Psychiatric Service Dogs

I find the below article quite interesting. Only because my husband and myself have been taking our Service Dogs in to the VA for a long time and no one ever questioned us. We both have PTSD.

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Bill approved to make VA service-dog friendly

By Rick Maze – Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 12, 2011 16:55:07 EDT

The House of Representatives could vote as early as next week on sweeping legislation that makes the Veterans Affairs Department more dog-friendly.

A House committee has approved legislation that would allow service dogs to be used on any VA property or in any VA facility, including any facility or property receiving VA funding.

“I’m really pleased this legislation is moving, just for the sheer fact we have been trying to do this for so long,” said Christina Roof, deputy national legislative director for the veterans’ service organization AmVets. “VA could have done this itself, by regulation, a long time ago if they wanted, but they haven’t done anything so it looks like Congress will.”

Under current law and regulation, VA is required only to allow guide dogs for the blind onto its property and into facilities because those are the only type of assistance animals specifically covered in federal law. Individual facilities directors can be more flexible, if they wish.

VA officials have been working since March on trying to come up with a new service dog policy but discussions have been bogged down, in part, over the question of whether the policy should specifically list the types of service dogs that should be allowed or to leave that open to interpretation.

Language included in HR 2074, a veterans’ health care bill passed Sept. 28 by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, would end the discussion. The provision is very direct, saying the VA secretary “may not prohibit the use of service dogs in any facility or on any property.” The bill makes no effort to define what constitutes a service dog.

Roof said she expects common sense would be used, with eligible dogs having received some specialized training in order to be considered a service dog and with facilities still able to have restrictions on where dogs could go on the premises. For example, a service dog would not be allowed into an operating room but might be allowed in the waiting room of a medical clinic, she said.

In addition to opening the buildings and grounds to service dogs, the bill would create a three-year pilot program in which veterans with post-traumatic stress or other post-deployment mental disorders would be involved in training service dogs for other veterans. The idea of the test is to see if being a dog trainer has any rehabilitation benefits for veterans.

Veterans who have service dogs would have priority in being hired as trainers under the pilot program.

Riley Mers, who has a severe peanut allergy, looks out the front window of her home in Monument, Colo., with her service dog Rock’O, who’s trained to alert the 10-year-old if even trace amounts of peanuts are present.

Rock’O keeps his deathly allergic young pal away from the peanuts and peanut residue that lurk in unexpected places. Kayla pokes and barks at her owner seconds after his body chemistry goes awry and his bipolar medications must be taken. And Alma does rehab activities with patients in the brain and spinal cord injury unit at San Jose’s Santa Clara Valley Medical Center to help them regain strength and learn new ways of doing things.

Rock’O, Kayla and Alma are at the vanguard of a new wave of service dogs trained to handle things their humans cannot. From alerting owners to an impending seizure to helping people with psychiatric or memory conditions (including Alzheimer’s) stay stable and safe, service dogs are helping an ever-broadening array of people live more normal, independent lives, just as they have helped hearing-, seeing- and mobility-impaired people for decades.

“Rock’O is an extra layer of protection,” Sherry Mers of Monument, Colo., says. The Portuguese water dog received service-dog training in Colorado and then spent months of peanut-sniffing training at the Florida Canine Academy in Safety Harbor, which trains bomb- and narcotics-sniffing dogs.

Mers’ daughter, Riley, 8, is so severely allergic to peanuts that she has been rushed to the emergency room simply because she came into contact with particles of peanut dust, and the specter of anaphylaxis hovers whenever she leaves home. The girl attends school in a “contained” environment that assures no contact with anything that has been near peanuts, and her rare outings have always carried risk.

But Rock’O has broadened her world. On a mall visit, he sniffed a bowl of peanut-studded candy several feet away in a jewelry store and prevented Riley from going in, and he warned her away from an area in her own yard where peanut shells were on the ground, apparently carried there by squirrels.

Now the girl is confidently — and safely — getting out more. “She said the other day, ‘I think I will be able to go to college now,’ ” says Mers, who has started a non-profit foundation (angelservicedogs.com) so children with “hidden disabilities” such as severe allergies and seizures can afford specially trained animals to help them.

Sniffing out new ways to help

Experts predict that as time goes on, dogs will be trained to deal with many other human conditions in ways not yet contemplated. Already, for example, returning waves of severely injured military personnel have spurred some service-dog groups to investigate new ways to help.

“There has been an increase in amputees, poly-trauma and PTSD. The assistance-dog industry needs to take a close look at how to serve this group,” says Clark Pappas of Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Canine Companions for Independence (cci.org), which launched a Wounded Veterans Initiative in 2007 to provide assistance dogs to injured soldiers and has teamed up 55 so far.

