Northern Lights Therapy Dogs

Northern Lights Therapy Dogs (NLTD) uses a progressive, evidence-based Handler Certification Program to build and verify competencies in health, safety, welfare, psychological care, and operational deployment. Our standards meet or exceed national and international gold benchmarks for therapy dog excellence.

Handlers must fully complete and pass each tier before advancing. Every tier builds on the last, and advancement is earned through demonstrated proficiency, ethical practice, and alignment with NLTD’s mission.

After completing initial training, new Teams enter the Shadow Program, where they accompany an Alpha Team on three supervised visits to apply skills in situ and learn facility flow, etiquette, emotional energy, and deployment rhythms with support.

To advance into Tier II and Tier III, Teams select an Alpha Team to sponsor their promotion, ensuring mentorship, peer accountability, and readiness evaluations from within the deployed community. Shadowing occurs at each Tier transition, followed by formal testing of both dog and handler—scored independently (dogs can out-score their handlers). A non-passing evaluation simply means “train longer and re-test” in the next cycle; advancement is paced for competence, confidence, and welfare.