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Ptsd service dog, will it help with dissocation ?

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Sammyiam

MyPTSD Pro
I'm sorry I'm not sure where to put this ?

Hi Everyone,

I talked about getting a service dog last year, but I think I was just in to bad a place to try and sort it out.
My dog has just mated with my sister in laws dog and I have the most beautiful puppy. She is nearly 3 months old and I really want to try and get her to be a service dog.

I have a couple of questions if anyone doesn't mind.

Will a service dog help to stop Dissocation ?
What age can they start to get trained ?
Do they have to be a big dog ? ( I was bitten when I was five by a large dog and I get stressed by big dogs )
Can I have other dogs living in my house or does the service dog have to be the only one ?


I took Lilly to the vet today for her 3 months jabs and I had her with me for the day. I took her into a couple of shops tucked into my shirt and everyone just loved her. ( phone shop, tool shop ) no food shops just ones I knew whould like her. I showed her to my psychologist and she told me to bring her to therapy with me. I go to town and get very stressed out. I walk into shops thinking everyone can see what happened to me, everyone is looking at me thinking im fat, useless, horrible, I dress like a guy and I think people just think I'm a yucky person and a loser.

When I had Lilly with me today everyone just wanted to ask questions about her like, how old is she ? Isn't she beautiful, what's her name etc.

Today is the first time I have come home and not felt like the most terrible person on the planet and that everyone can see who I really am, and feel like a dirty useless horrible person.

I know in the USA service dogs are very common, here in NZ they are not so much we have them but I have no idea where to start. I am going to ask my pyschologist next week and my psychaitrist as well. I am really keen to do this and I don't care what it costs or how long it takes. I think she does more for me than a lot of meds.

Please if anyone can help me

Thanks

Sammy
 
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Hi Sammy

I have just submitted an application for a service dog. I did a lot of research about them before I asked my psychiatrist about it.

Yes, a dog can help ground you when you are dissociating by pawing or licking your face. They can help with anxiety and overwhelming emotions by applying pressure to you stomach. You should look up your local and government laws.

Check out this website. It list all the tasks that a service dog can be trained to do. This is one of the certification agency.

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As of how old before training? Start now. Train her to sit, stay, lay down and come. Bring her out into public as much as possible. Walking down the street, dog parks etc.. She needs to be well socialized. After she is 1 yr old you can start training for specific tasks. Don't feed her table food or anything from your table or counters. She will need to lay under a table at a restaurant, if you been feeding her food from a table she will expect it at the restaurant.

I will write more later. I have to go watch my grandson.

"Jewels"
 
I second everything that @Jewels said above and add to that: not EVERY dog can be a service dog. They can't be dog or cat aggressive, they have to be pretty much unflappable.

To START I would shoot to get her to pass CGC: Canine Good CItizineship test.
the Assistance Dog standards is a bit more rigorous but should be achievable but CGC gives you something to shoot for.
 
Sorry to be a pain in the butt but whenever the subject arises I can't bite my tongue. No disrespect meant but lots of puppies wind up at shelters. I know it isn't exactly your place to say to any owner however I do hope you will not mate this dog. I can't help trying to get out the message that there are so many young rescues who are at the right age to be able to teach and they should have the chance to show whether they can learn or not.

With that preachy lark out of the way, any animal you can cuddle will wind up breaking through to you. I am going to get an assessment soon but it is pretty likely that I have Aspergers. That means I can dissociate while having that form of shut down. All my flatmate has to do is come over and get a cat near to me; I'll instinctively begin to pet and if the cat moves away, I'll probably actually follow it, beginning the process of getting me out of where I was/wasn't.

I'm not equipped with the knowledge of service dogs - I've certainly seen them though and being able to pick her up and hug her when distressed or feeling like the world is melting will be wonderful, I think.

The other folk in the thread seem to have you covered for the practical side. I wanted to say that a small dog seems to be just as capable of care as a larger breed.

Definitely your psych docs should know where to find the right avenues and if they don't know right away, I can't imagine that they won't try, especially since your psychologist has seen you with Lilly.

As for other dogs, if Lilly has the temperament to be trained in such a way, I'm sure that she should be able to handle a companion as long as you introduce them properly and don't rush it. This would also highly depend on the other dog. I think when introducing a new member to the pack when there's a service dog involved will probably have special tips and advice you should look into. I'll Google later because now I've probably been awake for 28 hours. Anyway, you won't want a risk of her regressing or becoming agitated.

It could be entirely different for dogs but for cats the best thing to do is to get a spayed or neutered (so they aren't giving off weird vibes) youngling of the opposite gender. I think this has something to do with hierarchy.

Does your town/city have an online library search? If you don't know you might want to look into it. Here we can search all the libraries and have books brought to our closest. The Internet is wonderful but sometimes having a solid book at hand can be useful in that you can go right to the best chapter. Feels a bit more definite too.

Good luck to you and Lilly.
 
Another organization you can look at is http://www.iaadp.org/ They have a plethora of information. I agree with NyxBean that a dog or cat should be fix.

When you look at these sites and others, they will discuss temperaments of the dog that would be good and which one would be a good candidate. You could have a professional trainer assess Lilly's temperament. Every service dog needs to pass the

The othe r thing to think about is do you want a service dog or an emotional support dog, If you would like a dog to calm you when while home, at park, things like that then an emotional support dog can do that, comfort you. A services dog goes with you all the time and anywhere. As you go through out your day think about having Lilly with you. Think about all the attention you will receive. Just like you experience, people will approach you and ask about the dog, they can ask it is a service dog and why you have one since you don't have a visual disability. Come up with an answer now ... such as she is trained to assist me with a medical condition. If they ask further, like what is the condition that is when you can say that is a question that I don't speak about with strangers or something like that... That is a very personal question.. etc.

so really think about it. Every time you leave your house Lilly will need to go with you.
 
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