Meanwhile, dogs are helping in a variety of ways. Kayla, the German shepherd owned by David Nowak of New Brunswick, N.J., who was diagnosed in 1998 with bipolar disorder, “has her paws full 24/7,” he says.

His rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, he says, means his moods can shift at lightning speed. Medication helps, but stress and other factors can throw him into a peak or valley almost without warning. When Kayla senses a shift in his body chemistry, she whines and goes to the medicine cabinet, alerting him to take his pills. In some cases, he passes out, and she’s trained to poke him until he comes to. If that doesn’t work, she barks until help arrives.

A dog trainer for many years, Nowak has trained two dogs to help him, as well as two service dogs for others with bipolar disorder. Without a service dog, he says, “I probably wouldn’t leave the house much. Anxiety can make me pass out, and then, of course, you wake up disoriented, which could lead to another spiral.” Kayla, who carries his medications on her service-dog vest when they go out, “has given me comfort and stability.”

‘Facility dogs’ to the rescue

Alma, the San Jose hospital dog who dons a name badge and goes to work each day, is one of a growing category of service dogs referred to as “facility dogs.” Alma had almost two years of service-dog training by Canine Companions for Independence, but instead of being assigned to a person requiring everyday help, she — and others like her — are assigned to a health professional.

Occupational therapist Carole Adler is Alma’s handler, and the dog’s duties depend on the needs of the person she’s helping: She might get brushed by someone trying to rebuild upper-body coordination, or she might serve as a four-legged “cane” for someone who is learning to walk again.

The golden retriever/Labrador retriever mix also is regularly invited to the burn unit to assist with rehab there. Healing skin is extremely sensitive, and “the kids are often afraid the therapists will hurt them as we put them through exercises to stretch a burned arm, for example,” Adler says. But “we can get them through the necessary movement with Alma — kids will throw a ball for her to fetch and have such fun they’re not focused on the pain.”

When the weather is hot, I tend to stay home more just because it’s more comfortable for my dog. I can handle heat OK. And Gunny would not say a word about the heat just as long as he is by my side. But I think about him and his needs.

How about the rest of you? Do you tend to gear your day towards the weather and how it will affect your service dog?

Sussie, Gunny (service dog) and Rainy (in training)

I get phone calls and emails almost every day from people who have suddenly ran into a problem with a landlord.

I find it interesting how landlords and HOA, despite being told of the laws regarding assistance dogs, will still act as though the laws do not pertain to them. In truth, it pertains to all. New landlords and old landlords.

Today I actually stumbled across a really nice site that covers many laws pertaining to animals. Including a very well written page which describes housing accommodation and assistance dogs.

This is one I will be passing on to people time and time again.

http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ovusfaqhousingand%20pets.htm

Sussie and Gunny
http://thegunnyfund.chipin.com/the-gunny-fund

Because occasionally dogs will be dogs, even well trained service dogs, what is the more embarrassing thing that your service dog ever did in public or in the company of others?

What is the funniest thing your dog ever did?

The only embarrassing thing that comes to mind for Gunny is the cat incident. Gunny gets along with cats. For the most part he ignores them, but if one comes up and says “Hi” he will say “Hi” back.

We were at a clients house, and I felt comfortable there, so I released Gunny from service dog capacity so he could wander around and explore. The client’s cat came into the room not long after. At first my client was a little concerned but I reassured her, stating that Gunny loved cats, to which she replied that her cat was dog friendly. We continued to discuss things and then, after a bit, she looked past me and said “Um…you were not kidding when you said your dog loved cats”. I turned to look and Gunny had the cat on the floor trying to be romantic with it. Without saying a word, I quickly scooped him up, carried him out to my truck, put him away and came back in the house. My client and I sat there and looked at each other for a couple seconds and then burst into laughter.

The funniest thing that ever happened was at the Doctor’s office. My husband uses a walker and is on oxygen. As we were chatting with the Doctor in the examination room, Jorgen became a little distressed. Gunny, being in tune with him as he is with me, went over to make sure my husband was OK. When he felt everything was alright, he turned to return to me and got his back half tangled in my husband’s oxygen line. Gunny knows that the oxygen line is very important so rather than trying to pull himself out of it, he carefully picks up one leg and tries to step over the line, and then tries the other leg. Not quite able to step over the line each time, he is alternating between the two legs trying to step over the line. First one leg…then the other…back and forth. In the mean time I see Dr. Beck’s face getting redder and redder and it suddenly dawns on me that she was trying not to burst out laughing. As I went over to help Gunny out, I said “It’s OK if you laugh Doc. Even I have to admit, there really isn’t anything much funnier than a high centered weiner”

Sussie and Gunny

I have a friend that runs a publishing company. She is always trying to come up with new ideas for a new magazine.

Which leads me to ask the readers.

