About RocDog

RocDog is a community working dog group based on North Goodman Street in Rochester, and its own summary of itself is the line it leads with: people helping dogs help people. It is not a general obedience school; it trains and certifies therapy dog teams and places working dogs, and it has grown well past its original scope.

What it does

The published work splits three ways. Therapy dogs visit hospitals, care facilities and schools. Emotional support dogs provide comfort and companionship for people facing emotional or psychological difficulties. Service dogs are trained to assist individuals with disabilities by performing specific tasks. Alongside those runs the PAWS for Hearts Project, which the site says rescues, fosters, places and trains dogs to assist families with special needs.

The four PAWS programs

The programs are named separately: PAWS that Connect for therapy dogs making visits, PAWS that Comfort for emotional support dogs, PAWS that Support for therapy and support dogs, and PAWS that Serve for psychiatric service dogs. For these the group looks for dogs with the right temperament, rescues them and trains them.

Scale

The site publishes its own growth honestly. The original goal was three certified therapy dog teams in twelve months and twelve by twenty-four months. In four and a half years, it says, RocDog has grown to over 530 certified therapy dog teams working in over 300 facilities across New York every month. What began as a small group of handlers in Rochester now runs regions in Rochester, Buffalo, the Hudson Valley, the Capital region, Central New York and the Southern Tier.

Who can join

The site is explicit that joining does not require already having a therapy dog, and invites owners who think their dog might become one. Placements run through law enforcement agencies, the New York court system, hospitals, senior care facilities, schools, colleges, libraries and corporate wellness visits.