East Sixth

In my next life, I want to be a therapy dog. How great would it be to have a job where you were just supposed to snuggle up to someone and let them read to you? http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/22/dogs.irpt/

Actually, one of my 'bucket list' items is to train a therapy dog. There are so many kinds of therapy dogs: seeing-eye dogs, visitors for people in nursing homes, and even companions for people who have severe stress/panic. A few years ago, I heard about a place in the mid-west that raises therapy dogs for autistic children, and instantly fell in love with the idea. I have an intense love for dogs; because we don't have any kids yet, I really consider my dogs as my children. I've seen first hand what they can do for people going through tough situations, and believe whole-heartedly that they are the best thing I have in my life after my family. With my 13 years working with special needs athletes through Special Olympics, I think this would be a great nitch for me, but any therapy need would be okay.

The difficult part is understanding how to train the dogs. My own dogs need to be trained; or rather, I need to be trained how to train them. They're not terrible dogs by any means, but they do have thier quirks. Missy has the tendancy to guard things - me, our groceries, her bone, her toys, my purse, my suitcase, etc. So when my other dog Trotter gets near, she gets jealous and angrilly flips out on him - scarying him into submission. Trotter, on the other hand, is just plain hyper. He has two speeds, Zero and Sixty. Part whippet, he can be the sweetest cuddle monster, or a crazy racing dog. They both bark when people come to the door, think that the couch and the bed are thiers, chase the two cats and bark at anyone who walks by our house or dogs we meet on the street. Its really sad because of how much it limits them to their own house, and it limits us from not being able to take them with us everywhere.

So once I can get my two dogs to behave, I think I could train them or another to be a therapy dog. It would be an accomplishment for me, a purpose for a dog, and years of giving for one or many people.