Bob Otten

Bob has volunteered with pet therapy programs for many years, and he always enjoyed taking his two therapy dogs into retirement communities, to Washington Dulles International Airport to do stress relief work with both airline staff and travelers during Christmas holidays, to NOVA for final exam week, to visit autistic children, and to hypothermia shelters. Bob currently assists Summit Dog, Inc. with therapy animal evaluations.

Bob is also an active volunteer in Northern Virginia with the Homeless Animal Rescue Team (HART), with the Community of Faith Food Pantry, and with the Epiphany Episcopal Hypothermia Shelter. He looks forward to mentoring pet therapy teams using his wide experiences with pets, including difficult animals, in both small groups and crowd situations. The joy of teaching therapy teams to bring calm and peace into stressful situations gives him deep satisfaction.

Bob holds a BS in Accounting from Strayer University, and an AAS in Police Science from Northern Virginia Community College. He holds certifications from Canine Good Citizen, from Pet Partners, and does neutral dog evaluations.

Bob is retired from the Fairfax County Police Department. He and his wife live in Virginia with their two dogs adopted from foster care.