Do therapy dogs need therapy

[Catherine]

I came across an article that raises a an interesting question. Therapy dogs do so much for people. They are exposed to a lot of human pain. Does this have an effect on the dogs. Do they sometimes need help?


http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

I never thought about this before. We are all so excited about the good that therapy dogs do we forget that they have needs too.
I guess this needs to be an important part of the training program. The people who work with therapy dogs need to know how to recognize when the dog has needs. Maybe the dog needs to spend time playing with healthy children or playing with other dogs.
It is certainly something they are going to need to consider when they plan to use therapy dogs to help people. If they are taking on our pain, we need to find ways to take on their pain. Dogs give so much, they deserve to receive even more.