Pet Therapy Program

The therapy dog program at Children’s National Hospital began in 2003 when the founders of Greenbelt Dog Training, Allie and Adele Lee, requested to have their therapeutic pet dog visit their son who was a patient at Children’s National. Since then, the program has evolved and grown to include many other volunteers and their therapy dogs to fill the hallways with wags, wiggles and wonder.

Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we had almost 30 volunteer teams visiting the hospital. We continue to work towards bringing back our previous volunteer teams and hope to continue to expand the program in the future.

Similar to our facility dogs, our volunteer pet therapy teams keep busy during their weekly visits to the hospital. In order to meet a therapy dog, a patient must have an order in their medical record from their medical team. Ask your nurse or child life specialist to help coordinate a visit. While we do our best to accommodate all requests, we aren’t always able to meet every patient.

Our pet therapy dogs must be above the age of 2 and are required to be registered and hold active membership with one of the following therapy dog organizations:

• Pet Partners
• The Alliance of Therapy Dogs
• Therapy Dogs International

In addition, they must hold obedience certification through AKC’s Canine Good Citizen test. Therapy dogs must be comfortable around children, enjoy being touched, maintain calm and predictable behaviors in highly active environments. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, we have been working to reinstate our previous volunteer pet therapy teams.

At this time, we are not accepting applications for new volunteer teams. However, please email us if you are interested in being added to the list for future involvement.