About PTDC

PTDC was founded by Carri King-Bussard and Pat Blocker in 2011. It is our mission to promote the human-animal bond for professionals in the mental health field. We provide education, training, and evaluation for dog/handler teams and are dedicated to enhancing mental health professionals' ability to incorporate and deliver individualized canine assisted interactions.

While there are no official state or federal mandates regarding registration or certification of canine partners in therapy work, we have found that many practitioners and their agencies are looking for more training and support to ensure the safety and well-being of all involved. PTDC believes it is vital that a neutral third party evaluates the skills of dog/handler teams to determine their appropriateness for participation and to promote best practices in the area of canine assisted interactions.

We celebrate the skills that the dog/handler teams bring to their work. As such, we look for complementary strengths in the human handler and the dog and consider the match between the team and their unique work setting. Above all, we expect handlers to ensure the safety of all involved and that PTDC dogs are reliable, predictable, controllable, affiliative, tolerant, confident, and able to work in potentially stressful conditions. PTDC loves working with teams of all shapes and sizes- all breeds are welcome!

We also believe strongly in positive reinforcement-based training, and it is expected that all PTDC teams use this approach in working with their canine partners. In our experience, being a proactive handler is of utmost importance to maintain safety for all involved and to provide ethical canine assisted interactions.

PTDC Objectives

PTCD services are designed for professionals and volunteers who are involved in the mental health field and want to work with their canine companions in providing canine assisted interactions. PTDC aims to:

Expand and enhance the knowledge of working with therapy dogs in therapeutic sessions
Emphasize the importance of the relationship between the dog and handler in the therapeutic environment
Promote the understanding of canine body language, a dog’s communication with humans and other dogs
Promote positive training techniques that will nurture the human / canine relationship
Promote the power of the human/animal bond and its applications in the mental health field
Promote the professional standard of AAT through evaluation and continuing education
Promote the understanding of safety and ethics in the evolving field of AAT
Encourage the creation of canine assisted interventions to fit various mental health settings and various populations within the mental health field

Our Team

Carri King-Bussard, MA, LPC -- Co-Founder & Instructor

Carri earned her Master’s degree in Counseling from Webster University in Albuquerque, NM in 1998. She is currently a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of Colorado. She earned a Certificate in Animals and Human Health: Animal Assisted Therapy and Learning from Denver University’s Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) in 2007, and is an adjunct professor in GSSW's Animal-Assisted Social Work certificate. She has almost 25 years of clinical experience working within the systems of child protection/welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and the public-school system. In her work, she has utilized the strength of the human-animal bond while working with a variety of people in a variety of settings. She has extensive experience working in the community with high-risk youth and their families. Carri is trained and utilizes evidenced based practices to include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Carri is also trained in the Anicare-child treatment model that addresses the assessment and treatment of animal abuse. She currently runs her own counseling private practice, Animal Assisted Counseling of Colorado. She is the proud mother to four canines (Noah, Rainier, Yazzie, and Luke), four guinea pigs (Kiera, Raven, Darla, and Snickers), two rats (Pancake and Rebel), and a therapy cat (Zion).

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Lauren Kalvaitis, MSW, CAIS, AASW -- Instructor

Carri King-Bussard, MA, LPC -- Co-Founder & Instructor

Lauren earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work with a minor in Counseling Psychology from Ball State University in 2018 and a Master of Social Work degree along with a Animal Assisted Social Work Certificate from the University of Denver in 2020. Lauren also earned her Canine Assisted Intervention Specialist Certificate from the Univ

Lauren has been working in the mental health field since 2018 where she started off in youth residential back in Indiana. After graduating with her MSW from University of Denver, she started working in a nursing home, where her dog Harp would bring joy to the residents who couldn't see family, friends, and their own pets due to COVID restrictions. Lauren then started working for a non-profit providing individual behavior therapy to clients who were a part of the IDD community ranging from Boulder to Parker, and Longmont to Aurora. Lauren has just started as a clinician at Animal Assisted Counseling of Colorado where she is working towards her LCSW. As well, Lauren is looking to become a dog trainer to better assist her clients in working with their dogs at home to provide relationship building and trust for both.

Lauren has had a connection with animals dating back to birth. She has shared her home with many critters, including cows, chickens, horses, a goat named Earl, cats, and dogs. Growing up on a family farm, Lauren was always drawn to the animals and would never turn down an opportunity to work with a new friend. Lauren currently shares her home with her two fur babies Harp and Sirius who are both registered Therapy Dogs under Professional Therapy Dogs of Colorado.

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