If you’re feeling a tad disheartened by the news, or maybe the view in the mirror when you went to buy new pants (okay, that’s probably just my problem), I have a suggestion: Go out of your way to go to the Assistance Dogs International Conference, wherever it might be held in the years to come. I’m at the 2014 conference in Denver, as I write, having spoken yesterday about People, Trauma and Dogs (focusing primarily on identifying trauma in dogs and using what we know about healing from it in humans to apply to helping traumatized dogs). It’s hard to imagine a more inspiring place. The rooms are full of awesome people doing wonderful things, many accompanied by equally awesome service dogs doing equally wonderful things themselves.
One of the things you take away from a conference like this is the variety of assistance that dogs are providing people all around the world. Here are just three stories that illustrate the breadth of what dogs can do for us:
The Courthouse Dogs Foundation This is Molly, curled up during one of the sessions, and here is a story about what she, and other Courthouse dogs do, and how they benefit crime victims. Petra, another courthouse dog, was used in a child sexual assault case, in which the interviewers were unable to get enough information out of the child to move the case through the legal system. The girl simply froze up and was unable to speak about what had happened to her. Finally, she was left alone with Petra, a dog carefully evaluated and trained for just this situation, and she poured out what had happened while hugging the dog. Through the glass, the interviewers heard her say to Petra: “I’ve told you more than I’ve ever told anybody. You’re such a good dog, when you die I hope you go to heaven.” When the adult interviewer returned to the room, the child sat up straight and clammed up again, but now the detectives had what they needed to proceed with the case and work to protect other children in the future. Courthouse Dogs are carefully evaluated with children (I was surprised to learn many other programs do not include an evaluation with children as part of the requirement before being certified to work with children. Oh my. That might be a subject for another blog….). Courthouse Dogs are also allowed in many jurisdictions to enter the courtroom and provide solace for those involved in highly stressful environments. Imagine having to testify, as a young child, against your mother’s new partner, or your uncle. What a great program! For more inspiration, read the story from the founder, Ellen O-Neill-Stephens, about her son Sean and the dog Jeeter who changed their life.
Dementia Dogs This is the working (not final) title of an important pilot project in the UK which has placed three dogs in the homes of people suffering from some form of dementia. It is a collaborative effort from several organizations (including Guide Dogs and Dogs for the Disabled), that is looking for ways to safely place dogs in homes in which a person suffers from dementia. This is a photo of Gladys, Ken (who suffers from vascular dementia) and their assistance dog Kaspa. Ken suffers from anxiety, especially when his wife was away, but now Ken and Kaspa can sit outside of the supermarket together while Gladys does the shopping. Ken and Kaspa get lots of social interaction with passers-by, and Gladys can manage to maintain the household without constant stress. It sounds like Kaspa has been a life saver. I should say here that the presenters, led by Helen McCain, were very clear that the recipients can only be in the early stages of dementia, that they are carefully screened to ensure that the dogs are safe and that this is a project very much in the pilot stage. But how wonderful that they are doing this work.
Here I am this morning with Rick and Laura (and Titus and Bosor), after talking about their work for Canines for Service in Wilmington, N.C. We talked about their work in the Naval prison (brig) that allows prisoners to train service dogs for mobility and as PTSD service dogs. Talk about a win/win. In the program, the volunteer prisoners, who are completely devoid of any kind of touch (touching anyone is never allowed), live with the dogs for 9 to 14 months, working hard to train the dogs as service dogs. Rick told me about one prisoner who spent eleven years in the brig, who got into the program when it first began six years ago. He is now free and doing well in the community, after having spent 10,000 hours training service dogs for others. He told Rick that, pure and simply, the program saved his life.
Heady stuff this. And profoundly inspiring. Those are just a few of the stories you’ll hear at an ADI Conference. Of course, this is not a TV show, so there are lots of controversies and concerns in the assistance dog field, but I can’t imagine being here and not being uplifted.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm. Well, needless to say, I’m not actually. I’m still in Denver, the mile high city soaking in the conference, w while Jim is holding down the fort at home. I’ll be going to more talks this afternoon and… wait for it… a tour of the Kong factory late this afternoon. I’ll keep you posted.
em says
Inspiring indeed! It is wonderful to hear about the difference that dogs can make to people’s emotional and mental well-being.
My dentist has a dog (her practice is attached to her home), that is in the office most days, and while I know that it is not practical in many settings, I LOVE it and wish that it were feasible to have dogs in more of the high stress environments that I have to visit. I know that not everyone is comfortable around dogs, but for a person who loves them, they can be like magic.
Thank you for a spirit-lifting post!
