TAILS celebrates Animal Therapy Day

National Animal Therapy Day was observed at Farm & Home Family Center in Sedalia by TAILS (Therapy Animals Impacting Lives) for two hours on Thursday afternoon, with three therapy dogs – Raymond, Haven and Cassie – and their handlers.

Cory Harrison was the spokeswoman for the all-volunteer group, which was founded about three years ago.

Harrison stressed that TAILS, through therapy visits, aims to “bring smiles and joy to everywhere we can go.”

The journeys take the dogs and their handlers to area nursing homes, libraries, schools and hospitals. There is also a first responder dog and a female Shetland pony (Little Bit) “that loves going to nursing homes.”

Dog breeds include Australian Shepherd, Labrador Retriever and Golden Doodle, Harrison noted.

She added that the TAILS dogs “have to go through a pretty rigorous testing process. They have to be exposed to all kinds of things so that we know they’re kind of non-reactive. You can tell, these dogs want attention. They want to be loved. They truly enjoy what they are doing.”

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For more info on TAILS, you can visit their facebook page here.

“We can definitely help people who are looking to get their dog certified as a therapy dog. We can contact the right people, the right organizations and we can help you go from there,” Harrison told KSIS.

She noted that TAILS does not charge for any of their visits. “So any donations that we do get, as a group, goes back to paying for events that we go to, brochures, stickers, or giveaways,” Harrison said, who serves as the group’s social media manager.