Service dog and anxiety connection

[FabulousEnding]

I've trained my dog on a good chunk of the alert behaviors I need from her (she learns extremely fast and loves to work!). However, I haven't yet figured out... How do you make the connection in the dog's brain between the alert behaviors and signs you're about to have an anxiety/depression/flashback episode?

I don't really know what signs I show since it's all sort of an emotional escalation and I'm not really paying attention.

 

[KwanYingirl]

Maybe she does respond. My dog gets sick if I get sick. If I'm recovering from a flashback, I notice that she crawls into my lap. As if she knows the cues but just empathizes with me. And I do like her reaction to me she's very soothing

 

[FindingMyself88]

I am training my own service dog as well. Part of it is just continuing to build the bond and keeping her by your side as much as possible so she learns your moods. Something I was told my a trainer, is let your dog lick you (I know some don't like this) several times a day, ESPECIALLY when you are upset/anxious. They can taste the metabolites that change during our moods.

Another thing is do you have people that can tell when you are becoming anxious or going into a flashback? If so, teach them to cue her so that when they notice you getting anxious or whatever, they can cue her. She will gradually learn to associate the two together.

Good luck with your training! Bristol (in profile pic) is helping me SO much. Before I got her, it was hard to go in public alone. Now I can go to wal-mart on a SATURDAY (big deal here, craziness)! She naturally picked up on nightmares and panic attacks as my breathing changed. She now periodically "checks in" with me to make sure I'm not dissociating by jumping up on my lap.

 

[FindingMyself88]

Also maybe if you see a therapist, ask her/him if there is anything they notice you do when you start to get upset. It can be that you fidget with your hair, bite your nails, pull at your pants, etc. For me it was that I keep rubber bands on my arm and I pull them off and play with them. I have now trained Bristol that when I do this, to nudge me with her nose and if that doesn't work, to paw at my leg or arm to get my attention. Then I realize what is happening and I can either do some calming exercises with her or take my medicine if needed.

 

[KwanYingirl]

How did you learn to train Bristol? Do you have a book? Annie is a bona fide emotional service dog but I don't know where to find a service jacket for her. Do you know where I could get one? Next winter if I have money I want to do canine good citizen with her. I'm agoraphobic so she doesn't get many walks. So i need to pull myself up and get her walking. Any advice would be great!

 

[FindingMyself88]

Honestly I did TONS of research online, and I had done basic training for all of my other dogs. The hardest part to training a service dog is public access. There is a book out there calling training a psychiatric service dog. Now there is a difference between an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) and a Service Dog (SD). An ESA just provides emotional support and can live with you in non-pet friendly houses/apartments and can fly with you. A SD performs tasks for you and needs to be "prescribed" by your doctor. Some tasks are:

-alerting to panic attacks, flashbacks, dissociation.
-grounding or deep pressure therapy. This can be done sitting or laying down. The dog gets on your lap/chest and basically the weight of them helps ground you and bring you back. Some dogs will also lick you to help.
-for people who are hyper vigilant about entering places, the dog can be trained to search the room or house for other people.
-"cover" which is where the dog is trained to sit behind, in front, to the side of you and provide space between you and other people.
-interrupt bad behaviors by redirecting (i.e. getting their brush or a ball to play with or groom).
-check with periodically to break any dissociative spells.

These are just some, Bristol does them all except for the checking house. She does however walk in front of me in stores and I can tell by her reaction if someone is about to come out of an aisle. She also provides counter balance when I have dizzy spells from head injury.

The dog HAS to perform some tasks to mitigate your disability to be a SD. Like maybe for your agoraphobia, the cover tasks would work good to give you space. It takes a LOT of work to train the dog. Despite how I am feeling, I have to do some training with Bristol EVERYDAY, whether it is just basic obedience/tasks or going to wal-mart and doing some public access training. Right now we are working on her doing quiet down stays for class and restaurants. She also has barrier frustration where she sees other dogs and wants to go to them. I am working with a professional on this because if I cannot get her over it, I will have to "wash her out" which basically means end her training to be a SD. The dog must be friendly, but yet not easily distracted.

If you can get your doctor to prescribe you a note to have a SD and Annie can be trained, then I think she will change your life! You can get vests off ebay or amazon. I got Bristol's from workingservicedogs . com.

If you have any other questions I can try to answer, @Justmehere has also trained her own SD, as others on this site.

Sorry for any typos, it's been a rough day and Bristol keeps laying her head on my hand while typing. She likes to maintain some form of contact, especially when its been like the past few days/2 weeks! She takes her "grounding" tasks VERY seriously as you can see in the picture. Sorry it is sideways! ;)

 

[FabulousEnding]

I'm training my little chi/min pin mixed dog to be my service dog. Two trainers have told me she's the right SD for me. If she can go to college with me, I will do SO much better! She calms me and gets me to focus on her instead of all the people around me. I pushed her pretty hard yesterday and she wore herself out from being really into it. She takes her new job very seriously... Even follows me into the bathroom and checks inside and on the outside of the door standing guard.

I didn't think about being able to taste the difference. The only thing I know of that I do is my heart rate speeds up and I get a little shaky. Teaching to respond to heart rate or facial expressions seems complicated.

 

[FindingMyself88]

Aw, I am glad she is doing good! :). Yes, my goal is for Bristol to go to university with me too. I think occasionally pushing them is good. One time I had a friend with her baby in the hospital. She was from my home town, but they flew her baby up here to where I live now to a children's hospital. None of her family could come, husband had to stay at home with the other two kids. Me and Bristol stayed at the hospital ALL day on Monday (literally from 9 am to 9 pm) and part of the next day. She did amazing! She of course got breaks and I brought her something to chew on while in the room.

