@Grizzly do you want an Emotional Support Animal or a Service Animal. Both have their plusses and minuses. If you go the Service Dog route, then you will need to decide what they are going to tasking they are going to do to mitigate your disability. Here is a great article to help decide what tasking to train for: http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html
Calming a person after PTSD has been accepted as sitting on, leaning into or distracting. The dog must do this without a que from the handler at the time anxiety is felt. Very difficult to train a dog this. I was lucky, mine automatically did this. You can train them to alert you to anger or aggression. I have trained mine to alert me when I start to raise my voice over normal talking. I don't realize that I am yelling when I get frustrated at an event or conversation. She alerts me by leaning on, jumping up to or sitting on, she is hard to deter once she is one you. If I don't respond she will then stand next to the person I am yelling at so that I see her.
Emotional Support Animal requires no additional training then simple obedience. It requires a letter from your Therapist stating that you need the animal to relax after a trigger. Unfortunately, petting an animal is great for relaxing after trigger events, but not considered a tasking.
@keith kufner, be very careful on just registering your dog as a PTSD dog at any of the online service as most are fakes. Many states have laws that will punish individuals for having a fake service dog (couple hundred dollars to time in jail). They cannot act like a typical dog when you have them working. No barking, no jumping up on other people, they cannot respond to other animals (getting a bird dog not to respond to a bird is hard work), they cannot defecate or urinate in public areas (succeeded too well with this one), they have to be trained to at least one very specific tasking that can hold up in a court of law. Yes, service dog handlers are sued all the time. You must be able to back-up what you said the dog can do. If you bring them into a restaurant, they can not eat off the floor or from you hands. they must sit or lay on the floor and wait until you are done. California has a assistance animal (service dog) registration and the local animal control officer must judge that you have met the minimal requirements. Giving someone a plastic card or certificate that you get offline will make it more difficult for others that follow the law ADA. People cannot request paperwork for a true service animal, if they do they are breaking the law. I have faced this several times and the last time from a Federal Park Ranger. I quickly informed him of the ADA standards and requested to speak with his supervisor. He quickly let me into the monument/park and made sure that I was not hassled from that point forward. Don't know if he didn't remember the law or was testing me if I knew the law. I showed up with my dog not in her vest. A vest is not a requirement by the ADA and didn't want the looks as I walked in St Augustine FL. I also had my pet dog with me. My Dad stayed out with her so we could enjoy the Fort as a family.
Calming a person after PTSD has been accepted as sitting on, leaning into or distracting. The dog must do this without a que from the handler at the time anxiety is felt. Very difficult to train a dog this. I was lucky, mine automatically did this. You can train them to alert you to anger or aggression. I have trained mine to alert me when I start to raise my voice over normal talking. I don't realize that I am yelling when I get frustrated at an event or conversation. She alerts me by leaning on, jumping up to or sitting on, she is hard to deter once she is one you. If I don't respond she will then stand next to the person I am yelling at so that I see her.
Emotional Support Animal requires no additional training then simple obedience. It requires a letter from your Therapist stating that you need the animal to relax after a trigger. Unfortunately, petting an animal is great for relaxing after trigger events, but not considered a tasking.
@keith kufner, be very careful on just registering your dog as a PTSD dog at any of the online service as most are fakes. Many states have laws that will punish individuals for having a fake service dog (couple hundred dollars to time in jail). They cannot act like a typical dog when you have them working. No barking, no jumping up on other people, they cannot respond to other animals (getting a bird dog not to respond to a bird is hard work), they cannot defecate or urinate in public areas (succeeded too well with this one), they have to be trained to at least one very specific tasking that can hold up in a court of law. Yes, service dog handlers are sued all the time. You must be able to back-up what you said the dog can do. If you bring them into a restaurant, they can not eat off the floor or from you hands. they must sit or lay on the floor and wait until you are done. California has a assistance animal (service dog) registration and the local animal control officer must judge that you have met the minimal requirements. Giving someone a plastic card or certificate that you get offline will make it more difficult for others that follow the law ADA. People cannot request paperwork for a true service animal, if they do they are breaking the law. I have faced this several times and the last time from a Federal Park Ranger. I quickly informed him of the ADA standards and requested to speak with his supervisor. He quickly let me into the monument/park and made sure that I was not hassled from that point forward. Don't know if he didn't remember the law or was testing me if I knew the law. I showed up with my dog not in her vest. A vest is not a requirement by the ADA and didn't want the looks as I walked in St Augustine FL. I also had my pet dog with me. My Dad stayed out with her so we could enjoy the Fort as a family.
