Emotional support llamas at Portland airport

Fun Stuff
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For folks who might be sitting and flying into or out of PDX, a rare treat:

https://www.frommers.com/blogs/passportable/how-to-meet-therapy-llamas-at-the-portland-airport-in-oregon/#google_vignette

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Thank you so much! We’ve got an upcoming Portland sit!

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“Llama Llama Airport Drama” :joy::joy::joy:

Have to say, this sounds like it would work a darn sight better than telling people to dress up / stop wearing pjs to the airport… :wink:

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How cute. My pup is a therapy dog and we work LAX once or twice a month. Passengers usually love it as many miss their own dogs. Some are afraid of flying and petting my calm girl helps them. And some harried parents are happy for a distraction for their small humans.

No Llamas at LAX though!

We also visit a local hospital and there is a therapy parrot on that team. One of only a few throughout the US, it is always a buzz when we visit patients and they talk about the parrot :smiley:

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Here’s my sweet girl outside of LAX :heart:

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How sweet is this! I’m a volunteer at the Vancouver International Airport and we have pet therapy dogs there but would love to see Llamas :slight_smile:

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So do you have to have your own certified therapy dog (pet) to get involved with one of these groups? Thinking it might be cool to volunteer…but my girl wouldn’t be a candidate; I’d have to use a dog affiliated with an organization.

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Yep! She’s my pup (I only have one pup and 2 kitties) and we had her since 8 weeks old. We did basic obedience training as a pup and she took to it so well - combined with a natural calm temperament that we nurtured - it soon became clear she would be a natural therapy dog. We stayed with the training far beyond what we would have done for just a pet dog, and she passed her evaluation with Alliance of Therapy Dogs (the largest certifying organization in the US) at just shy of 2 years old.

We’ve been a working team for just over a year now (she turned 3 last November) and if you have a dog that likes people (but trainable enough to not jump on them) then do it! It really is such a rewarding experience, for me as her handler on visits, but her as she seems to now just know which humans need her presence near them the most. It’s amazing to watch her work sometimes, and the reaction of the humans who need her to calm steady presence.

I am honored to be her guardian.

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