Answers

What is My Caring Paws?

My Caring Paws(MCP) volunteer teams promote well-being by sharing the power of human-animal interactions serving our local communities.  MCP is a network of caring individuals and their trained dogs who are willing to share smiles and joy with all people who can benefit from a therapy team. Their objective is to enrich, comfort and show unconditional love to all people who can benefit from a therapy team. Services are provided free of charge.
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What is the difference between a therapy dog, a service dog and an emotional support dog?

My Caring Pawsregisters therapy dogs not service dogs or emotional support dogs (ESA).  Therapy dogs are our own dogs. When registered, they provide therapy for others.

Service dogs are specially trained and then placed with a person to recognize medical conditions and perform tasks for that person only.

An emotional support dog provides therapeutic support to a patient with a disabling mental illness.
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What are the requirements for a pet to become registered?

All dogs must be at least one year old to begin the certification process.  The pet must be in good health, have a suitable personality and have resided with the owner for at least six months.

What characteristics are found in a good therapy pet?

Your pet should have a friendly disposition and a personality that is ideal for interacting with all types of different people. A few examples, the dogs must allow for rough and clumsy petting as well as be okay with restraining hugs. Dogs should not shy away from or be frightened by wheelchairs, walkers, or staggering individuals. They should be able to comfortably handle loud noises, elevators, radios or loud voices. They may respond to the noise, but it should not negatively affect them. Dogs should know basic obedience and look to the handler for leadership. This will all be reviewed at the Group Evaluation.
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What kind of commitment is required?

There is no mandatory requirement for the amount of time you volunteer, the volunteer agreement indicates at least 5 times per year.  Some of our volunteers go to weekly or monthly commitments, others like to do one-time events as they arise. Some are daytime and other visits are weekends or evenings. The key to therapy work is finding the right type of visits your dog enjoys best.
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Can two people become registered with the same therapy pet?

Yes, many couples enjoy volunteering together. Each person needs to go through the process to become a registered team. Each handler should attend Orientation, Group Evaluation and site evaluations.
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Is there a minimum age for handlers?

At this time, My Caring Paws is not accepting junior handlers under 18 years old.
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Can you train my pet to become a therapy pet?

My Caring Paws does have options for Therapy dog training (4 one-hour sessions), to better guide you through the details of the process, determine if your dog is suitable and prepare you best for the group and site evaluations.
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Do you have therapy dogs available for adoption?

We do not have, nor are we aware of any organization that specifically has therapy dogs for adoption.  All of our therapy animals are our volunteers’ dogs.  Key to finding a dog that may work for therapy is to look for one that is calm, confident, enjoys interacting with people, gets along well with other dogs, and is not timid or aggressive.
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In what geographical area do your dogs make visits?

My Caring Paws is open to everyone. As we build the organization, we are starting in Carroll County MD, Frederick County, as well as Littlestown and Gettysburg, PA. But we are open to new facilities and new volunteers in any areas as we grow.
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My elderly parent lives with me and would love to have a visit from a therapy dog. Could you come to my home for a visit?

Our organization primarily visits hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, schools, hospice patients, colleges and libraries. We visit first responder events, state’s attorney’s office and any event that may benefit that we have resources to staff.  Individual homes can be evaluated case by case, if there is a 3rd party present for the safety of the volunteers and dogs.

Due to the large number of requests for therapy dog visits, we have to choose to make visits where the greatest number of people can benefit from the visit.
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I don’t have a pet but would like to offer my services to your organization. Do you have any volunteer opportunities?

Absolutely, we can always use helping hands with paperwork, newsletter work, fundraising, and special event planning – to name a few things.
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My pet was registered as a therapy pet through another organization. Must we still go through your evaluation process to become a therapy team?

Generally, you still need to go thru our Training or Orientation to learn the MCP guidelines, the Group Evaluation and Site Evaluations to understand our policies and procedures.
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My facility would like to have one or more therapy dogs visit our residents. When can they begin?

We appreciate your interest in having therapy dogs visit your facility and we will try our best to accommodate your request.   We will work with you to gather the details of your request and any other unique facts/interest about your facility and request for visiting.  We would solicit our volunteers to confirm interested and availability to visit your facility, then will contact you directly to make the arrangements.  Please be aware that we get many more requests than we have available volunteers.  Although your request may not be filled immediately, we are always getting new teams registered.
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