Suzi says
Ms. McConnell,
Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to do a wonderful presentation at our conference.
Suzi Hall
Coordinator
Assistance Dogs International
Dixie Tenny says
Thank you for including Courthouse Dogs in your post. Co-founder Celeste Walsen has been a close friend for decades. The passion she and Ellen have for the incredibly valuable work they do is so inspiring. I hope everyone supports the use of Courthouse Dogs in their judicial districts. And thank you for the mention of how vital it is that these dogs are raised and tested by a certified assistance dog organisation. These are not ‘therapy dogs,’ and placement of inappropriate dogs into these legally and emotionally volatile situations could prove disastrous.
Rebecca says
I have C-PTSD, Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia, Depression & Disassociation Disorder. I trained my Great Dane to be my Assistance Dog, she’s only recently become qualified and being able to take her is amazing, it’s allowing me to actually go out (once I get over the stress of someone is going to try and stop us). My son had a dental appointment yesterday and had to have a baby tooth pulled that was long overdue to come out. Jurlique was a bit worried about him being surrounded by strangers, but she only had her tail between her legs, once it was over my son gave her a hug and said how much it helped him for her to be there too. She also assisted a lady in the waiting room, she came up and said what a lovely dog and sat beside me, Jurlique had been in drop, she sat up, rested her head on the ladies lap and licked her hand (which I know she shouldn’t have done) it turns out the lady is struggling with depression after the loss of her husband and had only recently come out of hospital. Jurlique just knew she was sad and needed some love.
Terri says
As an occupational therapist I have seen trianed service dogs assist para/quadrapeligic pts with daily tasks.
As a golden retriever owner and dog lover I have seen my own “untrained” dogs nudge the paralized hands of stroke patoents and light up the faces of dementia patients who no longer speak.
Truly amazing and intuitive creatures!
Shaya says
So I’m curious what tasks the dementia dogs do for their owners? I looked on the website and there weren’t too many details. One page mentioned a dog fetching medicine twice a day and it occurs to me that this brings up interesting questions about dog’s memories and sense of time. For instance if the dog is expected to remember to do something at a certain time without any other cue.
Kat says
I live with a registered Therapy Dogs International therapy dog. Taking Ranger into nursing homes, alzheimer’s care facilities, senior daycares, libraries, and schools I see first hand what an incredible difference he makes in the lives of people. He’s just gotten home from a four day hospital stay for a very high fever. The outpouring of support from all around the county while he was sick and as he recovers has been amazing. I told a few friends he was in the hospital but mostly people have asked me why he wasn’t with me and upon learning the reason have expressed great dismay and their heartfelt wishes that he enjoy a speedy recovery. He has touched an amazing number of lives.
The first time we visited the nursing home the staff wanted us to visit a specific patient who “loves dogs.” We entered her room to see the woman sitting in her gerry chair with her head tipped back, mouth hanging open slack, and eyes vacant. Clearly, no one was at home in her head at that point. I asked Ranger to sit beside her chair and an aide placed the woman’s hand on Ranger’s back. Over the course of a moment or two her mouth curved up into a smile and she began to be present with the rest of us. In whatever internal landscape she’d been lost Ranger was able to find her and bring her back.
At another visit a resident with high blood pressure had just had his checked and it was dangerously high. They rechecked after a few minutes of petting Ranger and his blood pressure was back within normal range.
Our last visit to the Alzheimer’s facility saw residents actually recognizing Ranger by name and remembering him. They had formed new memories of the dog. We’ve also had patients that haven’t spoken in months begin talking to Ranger.
The school program where we volunteer reports that just having him in the building reduces the noise level, conflict, and distractibility of the students. Even though he’s there listening to a handful of kids read to him one on one (or two if you count me which I think mostly isn’t the case) everyone students and staff alike look forward to the days he’s there because those are certain to be good days.
I could go on and on with stories like the above. Dogs are a great gift and their abilities to partner with and serve people is awe inspiring.
Brenda K says
Oh wow! Dementia dogs! This a new application that I hadn’t thought of but with so much potential!
Wendy says
Alex Four Paws, the horizontal champion
I puppy walked a truly wonderful pup named Alex. Unfortunately he was not assertive enough to be trained as a Guide Dog but was chosen for training as a dementia dog by the Dementia team at Guide Dogs, Forfar Scotland. To see him work – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p024fqzx.
Nic1 says
Wonderful stuff! Dog’s roles are evolving in wasy I never would have imgained.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/17/how-dogs-teaching-young-offenders
The above link details an important societal project where abandoned dogs are paired with young offenders and they are taught how to interact and teach dogs using modern, humane methods in line with the APDT. It’s reaping huge benefits for both the disenfranchised young men and the abandoned dogs.
