Animal Assisted Therapy as a career

[rainey]

Anyone have any experience with AAT or therapy with animals in general? I am just finishing my bachelor's in psychology and am thinking of branching out to either music therapy or animal therapy, but I am really having trouble finding out about what my next step would be if I want to pursue animal therapy. So far I have only found information about how to get your animal certified or how you can volunteer if you already have a dog....I would definitely love to volunteer if that was the way to get started, but I don't have a dog!

There do seem to be some online options for obtaining a certificate in AAT, but I would need advice on which program to do. What I would love to eventually do would be to work with and train the animals so that they could then work with patients. Does such a job exist? Or is it mainly therapists and teachers etc. who are already trained in their own field, that then bring in their own pets in order to incorporate them into their own therapy work?

Not really expecting anyone to be able to answer these questions, but since CnH is full of animal lovers I figure it's worth a shot!

 

[Pooky125]

You might want to consider looking into the guide dog breeding programs, and seeing about getting in touch with them. I know they keep a full time staff at most of their breeding centers whelping puppies. Not exactly therapy, but it IS training animals to go on to help patients. I spent almost 20 years playing with newborn-6 week old puppies for the local breeding center when I was growing up. Was a very cool organization.

 

[Dreamlite]

Specialist vet clinics will sometimes have a theropy section. The vrc center in gathersburg pa has one and so des the one towards baltimore. I forget that ones name. Its a very select field. Equine practices are more likely to do theropy than a small animal. Unfortunately people aren't as interested in spending the money right now on those types of things unless its for a expensive pet, like a horse. Try contacting a equine sx center (new bolton equine center in pa) they could help you in those areas.

 

[ChilliPepper]

There are lots of programs out there, you may need to relocate to find a good one. There is a place in Oregon called Jasper Mountain that uses horses in all kinds of therapy models. It is a great program, I actually contacted them for a speech I did on the use of animal therapy. There are also canine reading programs in libraries all over the country, and look into Therapy Dog International http://tdi-dog.org/ for info on these programs. Jasper Mountain looks like a good starting point for you, you could ask them if they are aware of other similar programs near you, and what further education you need to pursue.