It doesn’t take much to get started.  You have to have a well behaved pet, that has a lot of extra love to share, a few hours of your time to donate, and a place to visit.  In my situation, I was contacted by my Vet. Who knew of a girl who was conducting a training session for pet therapy.  I contacted her and started taking the classes with Cocoa. 

Meanwhile I started calling retirement homes and nursing homes asking if they would be interested in having us visit.  I informed them that Cocoa was still in the process of taking the courses and that he was not certified yet.  (We did not yet have Lacey) They were so excited about having him come to visit, they didn’t care that he was not yet certified.  We started visiting, and Cocoa continued through his classes and was certified  through Therapy Dogs International and also received his Canine Good Citizen Award. 

Pet Therapy has become very rewarding to me!  I have made many new friends and met some very interesting people.  We now visit two assisted living homes and an Alztimer home on a weekly basis.  I am going to be starting another nursing home in a couple of weeks and possible another assisted living home in the near future also.

All the places that we visit are very excited about the miniature horses that I am working with to get ready for visits.  They take a little longer to train, I found out.  But I am anxious to start visiting with them also!

Please meet Chico and Buckshot.  Chico is the little Palomino and Buckshot is the gray.  They have been together since birth.  The girl we got them from raises many, many horses and these two basically never had any amount of human contact before we purchased them.  As you can see from the pictures they have come a long way since we got them about 7 weeks ago.

They are both about a year old, and have the greatest dispositions, which is a must for pet therapy.  If anyone has any comments or information that might help me with the training of these two great little boys, I would greatly appreciate it.  I need them to get very used to touching, hugging, and petting, not to mention the fact that they cannot spook easily to noises or strange sights.

Pet Therapy can be a very rewarding experience not only for the residents and workers at the facilities that you visit, but for yourself also.  I encourage everyone who has any kind of interest in participating in a program such as the one that I am involved in to please contact me with any questions that you might have.

The time I spend visiting these homes is strictly voluntary.  I am in the need of donations from anyone who might be willing to help. Right now I need to find a used, bumper hitch, small horse trailer to use to transport my horses to the homes for visiting. If anyone has a trailer to donate or knows where I might be able to purchase one inexpensively, please contact me.  We also are accepting cash donations toward a trailer and also toward feed and upkeep for the horses.  Anyone interested in helping to sponser this program or become involved in it please contact me at the address below.

I want to be able to continue visiting the homes on a voluntary basis, because many of them do not have the funds to pay for it, and I will only be able to do this with your help.  You may contact me at:

Patty’s Pet Therapy

10171 Nectar Ave.

Nelson, Mo 65347

660-859-2058