Paws in Partnership indeed!
Trisha says
To Kat and others: Love hearing the stories, thanks for sharing them. I’ve been impressed at how much comfort Tootsie gives not just to the patients at American Family Children’s Hospital, but to their parents and their siblings. We only visit for an hour, and it’s not accurate to call it AAT since it is an “animal assisted activity” versus true therapy, but it clearly is an important time for families under tremendous stress.
To Shaya: The dogs described in the Dementia Dog project were all with couples in which one person was the patient and one the care giver (always a spouse). They explained an important benefit was what they called “anchoring,” or giving the owner something to focus on. Ex: Ken could sit and pet his dog while waiting for his wife to finish shopping instead of sitting and worrying that she won’t come back. The dogs can be trained to remind people to hydrate, eat, take medication too. (For ex: A timer is set that rings at 10 am, the dog is trained to go to the person with the meds when the alarm rings.) They’ve found one of the most important benefits is that it relieves the spouse of some ‘caretaker’ duties, which allows them to relate like a couple rather than one person feeling like they are always nagging their spouse to do this or do that. The dogs also help the owners avoid being isolated; they take the dogs on walks, interact with others. Something I wouldn’t have thought of is that people in the community appeared to be more understanding and empathetic to people behaving a bit ‘differently’ because they saw that the person had an assistance dog and understood that their behavior was due to a kind of disability. I should also add, however, that the program coordinators were very honest that this is a pilot program and they are learning as they go. Right now there are only three dogs placed, and they anticipate that they will revise the program as they continue to learn more.
Monika & Sam says
As the owner (really I’m just the driver) of a pet therapy dog, I can fully relate to all the amazing contributions these ‘pawsome’ creatures provide their human uprights. Even my goof-ball pup has the most amazing ability to do just the right thing to help make a patient’s hospital stay just a tad brighter (and maybe even lower their blood pressure). 😉
Sherry in MT says
Thank you!!! I currently do therapy work with my dogs (have for years) and am going to be especially interested in how the Dementia Dogs program works out in the UK. My therapy is mostly with people in assisted care facilities and I do see how the dogs can relieve anxiety in many situations even in our short visits (both for residents and often also caregivers)!
LisaW says
This conference does sound amazing. I would love to learn more about your talk “People, Trauma and Dogs (focusing primarily on identifying trauma in dogs and using what we know about healing from it in humans to apply to helping traumatized dogs).” I haven’t read Animal Madness yet, but I heard Laurel Braitman’s Ted Talk, and was immediately hooked. The subject matter is fascinating and somewhat close to home. Any chance of an audio recording or transcript or even better, a book from your studies on this?
Trisha says
LisaW: I’m giving an expanded version of the talk at APDT on October 15th in Hartford, CN. You can learn more about it on the APDT website and whether you can get a taped version if you are not attending. Also, I’m currently writing a book that deals with the same subject, so there will be lots to read about when I get it finished. (And better yet, when it gets published by a national press. Cross your paws.)
LisaW says
Trisha, that is exciting news. I’ll look up the APDT info, and all paws crossed for national press publication. Can’t wait! Thanks.
Robin Jackson says
@Shaya,
BBC did two stories, at least, on the Dementia Dogs project, so you may be able to find those on line. Here’s one from last year:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-23270822
I’ll admit at first I personally didn’t understand the point of having a dog alert a hearing person to an alarm going off. Why couldn’t the person just answer the alarm themselves?
I have since learned from several people that those with “cognitive fog,” which can include those with MS, autism, ADHD, early stage Alzheimers, and others, may simply not respond to a mechanical alarm, but are most likely to respond to a person, or a well trained dog, asking for their attention.
It’s quite common for caregivers for those with Alzheimers to say to the patient, “Your alarm is going off”–and then and only then for the person to get up and begin doing the things the alarm signals.
So in these cases, the dog is trained to act much as a hearing dog for the deaf would do. The dog hears the alarm, goes to the person, then leads the person to the source of the sound. The person responds to the dog where they might just ignore the alarm.
In one of the pilot program cases, the wife leaves a note in the kitchen for the husband about eating lunch, next to an alarm clock. The alarm goes off, the dog leads the man to the kitchen, he reads the note and eats his lunch. Before that he would often forget to eat lunch even if she did set an alarm.
So although the person is not physically deaf, cognitive fog may make them functionally deaf to alarms.
