Ptsd Dog?

[TandL's mum]

The doctors have strongly suggested getting a ptsd therapy trained dog for my son. Does anyone have any experience with having a dog like this? Did you find it helpful? Any things to watch out for that weren't helpful or expected? Thanks so much.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

There are a lot of threads about this subject. You can find links to them at the bottom of this page.

Not saying you are doing anything wrong in asking, of course. Just alerting you to the fact.

 

[novemberDark]

All I can tell you is that my ex-boy friend, who suffers from severe PTSD has his dog. It is not a dog that is trained for this, but he s told me that having his dog, has helped him through the most darkest times in his life.

Just imagine what a trained dog could mean !.

 

[TandL's mum]

Thanks Ayesha. I did a quick search but didn't see anything right off the bat so thought I'd ask. I'll check out those links as well.

Thanks novemberDark! Hearing that he has found it helpful even without the training makes me less nervous about the whole thing.

 

[novemberDark]

Your welcome TandL s mum, of course my ex (veteran) is an adult and I'm not sure of your sons age. The dog can even sense an upcoming bad episode beforehand.

With children and animals there's always the responsibility of care taking, I'm not a parent myself, but I've heard from friends that it can be an issue with parents ending up taking all the responsibilities.

My friend got a dog for his son who has ADHD and he's noticed that it calmed him down a lot too.

 

[Luigi]

I'm the PTSD sufferer in the family, but my youngest daughter has some issues and our psychologist recommended an emotional support animal, which has made an enormous difference. It's like the dog, even the physical contact with the dog, soothes her and helps her through the transitions. We didn't get a trained dog (that's a service dog, not an emotional support animal), but then had her registered as an emotional support animal with the doctor's prescription. It's been almost a year, and I'm so glad we did it. We are comfortable with dogs, though, that wasn't much of an adjustment, and I'm not sure about your situation.

 

[TandL's mum]

My son is turning 9 this week novemberDark...yeah he's a little guy. Most of the information I've found deals with adults and dogs they have received with the ptsd training, not children which is why I wanted to pose the question here in case someone had a similar experience. It's so scary to watch my special boy get so freaked out and I don't often see it coming despite keeping a watchful eye so I am hoping that a service dog will pick up where I won't be able to if that makes sense.

I know all about the pet care concerns. He has a turtle (has for the last 6 years now) and he is too little to change the tank, but he tries and helps. his big sister has 1 guinea pig and fosters as well as she helps with changing the litter, but I end up being the one to feed them more often than she does. It's alright though, it isn't as though she's really old enough to do everything and she doesn't ignore them - just forgets they have to eat all day long so those extra meals or hay come from me when I notice mid afternoon *giggle* I figure it all goes along with the single parent thing. I take it on until they are old enough to do it completely themselves and they help along the way so they will know what to do when it's totally their job.

 

[TandL's mum]

Thanks Luigi! I grew up with dogs but had cats after I moved out all through college, grad school etc. They actually all just were put to sleep almost 4 years ago now. Part of me is freaked out about having a dog, but part of me is also being the rational parent saying - if this is what will help him then it's what needs to be done. Simple as that. I don't sleep much as it is so getting up to take a dog out isn't the worst thing in the world.

Can you tell me a little more about the difference between an emotional support animal and a service dog? I don't believe I've ever come across that term before. Thanks so much!

 

[JustBe]

Kira is my Service Dog. We have been a team for over 4 years. Without her I'd be lost.

 

[Barberian]

Search the forum (search box top right) with the key words "service dog" and a lot of threads will show up. I have one, and many others have one and have written about their experiences with them as well

 

[TandL's mum]

Thank you Movin'On. Kira is beautiful. I'm so glad that she is such a great help.

Thank you Barberian. I will look again. I did so poking around after the 1st comment and found some things, but I was hoping to find something more specific with a parent's experience for their child like what I'm going through. I will definitely keep looking around the forum. Other's experiences, child or not, can only make things for my son better right?

 

[Luigi]

My understanding is that a service animal must be trained to complete one life skill......like a seizure dog has a skill. Or a seeing eye dog. Service animals, or service animals in training, have full ADA protection. Emotional support is not a specific skill (go figure, what do they think mothers do?), so they are not fully protected under ADA. The funny thing is, nobody knows that........so you can get pretty much any animal that can earn a canine good citizen certificate and have them certified as an emotional support animal. Google emotional support animal.....you can see the standards for certifying them. Be careful of the temperament of the puppy.....they're in many circumstances and can't startle or snap under pressure.