Therapiedier

Therapiedier

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A careful assessment considers the animal, the person, their partnership, and the context in which they function.

A social and well-balanced animal is not automatically suitable as a therapy animal, emotional support dog, passive therapy animal, or assistance dog. Suitability depends on the role, the environment, the tasks, the partnership, and the animal’s welfare.

Transparent assessment

Therapiedier vzw provides professional training and assesses human–animal teams according to an internal quality framework. Training and certification are deliberately kept separate wherever possible.

For which routes?

Active therapy animal teams

An active therapy animal works with a handler for different clients or within an organisation. Assessment therefore covers both the animal’s suitability and the handler’s professional skills, working method, risk awareness, and attention to welfare.

Individual support

For an emotional support dog, passive therapy animal, or assistance dog, the focus is on supporting one specific person. The assessment examines the support need, the partnership, the animal’s suitability, and at least three individually trained tasks.

What are we assessing?

  • health, well-being and the ability of the animal to work;
  • behavior, body language, and stress signals;
  • recovery after exciting or unexpected situations;
  • the collaboration between humans and animals;
  • safety, expertise and responsible behavior;
  • suitability for the chosen work or living context;
  • the relevance and execution of learned tasks;
  • respect for boundaries, peace and quiet, and freedom of choice.

The quality assurance process

  1. assessing and determining the intended role or work context;
  2. fitness screening of the animal and the human-animal combination;
  3. customized training, training or co-training;
  4. practical experience and supervised follow-up;
  5. practical evaluation of the combination;
  6. certification for the assessed role or context;
  7. inclusion in the quality register as soon as it becomes operational;
  8. permanent training, follow-up and periodic recertification.

Certification of the combination

The certificate belongs to the evaluated combination of human and animal and mentions the role or context for which the combination was evaluated. A certification is not automatically transferred to another animal, another handler, another user, or an essentially different context. We do not certify. Since we are not authorized by celMa.

Recertification and continuing education

Competence is not unlimited or unchanging. Age, health, experience, workload and context can evolve. Therefore, we link certification to follow-up, ongoing training and a periodic reassessment of the human-animal combination.

Quality register

The quality register currently in development will show which human–animal teams have been assessed according to the Therapiedier vzw quality framework and for which role or context.