One of the main questions the pilot program is trying to answer are whether the dog is a help to the caregiver, or another burden. As Trisha mentioned, the current programs only places dogs where there is another family member home who can take responsibility for the dog’s management and welfare.
laurie says
My brother-in-law developed early onset Altzheimers at 50. He had always been ahtletic-loved to run. His wife got him a golden retreiver/lab cross (Shersta) & Shersta accompanied Michael on all his walks & runs – at first he was able to go out by himself with the dog – by the time he was beginning to get confused (a year or so later) Shersta knew the way home & could bring him home. After a while going out alone was too much for Michael but he knew Shersta needed her walk every afternoon and would get her leash ready when his caregiver arrived to take them both for a walk. Almost to the end he knew who his dog was (long after he had forgotten who his people were) & she could always comfort him.
diane says
I love to hear the great stories. They really are heart warming.
Unfortunately, I have heard a story of a early onset Alzheimers patient where his dog was given up for adoption due to no available (or able) caretakers.
This was the patient’s dog…so not a specifically assigned therapy dog. The patient’s dog also developed some aggression issues to people and dogs who approached his owner. Was this protection? empathy?…I really don’t know.
The benefit of having a dog (your dog) by your side is so important for the patient. I also think it is important to realize that the dog needs care as well.
The dog was adopted and hopefully it works out well. It is very sad to know of all things to be remembered, the patient will still inquire about his dog.
Deanie heller says
Last time we met, Trish, I had Justin, my seizure alert dog. He has since passed away and I was blessed with My new partner, Carlos, a mobility dog. How was trained at Canine Partners for Life, in Cochranville, PA.
To know me is to see the glorious ways my life has changed. Service Dogs give people a second chance at life.
Mona says
Trisha, you were a positive influence early on in my career and helped influence the path I chose when working with dogs. I was fascinated with behavior and had a compassion for helping owners, as a pet dog trainer at the time, my mantra was basically “helping people through a well adjusted, good mannered dog”. I attended through out the years, many behavior speakers’ seminars, and yours were the highlight and inspiration, always filled with witty stories, compassionate ways, and so much wisdom in the ways of animal behavior. My career path, with my mantra, leading the way, led me to the world of the Service Dog Industry. Starting off in Minnesota working for an accredited ADI organization training mobility, seizure assist, and diabetic assist dogs & working with the people that receive these wonderful working partners. This was the ultimate way to help people, through dogs, by giving them independence, a healthier life, and sometimes the dogs saved lives (in not just the literal sense, but perhaps brought the person who was afraid to leave the house due to seizures, now into a lifestyle out in public again, making new friends and really “living”). And, I benefitted in a way I never would have foreseen. I, myself, benefitted. The dogs, the clients, the stories of how the dogs changed their lives, brought ME the gift of inspiration and sense of well being. I had gotten into training dogs due to my love of dogs and helping people, wanting to give that back to the world and look what I got back in return? Incredible…
Austin Poons says
I visited the open house at Helping Paws in Hopkins MN. They gave me ADI info and suggested that I contact you. I am a service connected Vietnam Veteran with PTSD. I have a Golden Retriever that I rescued and trained as a Therapy Dog with Pet Partners. She is also my companion dog and I would like to make her my service dog. I have done all the training for her and need help getting her trained for Service work with myself. How can I get this accomplished?
Austin and Dutchess
CL Liu says
It is wonderful to learn that dogs can help people in different aspects. Brsides from the new service for people being developed, I am also curious in the welfare of these woderful friends.
In the highly developed society, working for/with people could be a pleasure to the animal, yet to the developing countries where the society quickly adopted the service while the awarness of animal right/welfare is mismated would become a silent inequity. Therefore, I am very intersted in learning more information about the animal right protection in legislation part. Would you kindly direct me to find more details of the legal info. regagarding the service dogs (including various dogs work for people, legislation of their rights or “retirment” pension, or someone who particularly experise in this session, etc.)?
Thank you very much in advance.
Patricia Mallory says
Hi, i enjoyed reading all the wonderful training and help that dogs are capable of performing a very teal service topeople of diverse needs. My situation warrants me to get my dog trained to not only be my companion, but help enable me to live a more safe and secure life as i have a long history of several abusive incidentsand i would rather be with my dog than my abusive marriage and be able to live without the trauma ive endured. I am seeing a pschologist, highly recommended by my primary dr. Can you suggest avenues to steer me in the right direction? Thank you , How do i go about getting my dog the training, and registration , id , and whatever else it takes. Patricia
Ronald J. Patterson says
I have psd and I lost my dog to cancer about two months ago she made me feel safe. I am purchasing a frenchie an looking for any info to help me to turn him into a service or therapy dog.