Become a Pet Assisted Therapy Volunteer

Being a Lollypop Farm Pet Assisted Therapy (PAT) volunteer is not only fun, rewarding, and good for the community, but it also allows you to spend quality time with your pet while sharing him or her with others.

It’s also a perfect opportunity to showcase and celebrate the human-animal bond at its finest. Many of the people we visit have had to give up their pets due to age or illness and it is truly amazing to see how grateful they are to reconnect with an animal.

What PAT Volunteers Do

As PAT volunteer you and your registered therapy animal would team up to visit different facilities and outreach venues, such as special events. You are asked to commit to making two, one-hour visits per month, but many volunteers commit to more.

We email a calendar about two weeks before the beginning of the new month and volunteers choose the visits they’d like to attend. Most volunteers choose visits near where they live and drive themselves, but there is also the option of coming to Lollypop Farm about 30 minutes before the visit to ride in the PAT vehicle. (Except for evening and weekend visits, when the PAT vehicle is not used.) During the visit, you and your pet would provide one-on-one attention to residents and guests who enjoy animal companionship.

Steps to Becoming a PAT Volunteer

1. Register your pet with Delta Society, Therapy Dogs International or Therapy Dogs, Inc., all nationally-recognized therapy organizations. Read our information sheet on how to have your animal become a registered therapy animal.

2. After your animal is registered, you must attend the two-hour Lollypop Farm PAT Training Session which includes information about Lollypop Farm, Tips and Tricks for Visiting, and an Introduction of the Policies and Procedures. You may also attend if you have an evaluation scheduled with the above-mentioned organizations up to 30 days after the session date.
3. Start visiting!