If a magazine geared towards Service Dogs and ESA’s and their owners, would you subscribe to it? Would you submit stories to it? If you were a trainer or sold Service Dog goods, would you advertize in it?

Sussie and Gunny

BIG LAKE, Minn. (AP) — Greg Shartle and his fiancée, Alana Curtis, are trying to get the word out about the work they want to do to help veterans who use service dogs.

They want to make vests for the dogs from the veterans’ camouflage Army Combat Uniforms.

“I want people to be able to go, ‘That’s my uniform, that’s my service dog.’ It puts a lot more pride into it, and veterans deserve that,” Curtis said.

Inspiration to make the vests came from a failed search by Curtis when she wanted to get an Army-styled vest for Shartle’s service dog, Cadence. What she found had no pockets for Shartle’s medicine or his dog’s toys. Now both are stored in a vest made from one of Shartle’s old uniforms. It includes his Army patches and the dog’s medical patches.

“It’s nice especially being able to say, ‘She’s actually wearing a set of my uniform,’” said Shartle, a former U.S. Army sergeant who has had post-traumatic stress disorder since he returned from Iraq in 2005.

“It’s nice to be recognized that he’s a veteran,” Curtis said about Shartle. “It gives him that confidence and merit that he truly deserves.”

The couple also wants to express through the personalized vests how important their service dogs have been to them.

They have not made vests for others, but they want to start. For them, it’s important to show Shartle’s service in the Army and they want to give that opportunity to other veterans. As long as ACU material and patches are provided, they will make the vests at no charge for anyone who is a veteran and has a service dog.

Cadence, an Irish setter mix, can sense when Shartle is about to have one of his violent flashbacks. His body posture and the way he acts triggers her to jump into his lap or get close to him and keep others away so they don’t get hurt.

A touch from Cadence is nonthreatening to Shartle, Curtis said, and helps bring him back to reality faster.

The flashbacks tend to focus on some key events during his time in Iraq. One is the day he had to give a friend emergency medical service.

Shartle was driving the truck behind his friend, a truck he was supposed to be in. The two had similar names and were mixed up when they were assigned to their trucks. An improvised explosive device detonated on the road. Shartle took quick action to save his friend and waited to get him into a helicopter.

It wasn’t until later that he realized the close call he’d had. Other explosives were nearby and could’ve gone off at any moment.

“It was a matter of being in the right spot at the right time, and being lucky that none of the others went off,” Shartle said. “That was the roughest over there, is basically facing reality.”

But Cadence isn’t the only service dog who makes Shartle and Curtis’ lives easier.

Curtis has had epileptic seizures since she was a little girl. Bravo, an all-black German shepherd, can sense when Curtis will have a seizure hours before it happens. He alerts her so she can be as prepared as possible.

“The little things … those two do is more of a help, so everything’s going better now,” Shartle said. Curtis’ seizures dropped to one or two a month from about 15 a day.

The way Shartle and Curtis acquired the two dogs was coincidental. They adopted Bravo because of his breed and realized later that he would alert Curtis when she was about to have a seizure.

“Bravo was pretty much a complete accident,” Shartle said. “To find (a dog) that will actually alert before seizures, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”

They decided to make him into a certified service dog so he could assist her at home, work and in public places.

“Every dog can do it, not every dog knows how to,” Curtis said.

A friend helped with some of the training, but they decided to self-train Bravo to fit Curtis’ specific needs.

Soon after, Curtis got Cadence for Shartle from the Central Minnesota Animal Care and Control center in St. Cloud. They self-trained her to help him with his flashbacks.

After going through almost 18 weeks of training each, the dogs took a final test to become certified service dogs.

Now the dogs go everywhere their humans go, brandishing their specialized service dog vests and making a path through crowds along streets and store aisles.

Curtis is working toward receiving a certification to train service dogs, specifically for seizure alert. She wants to give people with invisible disorders, such as seizures and flashbacks, a chance to get the help that Bravo and Cadence have given them.

As long as you have the patience and are serious about it, we will do everything we can to help you get the right service dog, Curtis said.

Shartle and Curtis plan to marry this May, knowing that going through all this together has brought them closer and they are even more in love.

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Sussie and Gunny
http://thegunnyfund.chipin.com/the-gunny-fund

I am collecting a list of Service Dog trainers. If any of our readers knows of someone that trains Service Dogs for individuals, could you please send me their information?

Send it to

macnachtan@q.com

Thanks!

Sussie and Gunny

I like the fact that more and more Vets are getting PTSD dogs. My husband used to suffer from terrible nightmares until he got his Service Dog. Years ago they used to tell Veterans just to deal with it. Or lock them up when they went completely over the edge. It’s nice that society is starting to take PTSD seriously.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Soldiers-seeking-solace-through-service-dogs-118591634.html

Sussie and Gunny