PTS Therapy dogs???

[Belinda Stevens]

A friend of mine who is a speech therapist at the local VA told me that one of her military patients has a therapy dog for his PTS (Post Traumatic Stress) condition. She was told that there are only 5 PTS dogs out there now. The dog is trained to circle the guy when he feels over-whelmed in large crowds or when they get to close. He is trained to help comfort him when he starts to panic. He will sit guard to “watch his back” when he is in a situation that calls for it and will check the room before entering for him. Anyway, those were just a few things that were mentioned.
I thought.... how cool is that? Then my next thought was does anyone here know about this work being done with dogs now? This was a chocolate Lab but wouldn't doodles be great for this work?

[Jaime]

The dog is probably a service dog not a therapy dog. There is a group, Canine Companions (CCI) that I know have some local members (Richmond). They work with a specific Lab, golden cross bred in California but they may have information on how to become a Service Dog. I know the process is long and difficult. The first 2 years are spent training. Service dogs are used for more and more things today. They used to just be for the visually impaired but I know they work with people who have anxiety, PTS, arthritis, balance disorders and more.

[Belinda Stevens]

Ah yeah I guess that would be Service not Therapy... thanks for the info.

[Richard Crowe]

I remember years and years ago when I spent a couple of years In-Country Vietnam (on several tours); I could have used the support of a PTS dog after my returns. Looking back at my sometimes pretty abberant behavior, I am sure that I was suffering from PTS. That was, of course, before PTS was an acknowledged condition. It is really strange, because I didn't feel bad In-Country, only after arriving home.

I can still feel how relaxed I become and how physically and mentally good that I feel when I have Holly or one of my Maltese next to me and I am petting it. It has been clinically proven that stroking a pet can lower a person's blood pressure measurably. I can also physically and mentally feel good viewing some Doodle pictures on this site.

[Kelli, Fenway, & Dustin Pedroia]

I actually saw a show about a woman that used her service dog for panic attacks. She realized that her own dog was very helpful when she would have a panic attack and so worked really hard to train him and pass the test to make him a service dog so he could legally accompany her anywhere. What she found was that she didn't have panic attacks any more because her dog was always with her to calm her before the attack could escalate. Another cool thing is dogs that alert for seizures and such. The trainer I work with actually trains seizure alert dogs. He had one in the house with a little girl in training to become her seizure alert dog and the dog started alerting on the Mom's blood sugar too. The Mom had diabetes and would sometimes go into shock, have seizures, ect. and the dog started alerting her before this happened so she could take care of it and didn't have the reaction. Dogs are so cool and being used more and more for this very special work. I think that Doodles would be excellent at service work, but I don't personally know of any doodle service dogs right now.

[Jacque Reynolds]

I think that, because Doodles seem to be very sensitive to their humans, they make excellent service dogs. In fact, I have started a non-profit corporation to provide Doodles for service work...and our organization is more in line with what you are talking about because we recognize that many disabilities can be invisible or less noticible on the outside. We respect the fact that some people, especially children, communicate better with dogs than with other humans...and sometimes these dog/human partnerships help to open doors to human/human communication.
The main factor is training...if people want to train their own dogs, under the supervision of a skilled trainer, we allow them to individualize their training needs, working on those things that they need their dog to do...such as the circling you mention...as opposed to turning on lights. Each dog owner has unique needs and we hope to help them find a dog to meet their needs.
Thanks for posting this...It is so important that people refocus what service dogs are so that they don't question people needing one even when their disability may not show up physically.