Not GOOD instructions -- LOL.
Go all the way to the very top of the page under the person walking the two dogs -- and click on Edit Profile. You have to get into your profile to set it up and you want the "Signatre and Bio" tab.
In that box you load in where your signature resides (a picture file of some sort and I think most of these folks have done them on photoshop -- there IS a thread where someone will volunteer to make one for you actually. I will email you what MINE says -- which will give you the html codes -- janobonano (Rupert's mom) did mine for me.
But that file has to reside somewhere "online" for you to link into it.
One of the points you are making that I think is SOOOOOO important is that pet therapy can range from A to Z. People tend to think of it as always visiting elderly people in a nursing home, or going to hospitals. IT IS NOT.
Therapy dogs are simply dogs that get to connect with people who, for various reasons, NEED that connection. It can be anything from people who need help with social skills, rehabilitation, to dogs who "listen" to kids who read, to any sort of hospital or care facility -- the deaf, the blind, or literally ANYONE who is "apart" from society or who has some trouble relating to others where an animal can be an intermediary.
People will say "Oh my dog would never be gentle enough to sit with someone old or sick,"
But no -- often animals can help people who just plain don't relate well with others -- and the animal can often form an internediary so actual therapy can happen. I have a friend who uses her dogs in an asylum setting -- mostly people who are so incredibly withdrawn that they can't talk or relate to "normal" people -- but in the dogs they find acceptance.
But at the same time we had a boxer/pit mix who had a horrible life before us -- she was MAJORLY sick with heartworm and literally had about a month to live. Her heart and lungs were a MESS. We took her and treated the heartworm the 'slow' way (took me a year to get a clear occult but we DID it) -- but she was on Lasix and a bunch of stuff for that poor hugely enlarged heart, bent trachea and lungs that looked like swiss cheese.
The drugs she took made her majorly incontinent -- so she wore bitches britches with continence pads in them and she wore a t-shirt (even in the Florida heat) which helped keep her chest dry and quiet. Let's just say she'd get nervous when she knew she was gonna "leak" and she'd cough when she got nervous -- she was the only dog I ever had who would "cough" to let us know she had to go out!!
But she was a gem. She LOVED nursing homes. And those folks loved HER because dang ... the dog wore diapers TOO!! How cool was THAT!!
I've often said that when you've got a dog with a challenged history, often taking that dog's "problem" can make THAT particular situation into a therapy dog. The very thing that can make some dogs "special" can make them INCREDIBLY special to the person who needs that.
You have to be incredibly hands-on. It's not like you just hand anyone the leash to your dog. But I think letting a dog BE exactly what they are in a situation where someone needs that dog benefits everyone. But I honestly feel like pet therapy has made ME a better person. And I know it's made a bunch of dogs incredibly happy, and has touched countless human lives. And ... most of us who do pet therapy just plain don't know how to spell the word "bored". LOL
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."
Helen Keller
