PrefaceThis method was originally shared to me by my mentor, the Late Great Susan Grill of Trained and Maintained Service Dogs, who had a 90%+ success rate in training medical alerts in her dogs that she provided to people. I have her original document saved in my Google Drive, and have for years now, and I've decided to share these methods of training medical alerts to the public. Why post this?Well, for one, because I can. I felt like in order to help a wider range of people, this information shouldn't just be limited to myself and the few who also have this information, so this blog post was born. Did you get permission to share this information?Kinda hard to get permission from someone who's dead, just saying. So no, I don't have permission. However, Susan entrusted me with the information, and I feel like at this point, it's best to have it out in the open. More people can benefit from the information with it shared, and I've always believed in having access to information without a paywall. So, Susan, if you're reading this from beyond the grave, know I'm trying to follow your mantra of helping as many people as I can. I miss you. IntroductionDogs can smell the stress hormones rising in your body. Dogs use the Jacobson’s organ to process scent, an organ humans don’t possess, and are acutely aware of changing body chemistry. They can find a gram of cocaine in an airport — they know when you are going to have a panic attack. There is evidence that this is how wolves and other wild animals select prey. It simply doesn’t occur to them that YOU can’t smell illness. Why bother to warn you of something you must already be aware of? However, many dogs in fact are intelligent enough to figure out that we need help and will warn us, or will worry to such an extent that we become aware there is an impending problem. We call these dogs "natural alerters" since they perform this behavior without training. They can warn you even before that panic attack hits. This gives you time to get yourself out of the situation that might be triggering you, and if it’s a flashback or looping thoughts, to redirect and pull you out before you actually spiral down far enough to have the panic attack. A note on choosing the right dog for Psych Work...It can be difficult to owner-train a Psychiatric Service Dog. Many people inadvertently give anxiety to their dog. The dog worries, you worry about the dog, they worry about you, and you get into a feedback loop that eventually causes the dog to have to be retired, because they're so anxious all the time, and they actually make your stress worse instead of better. Selection of a Psychiatric Service Dog is absolutely the most important aspect of these dogs. You need to choose wisely. Herding breeds are NOT a good choice, no matter how good a working dog they are in other jobs, because they are bred to worry about their flock. The last thing they need is to worry about a worrier like you, right? Get a breed that's bred to hunt, like a hound or a pointer or a retriever. I know some of you won't listen, because everyone chooses German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois, especially the veterans who have worked overseas with these amazing dogs. They are warriors, they are fighters, they are astonishing, but they do not make good psych dogs. Now, people will contact me with “My dog worked out fine” stories, and I will fire back and ask how old the dog is. Dog after dog is ending up retiring with anxiety or other behavioral issues at 6 years old or earlier from constantly watching its handler melt down. Herding breeds are wired to worry and protect, and they are far too intelligent for this job, and they will overthink EVERYTHING just like you do. This is why we use Coonhounds; they're bred to be independent, but still work with their people. They'll work with you without worrying about you like that. Interruption and RedirectionI can’t go into all the training for these amazing dogs, obviously. I’m going to talk about the critical task, which surprisingly, a lot of people haven’t even heard of. It’s called Interruption and Redirection. First is the InterruptionYour dog has probably seen you have an anxiety or panic attack before, and may already be alerting. If your dog starts licking you, pacing and whining, or in any way getting upset before you have a panic attack, they are trying to warn you. They can smell your stress. They can smell it before you can feel it. So listen to them, even if you feel fine. You need to make a change, fast, because something you are doing is ramping you up into the attack. Your body is too tense, your shoulders are somewhere up by your ears, your jaw is tight, your eyes are dilating, and most critically, your breathing is getting fast and shallow. Quit it. Pull yourself together. Yep, it’s that easy. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Everyone with anxiety has heard that from a family member. Put that hatchet down, I was kidding. You aren’t going to “pull yourself together,” because the monumental effort to do so actually increases your tension and anxiety. Forget it. Your dog is going to sort this out for you. Second is the RedirectionThis is an interactive therapy called Redirection and it is incredibly successful. It involves some pre-training initially. You need to teach your dog to tug (as in tug-of-war). Tug of war is easy to teach, but you have to have a solid release command (we say “thank you”). You don’t want to be wrestling the tug toy out of his mouth in public, with the service dog in a full nelson growling happily. He has to be under control when you need him to be, so train that release command! Off you go now. Train tug and release. Then get your butt back here. This is good stuff. Now, next time you get that alert, you drop everything, and I mean everything. You pull over to the shoulder, you leave your cart in the aisle, you grab your baby and stuff him into his carrier and lock him down, whatever you need to do. And then you start a timer on your phone and you play with the dog for a MINIMUM of two minutes. That’s our rule. Has to be 2 minutes or more. You can play the tug game right there in a store. If people are watching you say it’s a training exercise. People love to watch service dogs work. If staring triggers your anxiety, yeah, you have a problem anyway, because you can’t go anywhere with a service dog and not get stared at, and chances are you’re already becoming immune to it at this point. When you play with your dog, your physical chemistry actually changes. Your body changes — shoulders relax, muscle tension eases, you usually start smiling or laughing so your breathing changes, your lungs aren’t constricted, and yes, that devil of a stress hormone, cortisol, starts to subside. We have people with utterly crippling panic disorder come with us to the mall or the zoo with our dogs, and using this technique, get through a day without one panic attack. The dogs alert, the client starts playing, everyone starts laughing and messing around, and even if we draw a crowd (which is usually what triggered the poor client in the first place), the panic attack either doesn’t take full hold or it dies off before it shows up in the first place. It takes a little discipline to make yourself play with the dog rather than sink into a terrified ball and chew your fingertips off, but tough, once you have a service dog, you have to. Our protocols say it is mean to mess up your dog, and your dog will worry about you when you have a panic attack, so you have to play. Yes, we do use guilt to get you to follow this system. This system WORKS. To ConcludeInterruption and Redirection is, I can assure you, a more effective method than any imagery, medication, talk therapy, or other attempt you have made to cope with your psychiatric issues. Simply put, it gets you out of your head. How can stewing about it possibly help? All it does it make things worse, while you worry about whether that comment you made at a party ten years ago made you sound stupid. Yes, I know all about anxiety. Everyone does. They just don’t talk about it. It’s okay to talk about it. Service dogs can help get you back into your life…and out of that traitor of a head you have. Get yourself moving, train your dog, have fun with him, and take control again. We’ll help.
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November 2023
CategoriesAuthorMyranda Miller |