Northern Lights Therapy Dogs is sharing our Breed Guide and Step 1 General Assessment Guide to help prospective AAI, AAT, and AACR handlers make thoughtful, realistic choices when selecting a dog.
Breed tendencies are a useful starting point, but every dog must be evaluated individually for steadiness, resilience, responsiveness, and genuine enjoyment of people and the work. These guides are screening resources—not promises of certification.
Therapy work should never be something a dog merely tolerates. Our goal is to develop sound, willing partnerships in which dogs are safe, supported, and genuinely happy to work.
Choose first for a lifetime as a beloved family member. Then assess honestly whether that individual dog also has the ability—and the heart—for “the work.”
NLTD Therapy Dog Breed Recommendations
AAI • AAT • AACR candidate selection reference
Scope. NLTD Therapy Dog recommendations of breeds, based on current national and international evidence, reported successes, failures and operational performance in AAI, AAT and AACR therapy-dog programs, find the following:
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Breed informs prospect selection; it never replaces individual team assessment, demonstrated welfare, recovery, affiliation and deployment fitness. |
Good, Strong and Very Strong Candidates
| Rating | Breed or mix | Primary strengths | Principal screening considerations |
| Very strong | Labrador Retriever | Socially available, resilient, trainable, durable and comfortable with unfamiliar handling | Exuberance, jumping, food fixation and breeding quality |
| Very strong | Golden Retriever | Gentle social approach, affiliative, handling-tolerant and publicly approachable | Cancer, orthopedic health and sensitive breeding lines |
| Very strong | Purpose-bred Labrador × Golden |
Combines strong retriever working traits with social softness and adaptability |
Parents must be health- and temperament-selected |
| Very strong | German Shepherd | Operationally resilient, responsive, intelligent and particularly effective with military and first-responder populations | Must welcome strangers, release environmental concerns and show no protection-oriented behavior |
| Very strong | Great Pyrenees |
Exceptional stillness, patience, physical grounding and quiet presence beside distressed people |
Territoriality, barking, heat, coat, transportation and social openness away from home |
| Very strong | Standard Poodle | Highly trainable, athletic, low-shedding and capable of sophisticated AAT work | Sound sensitivity, arousal, alertness and coat maintenance |
| Very strong | Newfoundland |
Slow, patient, affiliative and physically grounding |
Heat, drool, orthopedic and cardiac health, transportation |
| Very strong | Smooth Collie | Gentle, responsive, socially attentive and comparatively manageable coat | Sound sensitivity, vocalization and environmental sensitivity |
| Strong | Rough Collie | Gentle and attentive with children, older adults and vulnerable populations | Grooming, barking and sound sensitivity |
| Strong | Leonberger | Balanced giant-breed presence, socially soft and physically reassuring | Heat, grooming, cardiac and orthopedic health |
| Strong | Bernese Mountain Dog | Calm, approachable and physically grounding | Cancer, heat, orthopedic disease and shortened working life |
| Strong | Great Dane | Often quiet indoors and accessible from beds and wheelchairs | Insurance verification, health, lifespan, transportation and body control |
| Strong | Cavalier King Charles Spaniel | Excellent for bedside, hospice, counseling and elder care | Cardiac and neurological disease; limited deployment endurance |
| Strong | English Springer Spaniel—calmer bench lines | Social, trainable and effective in active work with children and rehabilitation clients | Motion sensitivity, excitement and ability to settle |
| Strong | English Cocker Spaniel—bench lines | Warm, portable and engaging | Working-line intensity, excitement and grooming |
| Good | Clumber Spaniel | Slower and more physically settled than many spaniels | Health, availability and stamina |
| Strong | Flat-Coated Retriever | Highly social, engaging and approachable | Prolonged adolescence, exuberance and cancer risk |
| Good | Chesapeake Bay Retriever | Durable, serious and environmentally resilient | Stranger reserve, independence and guarding tendencies |
| Strong | Greyhound | Often quiet, clean, low-motion and able to rest for extended periods | Startle response, prey drive, slippery floors, cold and physical fragility |
| Good | Whippet | Quiet, gentle and nonintrusive for bedside and counseling work | Cold, fragility and environmental sensitivity |
| Good | Havanese | Portable, social and approachable for pediatric and elder settings | Barking, overattachment and grooming |
| Good | Bichon Frise | Portable, sociable, low-shedding and approachable | Grooming, barking and handling vulnerability |
| Good | Saint Bernard | Slow, substantial and physically reassuring | Drool, heat, health, transportation and endurance |
| Good | Samoyed | Highly approachable and frequently interested in people | Vocalization, heat, coat, excitement and independence |
| Strong individual candidate | Maremma, Akbash, Anatolian or Kuvasz | Exceptional individuals can offer stillness, independence and physical grounding | Must demonstrate stranger welcome, transferability beyond home territory and reliable redirection |
| Strong individual candidate | Mature mixed-breed adult | Temperament, recovery and social interest can be directly observed | Unknown developmental and health history; requires repeated environmental evaluation |
Poor Candidates for Intentional Therapy Dog Recruitment
“Poor candidate” means a poor intentional recruitment or procurement choice —not that no individual could ever pass.
