Some Pawsitivity staff are taking a week-long class on Animal Assisted Play Therapy in late 2021 to help us work with people with disabilities, including psychiatric disabilities. Here are notes from one of the textbooks. 2 methods of AAPT (Animal Assisted Play Therapy): Directive - teaching skills or addressing problems. Always goal-directed. Non-directive (unlike AAT/Animal Assisted Therapy, which is always goal-directed) Continue reading

The airlines are subject to new rules for service dogs who are doing airline travel, to take effect on December 30th, 2020. The full details are on a PDF at the US Department of Transportation's website, but the main things to know are: Continue reading

Want to join me and Sunshine and Goose and Winnie in supporting a great cause? “Give to the Max Day” is coming, and if you donate to Pawsitivity through GiveMN, all donations are doubled! Continue reading

Honoring Veterans Day, we would like to introduce you to Goose! He’s our newest trainee, and he will be going to a US military veteran!  

Guess what? A Pawsitivity Service Dogs hoodie sweatshirt is available. Continue reading

Click here to download PDF coloring sheet for free.  Free to teachers, parents, and anyone else who wants to teach a child where a dog wants to be petted! We have created this coloring chart, which is downloadable as a PDF, to give go kids who are around dogs. They can use their knowledge of the dog (plus your instruction, if needed) to create their own chart of how the dog has shown them the places where the dogs likes to be petted. Feel free to download this free PDF, print, copy, and distribute!   Continue reading

We use these training worksheets when teaching handlers how to keep up the training of their service dogs. The worksheets are a little technical and don't have a lot of explanation, but we thought we'd post them (with an example worksheet) because we believe that our hard work should be shared. If the worksheets are too technical, reading Jean Donaldson's book, "Train Your Dog Like a Pro," will help.   Continue reading

We always train our service dogs in the same way, with the dog on the left-hand side. We also train the handlers how to keep up their service dog's training, and so we use this handout to help them remember where to positions their hands, their clicker (if using a clicker), where to put the treat pouch, and where the dog should be in relation to their body. You can download, print out, or use this handout, if you wish. Continue reading

We created this handout for handlers so they could easily remember some of the simplest of the "arousal signals" (signs that the dog is excited). While no one particular signal always has the same meaning, this handout helps handlers remember to look out for signs that their dog may be too excited to learn. You can print out this image and distribute it, if you wish.     Continue reading

When we train handlers to work with their service dogs, we show them both the hand signals and the words to use. Dogs actually understand hand signals much more easily than they do words, so we created a beginner handout which only describes and shows the hand signals so that the handlers can practice without words. This way, the handler is much less likely to use multiple words or to repeat their cues. Note that we use the word "cue" instead of "command" because we use reward-based positive reinforcement training methods, not punishment-based methods. You can download and even distribute this handout, if you wish.  Continue reading