MKC’s Therapy Program Graduates in the News

News Flash! Read about our recent therapy graduates visiting local hospital patients. The article was graciously provided by the Morgantown Dominion Post

MKC's Therapy Certification Program

We are pleased to offer a new therapy dog seminar and certification program.

Working under the guidelines of Therapy Dogs Incorporated, we require an obedience evaluation prior to being accepted into the program. After this initial assessment, dog and handler teams attend a working seminar that covers visitation etiquette, offers handling tips on such behaviors as ‘leave it’ and introduces the dogs to hospital equipment. Visits to three different care facilities are scheduled and a TDInc certified evaluator accompanies the teams on these visits. The evaluator determines the teams’ final certification after witnessing these actual visits.

Dogs must be one year of age. We strongly encourage interested teams to take at least one obedience class with us before attempting to be certified. The current MKC obedience schedule can be found here.

Please contact Barbara Higgins or Bruce Felton for more information.

If your dog is already certified for therapy visits, the Mountaineer Kennel Club maintains a monthly schedule of visits to Morgantown area nursing and care facilities. Several of our members and their certified dogs also have standing visitation schedules at care facilities in some of our neighboring towns. Contact Donna Hartman for a copy of these schedules.