Log every pet therapy visit — handler hours by program, ready to report.
The dog-and-handler teams that walk a hospice hall deserve more than a clipboard at the front desk. Give pet therapy its own area of service, log each visit as a handler hour, and let the program's record build itself.
- A Pet Therapy area of its own
- Visits logged as handler hours
- No patient data
A pet therapy visit, logged in seconds
Pick the handler, set time in and time out, and the visit length is figured for you — the entry lands in the handler's hours and the program's totals the moment you save it.
A real VolunteerLedger view, shown with sample agency data.
Built for visit logging, not patient charting
Pet therapy as its own area of service
Pet therapy is one of the areas of service VolunteerLedger is built around. Spin up a Pet Therapy area, and every visit's hours tag to it — so the program stands on its own instead of dissolving into one combined volunteer total.
That dedicated area is what lets you treat pet therapy like the distinct program it is. Its hours roll up separately, its handler teams form their own group, and its line appears the instant you open a report — no filtering, no untangling.
Visit logging that builds the program's history
Most programs run on a sign-in sheet nobody can add up. Here, each visit is a dated hour entry, so the visit history writes itself: you can see when teams came, how often, and how the hours stack up over a month, a quarter, or a year — by facility or unit if you note it.
Every visit carries the usual tools — time in / time out for the length, optional mileage when a handler drives in, and a note for the unit visited or the animal's name. The clipboard turns into a searchable record you can actually pull a number from.
The handler-and-animal team as your unit of record
The handler is the volunteer, so the hours, start date, and years of service all belong to the person — and the therapy animal rides along in the story. You track the team by tracking the handler, which keeps the record clean while still honoring both halves of it.
Keep the team's registration, certification, and renewal date in the handler's profile so the credential reference sits right next to the hours. When a review asks which teams are active and registered, the answer is one screen away, not buried in a separate binder.
Recognition for handlers who keep coming back
Handler teams are loyal — many visit faithfully for years. Each handler's start date drives a years-of-service figure, and the roster's hours-this-year and last-visit columns plus smart views surface your most active teams and anyone who's drifted off the visit calendar.
Set milestone tiers and the system flags when a handler crosses an hours or service-year mark, so the pin or the thank-you lands on time. The team that shows up week after week with a wagging tail in tow gets noticed instead of overlooked.
Turn warm visits into a number you can hand over
Pet therapy is one of the most loved parts of a hospice program and one of the easiest to under-document. The reporting closes that gap.
Program hours for a funder
Run the hours report on the Pet Therapy area for any window and get a print-ready total — the figure an animal-assisted grant wants to see.
The line in the annual report
Pet therapy stops being a vague "people love it" and becomes documented hours and visits leadership can put on a page.
The teams behind the total
Every report carries the handler teams that earned the hours, so the people get the credit alongside the program's number.
Made for everyone who keeps the pet therapy program going
The volunteer coordinator who logs the visits
Records each visit, keeps the handler roster current, and pulls the program's hours without a separate spreadsheet.
The pet therapy program lead
Watches active teams, keeps registration and renewal dates with each handler, and sees coverage across facilities at a glance.
The handler teams
Show up, visit, and get a real record of every hour — with milestones and years of service tracked so their loyalty is recognized.
Leadership weighing the program's worth
Sees the reach in documented hours and visits — the proof that the dogs in the halls are part of the mission, not just a nice extra.
A pet therapy program is easy to love and easy to leave undocumented. Giving it its own area of service is a small step that pays off every time you log a visit, apply for a grant, write the annual report, or want to thank the handler whose dog has been visiting for a decade. Related: see how the same workspace handles We Honor Veterans volunteer tracking, pulling volunteer hours for grants, the full hospice volunteer tracking software your program lives inside, and the day-to-day volunteer coordinator software.
Pet therapy tracking, answered
How do I log a pet therapy visit?
A visit is a single dated hour entry tagged to your Pet Therapy area of service. Enter the handler, the date, and time in / time out — the visit length calculates itself — and you have the visit on the record. Add a quick note for the unit or facility if you like to keep it. Each entry rolls straight into the handler's totals and the program's, so logging the visit is the only step.
Whose hours am I tracking — the handler's or the animal's?
The handler's. The handler is the volunteer, so the hours, start date, and years of service all belong to the person — and each visit is logged against the handler's record. The therapy animal is the heart of the visit, but it isn't the volunteer on the books; if you want to keep the animal's name with the visit, drop it in the entry note. You log the handler's volunteer time and the program, never anyone they visited.
Can I report just the pet therapy program for a funder?
Yes. Run the hours report on the Pet Therapy area for any date range and you get a clean, print-ready total of program hours with the visits and handler teams behind it. When a funder backs animal-assisted programs specifically, you can hand over that program's reach on its own — no carving it out of a combined spreadsheet by hand.
Where do I record the certification or registration for a therapy team?
Keep it with the handler. Each handler has a profile where you can note the team's registering organization, the certification, and a renewal date in a note field, so the paperwork lives next to the hours instead of in a separate binder. VolunteerLedger tracks the volunteer and the program — it isn't a credentialing system, but it keeps the reference handy when a review asks who's an active, registered team.
Does it work for cats, miniature horses, or other therapy animals — not just dogs?
Yes. The area of service is about the program, not the species, so dog, cat, miniature-horse, and any other therapy teams all log under your Pet Therapy area — and you can rename the area to whatever your program calls it. The visit logging, handler hours, and reporting work the same no matter which animals are visiting.
Give your pet therapy teams the record they've earned.
Start a free 45-day trial, set up your Pet Therapy area, and turn the front-desk clipboard into handler hours and visits you can report and recognize. No credit card, no patient data.