is extremely common in dogs and often a source of masked pain that could potentially result in a dog feeling defensive and acting out unexpectedly.
With my older dogs, we’ve done annual bloodwork to watch for any signs of liver or kidney dysfunction as well. It’s an additional expense, but I’d rather catch any systemic changes early in order to effectively treat and/or to take into consideration when making retirement decisions.
I personally have found having a holistic vet to consult as needed to be helpful as well.
Unfortunately ours moved a while back and I haven’t found a new one in the area, but when Delta was starting her career we did incorporate some herbs into her diet to help support her ability to deal with the stress of work.
Our holistic vet was also very nutrition focused and I think that has helped extend my dogs’ careers, especially my senior therapy dog Johnny Utah (see Johnny Utah’s Story: What My Ever-Wiggling Brittany Taught Me About Animal-Assisted Speech Therapy).
Team Member #4—an animal-assisted therapy mentor
Delta and I take a selfie with our certificate for passing evaluation by the Animal-Assisted Intervention Professionals, recognizing our ability to work as a professional therapy dog-handler team.
I saved the best for last!
Finding someone who has already experienced the joys and challenges of partnering with a therapy dog or two is priceless.
My personal favorite resource is the Association of Animal-Assisted Intervention Professionals (AAAIP).
I’ve appreciated that while they maintain a strong focus on professionalism, welfare, and safety they still openly acknowledge that this a difficult niche to practice and a field that is still in it’s infancy.
When I’ve had questions I been able to email with board members and get timely, actionable responses. They also have frequent webinars (“Get the Zoomies”) with various speakers that are casual and interactive with plenty of time for questions. Their Facebook group is also a way to connect with both new and experienced animal-assisted interventionists.
Of course, I’m happy to help out too!
If the question is outside my wheelhouse, chances are I at least have an idea of where to direct you for an answer.
If you’re interested in seeing the end result of curating a team of professionals for your speech therapy dog, check out my dogs in action on Instagram @speech_dogs, in the book Paws for Progress: Integrating Animal-Assisted Interventions Into Your Speech-Language Pathology Practice, or by taking the online course Talk to the Paw: Foundations for Therapy Animal Inclusion in a Professional Setting.
May your day be filled with puppy wiggles and children’s giggles,
Sharlet
