ONE SPECIAL DOG

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

Fourth and fifth graders at Clements-Parsons Elementary School had the opportunity to meet a Pet Partners therapy dog named Penny along with her owner on Friday.

Pet Partners is the nation’s largest and most prestigious nonprofit registering handlers of multiple species, training and evaluating volunteers and their pets for visiting animal programs in hospitals, nursing homes, veterans’ centers, hospice, Alzheimer’s facilities, courtrooms, schools and other settings, according to their website. In addition to their core therapy program, they also offer the Read With Me™ program, volunteering in schools, libraries and other venues to help promote literacy by having students read to therapy animals, which could include dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigs, miniature horses, donkeys and birds.

Ruth Olsen, a Pet Partners evaluator and instructor based in Georgetown, trained Penny and her owner Sandra McCleney. Pet Partners is the only organization that requires the owner to take an eight-hour workshop as well as requiring the owner and animal take a test every two years, Olsen said. The test is a 21-item test over skills and aptitude. Skills includes basic commands such as sit, stay, come, etc., while aptitude refers to how the animal reacts in different scenarios, specifically hospital or school settings. Pet Partners also looks to see how or if the handler is protecting the animal, Olsen said.

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