One of the most common moments in therapy dog work: a child gets excited, rushes in, and throws their arms around the dog's face or neck. The dog freezes, the teacher freezes, and the handler has about three seconds to fix it without making the child feel bad.
A handler shared a perfect example recently on the Alliance of Therapy Dogs page: during an airport visit, a young girl got overexcited and started hugging therapy dog Indy's face. Instead of pulling the girl off or scolding her, the handler calmly steered her into watching Indy do tricks. The girl got something even more fun to do, the dog got his space back, and the visit kept going.
That little move — redirect, don't reprimand — is one of the most useful skills a therapy dog handler can teach, and it matters even more in schools.
Why the redirect works
Most kids aren't being rough on purpose. They just don't know the rules yet, and excitement overrides whatever they learned in the hallway. A correction ("Don't hug the dog!") lands as shame and ends the interaction. A redirect gives the child's energy somewhere better to go:
"Watch what she can do — sit, Maybel! Want to ask her for a trick?"
"She loves a gentle shoulder rub. Can you pet right here?"
"Hold your hand flat and let her do 'touch' — she loves that one."
The child still gets the moment. The dog stays comfortable. Nobody is the bad guy.
Teach it before the visit
In a classroom, you get the best results by front-loading the rules before the dog ever walks in. I keep it to three short ones for kids:
The dog chooses — let the dog come to you first.
Pet the shoulders, not the face — show where the good spots are.
Calm bodies — if you're wiggly, the dog can't settle.
One reminder of the rules at the door covers most of the hugs-in-advance.
Watch the dog, not just the kids
The real skill is catching the dog's signals before the hug even happens: lip licks, whale eye, turning the head away, freezing. Those are the dog saying "this is too much." A good handler redirects the child and backs the dog at the same time — step in, create a little space, offer the trick demo. The child's takeaway is the fun; the dog's takeaway is that their handler has their back.
Listen to your dog. Protect the partnership first, and the visits take care of themselves.
Want the full framework for building this into a school program? That's what Paws With a Purpose: Building a Therapy Dog Program That Works in Schools *is about — learn more at
