Any breed or age dog has the potential to be a therapy dog. Your dog must know basic obedience, exhibit good manners in public, and consistently demonstrate positive interactions with other dogs and people.

Service dogs are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, alerting a person who is having a seizure or calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Service animals are working animals, not pets. Under the ADA, service animals are allowed to enter facilities that serve the public.

Therapy dogs are trained to bring joy and smiles to many people. Their training is not geared to support one specific person (like a service or emotional support animal), rather their role is to help many others. Therapy dogs are not allowed special provisions like traveling on planes or going into restaurants and stores. Therapy animals can only enter facilities approved by their certifying organization.

Emotional support dogs must be prescribed by a licensed medical professional. ESAs are often called comfort animals as they provide therapy support to someone with a mental illness. An emotional support animal is not trained to perform specific behaviors to assist with a disability and are NOT included under the American Disabilities Act.

Dogs need to be at least one year of age to take our evaluation test. Handlers must be at least 18 years old.

Dogs must first pass their AKC Canine Good Citizen test. After filling out our application paperwork, prospective teams take our workshop, and a month later, take the evaluation test. Once the test is passed, teams go on two supervised visits with experienced PTO teams, and then are assigned their own community visit location.

A therapy team is a human volunteer and their pet that have passed their PTO evaluation.

Sometimes a therapy dog just sits quietly while being petted by a nursing home resident and listens to them tell stories about their former dog. Sometimes a therapy dog will visit an elementary school to help teach children about how to care for pets or join in during story time to help relax the group. A child who has difficulty reading is the perfect candidate to curl up alongside a therapy dog to enjoy a good book. In a hospital setting, a therapy dog might visit patients and staff to provide love and support to patients, doctors, nurses and staff members in this high-stress environment.

We do not certify dogs for an individual’s personal use or to be taken to an individual’s workplace on a daily basis.

Our teams volunteer at many places such as schools, nursing homes, hospitals, libraries, and residential facilities throughout the Springfield, Missouri area. Requirements to participate in a therapy dog program vary from facility to facility. Some may require additional orientations, background checks, health certificates, and photo IDs for you and/or your dog. Our Facilities Director will help you find a visit location that best fits you and your dog.

PTO members are not allowed to use their therapy dogs on a daily basis while at their place of work.

We volunteer at many different facilities within a 50 mile radius of Springfield, Missouri.

We are a non-profit organization run by volunteers and do not charge a fee for our services. We do accept donations to help with operating expenses.