There may be things you don't realize you do, thats why I said ask your T if they see anything that you do. Some people cover their eyes with their hand. It could be something you don't realize you're doing. For me, my eyes also do something funny my T says when I dissociate. But my biggest signal is when I start playing with the rubber bands.

As for the heart rate and facial, this is where she needs to be with you constantly and having someone else to help cue her if you are unable to will help. Eventually she will associate the cue with your symptoms. Some dogs naturally pick up on this, thus called "alert" dogs instead of "response" dogs. Response means they pick up on cues and react to it in the way they are trained. Alert means they sense the physical changes and alert you possibly before you realize it. Bristol is an "Alert" dog. She notices the changes in my breathing. She has also been able to sense when I have a dizzy/vertigo spell coming on, I don't know how though.

Be patient, it will come as the dog gets to know you and your baseline moods versus anxious and unstable moods.

 

[FabulousEnding]

She seems to understand those mood changes already. For instance, whoever looks more sad or stressed out... my boyfriend or me... she goes and lays with that person. When I'm crying she looks at me with very concerned eyes and doesn't know what to do so she just watches over me. She's already using my alert behaviors I taught her for her own purpose... I tried to get up off the couch several times a little bit ago and she kept grounding me. lol. My bf has noticed she's walking up to him now and touching him on his knee at random, like I taught her to do. Once she's sort of mastered these behaviors, if I'm feeling strange would it work to have my boyfriend say the commands to do something for me?

All I know is if I'm hyped up (which is harder since I'm on a mood stabilizer in addition to anti-anxiety and antidepressant), I get really fidgety and pace around quickly. Or if I'm depressed I won't get up at all... in which case she just lays with me. I'll ask my boyfriend if there's an initial sign he notices.

I have 22 days left until college starts so I'm trying to at least get her to do one thing on command. Even if it's just I notice I'm feeling anxious and then I tell or hand signal her to touch my hand or wrist. I'm assuming it's going to take time for her to make the connections that she tells me to do this task only when she acts this way.

 

[FindingMyself88]

Once she's sort of mastered these behaviors, if I'm feeling strange would it work to have my boyfriend say the commands to do something for me?

Yes, that or you do it yourself (if you can). Cuddle her and let her lick you when you are anxious. Ask your boyfriend. Do you have a therapist? The reason I keep saying ask your T (therapist) is because if you have one, they are normally trained to pick up on certain behaviors. Like my T can tell I've had a bad week because when I sit down, I hug one of her pillows on the couch. Or the rubber bands, or what my eyes do when I dissociate. If you have a T, they will be able to tell you things you and even your boyfriend may not realize. I didn't realize I did a lot of those things until she told me.

Also, if you don't have something obvious after you talk with your T and/or boyfriend, "create" something. I know that sounds odd, but you can do it. Playing with my rubber bands was an acquired habit. I decided to wear them so I had something to play with instead of biting my fingers. I trained Bristol to alert whenever I begin playing with the rubber bands. I also plan on teaching her some other cues, such as messing with thigh/pants, leg shaking, etc.

As far as school goes and the ADA requiring a task, if she is already grounding you on command, that is a task. It has to be on command though. She can do it when she feels you need it, but for it to be a task, you have to be able to get her to do it on command. That was the first task I taught Bristol so she could start going everywhere with me and she learned it quickly. Also touching your hand or alerting on command as she is, can also be considered and used for tactile stimulation which helps you remain in the present. Cover is another simple but effective task. You just need to teach her to sit or down where you place her and stay. Then you can move a little bit away from her, and that makes her into a "barrier" between you and other people. I don't use this one a lot yet because people tend to talk to Bristol and that distracts her right now.

 

[FindingMyself88]

I don't know the link by heart right now, but google "Anything Pawsable" it is a service dog website that gives GREAT training tips. May not have anything on this issue, but is great to use in general for things such as public access and focus training. I got tons of training tips from it! @KwanYingirl that site may help you too!

 

[FabulousEnding]

That makes more sense they need to do it on command. I've always seen dogs do it on their own, but we're on day 3 of training and she's got 90% of it mastered. She's got the touching of my knee mastered without fail and will reach up with both paws and touch whatever knee I point to. She learned so fast that she was bored, so I've been trying to mix it up a bit more (different treats, different order, putting a couple different tasks together). One thing I taught her today she grasped pretty quickly. I went slowly... tapped the chair then tapped the signal for ground without a word, then gave her a second to process it. She jumped up on the chair and laid across my lap. I was so excited I acted like she had just did something overwhelmingly amazing and gave her 6 treats. :) I started saying "look" and showing her my hand shaking. She made note of it the first couple of times after staring at my shaking. Then later on I showed her my hand again, she took her paw and laid it on top of my hand a couple of times and my hand went steady. I praised her heavily.

I'm using hand signals as it's more practical for the real world. I don't want to be in class (or in a grocery store) and have to speak to her while the instructor is talking. It's easier for her and me to just do a hand signal and she quietly does what I ask.

I suppose most of it is going to be doing the tasks daily and connecting them together in a way. Giving her more breaks too. After she does really well, we throw a toy around and play fetch or I bring my kitten outside so they can run around together.

Question, did you ever keep training logs? Do you know where a good template might be for those? Since I'm only on Day 3 and she's showing promise and mastery, I'd like to start keeping track now.

One major thing left to do is start training her for public access. She's only 4 lbs so in public I will have to carry her around in a tote carrier so no one steps on her. I need to teach her to not bark at people, to get used to various things, etc. I'm thinking of signing up for new student orientation and taking her with me to that as an introduction into school. How would you recommend beginning public access manner training? I've been reading "The Loved Dog Method" and "How To Speak Dog".