Hey all,

I'm interested in feedback regarding the effectivness of an assistance dog for people who have severe and debilitating anxiety/panic disorders. I've been doing research online and while there is some information available, it is not as comprehensive as I would like.

I've read what a dog can be trained to do to assist an emotionally-overloaded person but I'm wondering just how helpful it actually is out in the real world.

I would be most interested in hearing from anyone who has knowledge about, or has experience with, this kind of assistance dog. Please feel free to PM me.

Thanks in advance

**Mods - I apologize for posting this here but there really is no relevant topic available to post this in the Assistance Dogs forum.

Sarah,
To be honest, I have never heard of this type of K9 assistance dog. Can you send me the links you have? That is actually an interesting topic as I cannot even picture what that type of dog would "do"........

I have only seen one of these dogs and that was a number of years ago. It was a standard poodle that came in with this woman to work fairly frequently. I have no idea how well or what the dog actually did, but she had the dog with her all the time. I didn't have much personal contact with her other than watching her walk through my area, but I was told that she was a bit on the unstable side, so I would say anything that would help her remain independant is fine by me.

I once saw an episode on Cesar where a woman was trying to get her dog to pass the assistance therapy program. She had severe anxiety and found that having her dog with her helped calm her down. My understanding was the dog really didn’t have to do anything for her, but she needed the service dog certificate for the dog to be allowed into the places she went.

I've heard about these dogs. I think there's some controversy over them. I searched, but was unable to see if these dogs would legally qualify as a service dog. My guess is that in order to qualify and use one of these dogs under the Americans with Disabilities Act, that person would first have to have an emotional or mental disorder that qualifies as a legal disability. That in and of itself is not an easy thing to accomplish, from what I understand.

I was able to find some instances where people who had these dogs were able to get exemptions to the "no pets" rule lifted in some apartment complexes, but that's about it.

Also, there was an early episode of the Dog Whisperer where Cesar was helping a dog pass the test necessary to become an emotional support animal (sometimes called an Anxiety Alert Animal, I believe). If I recall the episode properly, the dog only had to prove that it could be well-behaved in stores and such and ignore distractions, etc. I can't remember anything the dog did beyond that, except that the owner said the dog prevents her from having agoraphobia in conjunction with her panic disorder.

But what I'd like to know is who gives these tests and does the qualification vary from state to state or is it federal?

As for what the dogs actually do...well, that's where the debate comes in. Some people say that the dogs can tell when someone is likely to have a panic attack, and they can warn the person, and distract them. Other accounts say that the dog's job is just to hang around because the people have less anxiety and panic attacks when they're with them.

I know this has caused some airline passengers to be miffed that person A can have Fluffy in the cabin for free because they have depression, while Person B has to pay to have a similar Fluffy stuck in the cargo area. Some airlines require that the dog be a certified service animal, while other airlines only require a letter from a doctor.

Some people argue that since the dogs don't actually physically do anything differently than a well-trained pet, they shouldn't have a special status...they also say that if it only comes down to a letter from a doctor, anyone could get their dogs to be "service animals" and bring them anywhere. Non-dog people aren't in love with this idea.

So, I don't know. I'd be interested in learning more about this, too, so I could have a more educated opinion. My guess is that the first place to inquire would be with whatever entity officially and legally qualifies dogs as assistance or service animals. On that score I'm woefully undereducated. Does anyone know who does that?

 Quote:

in order to qualify and use one of these dogs under the Americans with Disabilities Act, that person would first have to have an emotional or mental disorder that qualifies as a legal disability.

Exactly.

Here in Vermont I knew of a woman who was allowed to keep her dog in a no-dogs-allowed rental unit after a long legal battle around this issue. Her lawyer was a local agility instructor with a solid understanding of dog laws, which didn't hurt.

My understanding of this situation was this:
1)The woman had long-standing, well-documented issues with
anxiety disorders/depression.
2)Her dog was a well trained dog with a CGC, but no special
training otherwise.
3)There were documented reasons listed (by mental health
professionals) why and how this dog enabled it's owner to do
things she otherwise could not, and go places her anxiety had
previously prevented her from going. Because of this, this dog
was considered to allow a disabled person to live a more
'normal' life, to aid with a documented disability, and so this
woman could not be prevented from keeping it.

Beyond that I'm not exactly sure how this works, but I DO know this woman was allowed to keep her dog as a service dog under the law.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

It appears when you move beyond true service dogs the lines get real fuzzy. While I found many references to using dogs for psychiatric disorders the closest I could come to anything "official" was this site:

http://www.iaadp.org/
http://www.iaadp.org/A-dogWorld.html

This link suggests the kind of tasks a dog *could* perform:

http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html

The list of tasks was interesting. Reminding a person to take medication, waking a heavily-sedated person, turning on lights for a person fearful of dark places are all concrete tasks that a dog can be trained to do. Helping a person get through a panic attack (other than being a comforting presence) seems murky, at least to me.

Equally murky is the law for assistance dogs. This gives an overview:

http://www.iaadp.org/maze.html

"At this point, what does seem clear is that if you have a disability which substantially limits you in one or more major life activities, and your dog was specially trained to do demonstrable tasks (as opposed to, say , social or therapy dogs, whose work is to effect a change in the person’s emotional or psychological state), you are entitled to protection under the ADA."

Personally, I think just owning a dog, any dog, and having another living being to focus on and care for, could be an enormous help and comfort for someone feeling so overwhelmed.

I have heard of these dogs before and met a lady had an assitance dog for emotional purprose. I have a mixed feeling about it.

While I get that some dogs really help people out a lot emotionally...for some people a WHOLE lot...I really support the idea of holding the title "service dog" or "assistance dog" to a high standard. Those titles should mean something significant, IMO, because those titles imply a certain level of training and assistance that goes beyond just cuddling when the owner is upset (not that I'm bashing the power of a good canine hug or anything ).

But, wow, Sarah. If the service dogs (for mental disorders) can do all of those actual actions for their owner, then kudos, and I'd be impressed with the dog and have no problem giving them the respect and access they deserve.

The problem as I see it would be that if anyone could have an "emotional service dog" just by getting a letter from their doc, then we could easily be overrun by people who just want to have fluffy come in with them to the coffee shop. And frankly, a lot of these people ALREADY do this with their pocket pooches, and to call those dogs "service dogs" would be a disrespect to real service/assistance dogs and all of the people who work so hard to train them.

Just my opinion.

The laws are very fuzzy in California about this whole area of service dogs. One mistake people tend to make is not being discerning enough on the difference between an assistance dog and a service dog. The two are not the same. There is and should be much more latitude for an assistance dog (as far as training goes). They tend to help people more to stabilize emotionally and to assist them in a variety of ways to help a person make it through the day.
IMO to make things to tough for them to be used in everyday life like just being there for someone to help stabilize them emotionally is doing a disservice to the people the dogs are assisting. I wouldn't want to get to caught up in the "we could easily be overrun by people who just want to have fluffy come in with them to the coffee shop" attitude. IMO we need to be as understanding as possible for those that are in need for this type of help and not make them jump through all the hoops and spend the money that they don't have because they've spent it all on doctors and everything else society puts upon these people.