| Breed or group | Why it is not recommended |
| Belgian Malinois and high-drive protection lines | Extreme vigilance, movement sensitivity and working arousal |
| High-drive Border Collie | Motion fixation, staring, sound sensitivity and difficulty disengaging |
| High-drive Australian Shepherd | Environmental monitoring, motion control, barking and social arousal |
| Australian Cattle Dog | Stranger reserve, physical intensity, motion control and rapid defensive responses |
| Siberian Husky and similar northern working types | Independence, vocalization, prey drive and inconsistent sustained engagement with strangers |
| Akita and Shiba Inu |
Stranger reserve, handling limitations and independent social decision-making |
| High-drive terriers | Rapid arousal, prey orientation, physical persistence and difficulty remaining quietly available |
| Scent hounds, including Beagles | Scent-directed disengagement, food distraction and vocalization |
| Miniature Poodle | Alert barking, arousal and environmental sensitivity |
| Shetland Sheepdog | Barking, sound sensitivity, motion monitoring and intensive grooming |
| Boxer | Prolonged exuberance, settling difficulty, respiratory and heat limitations, possible insurance restrictions |
| Doberman Pinscher | Insurance and facility restrictions, vigilance and handler-focused working style |
| Rottweiler | Insurance and facility restrictions even when individual temperament is excellent |
| Bully breeds and prominent bully mixes | Insurance, landlord and facility exclusions make dependable deployment impractical |
| French Bulldog, English Bulldog and severely brachycephalic breeds | Independent nature, respiratory compromise, heat risk, limited endurance and welfare concerns |
| Random guardian × protection crosses | Unpredictable territorial, stranger-directed and defensive behavior |
| High-arousal herding × terrier crosses | Compounded motion sensitivity, arousal, vocalization and persistence |
Doodle-Cross Subset
Doodle crosses are not recommended as a “shoe-in” intentional therapy-dog prospect. An exceptional existing dog may still be evaluated individually, but the doodle label, appearance or presumed hypoallergenic status should never create a favorable assumption. High anxiety, excitability and variable arousal are repeatedly seen.
| Doodle cross or issue | Recommendation | Reason |
| Labradoodle | Not recommended for intentional recruitment | Temperament can be less predictable than the Labrador parent; poodle sensitivity may combine with retriever exuberance |
| Goldendoodle | Not recommended for intentional recruitment | Wide variation in arousal, anxiety, fear response, stranger hesitancy, size, coat, settling ability and breeder quality |
| Cockapoo | Poor prospect | Excitability, fear, separation-related behavior, barking and inconsistent regulation |
| Cavapoo | Poor prospect | Anxiety, overattachment, environmental sensitivity and inconsistent emotional regulation |
| Bernedoodle | Poor prospect | Variable arousal, environmental sensitivity, coat, size, heat tolerance, health and emotional sensitivity |
| Sheepadoodle | Poor prospect | Herding sensitivity combined with poodle alertness, high energy drive, strong arousal and grooming demands |
| Aussiedoodle | Very poor prospect | Two highly intelligent, environmentally responsive types may compound motion sensitivity, vocalization and high arousal |
| Miniature doodle crosses | Very poor prospect | Alert barking, overattachment, anxiety, arousal and highly variable size and temperament |
| Unpredictable temperament mix | Major concern | Crossing two breeds does not ensure that offspring inherit only the desirable behavioral traits |
| High arousal breed cross (ie spaniel/doodle) | Major concern | Retriever or spaniel exuberance can combine with poodle alertness, sensitivity and rapid reactivity |
| Anxiety and fear known breed cross (ie blue heeler/doodle) | Major concern | Fear, separation-related behavior and environmental sensitivity are reported across several popular doodle crosses |
| Inconsistent settling breed cross (bay retriever/doodle) | Major concern | Social excitement is frequently mistaken for therapy aptitude; effective therapy dogs must sustain calm after greeting |
| Coat unpredictability breed cross (ie newfie/doodle) | Major concern | Coat texture, shedding and maintenance cannot be reliably predicted from appearance or generation labels |
| Grooming burden | Major concern | Matting, discomfort, professional grooming expenses and handling demands are frequently underestimated |
| Commercial breeding | Major concern | Many breeders select for color, coat, size and saleability rather than recovery, sociability, health and working temperament |
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Hypoallergenic marketing |
Major concern | No doodle cross is reliably nonallergenic; shedding and allergen production vary by individual and no dog is 100% allergen free |
| Maturity mismatch | Major concern |
Families may expect a calm therapy-type dog but receive a powerful, excitable and slow-maturing adolescent |
| Shelter and rescue relinquishment | Operational warning | Grooming expense, matting, fear, arousal, training demands and unmet buyer expectations commonly appear in individual surrender and rescue accounts; national breed-specific prevalence has not been established |