Matching Recipients and Dogs
Years of placing dogs with people with disabilities brought another issue to the forefront. How best to identify the personalities of recipients and their assistance dogs and how best to match them. Recipient would call complaining about a behavior of their dog that was more a personality issue than a workmanship issue. Until then, gauging either’s personality and matching them was very subjective. A structured method was direly needed. At a fundraising seminar that categorized people according to body language Bonnie realized that same body language personality cues could be applied to dogs. She began using the Wilson Learning “social styles” to categorize both recipients of dogs and the dogs themselves, then matched the two. It became obvious that recipients liked dogs more like themselves, but preferred the dog to be somewhat less assertive than they to minimize challenges. This became the foundation of the Institute recipient/dog matching process.
Read more about this topic: Bonnie Bergin
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