About Luna's Service Dog Work

I originally got Luna as a puppy as an ESA. I noticed that she started to teach herself tasks on her own to help me. So odd! My friend had a PSD in training, and I saw how much it helped her. I dipped my toes (or rather Luna's toes) into the water to see if that's something she would be interested in or could even do (most dogs cannot or are not fit to be a service dog, no matter how much training you provide). She LOVED it!! Not only did she love training sessions and perform tasks with her whole heart, but she advanced through her training much faster than her peers and taught herself advanced tasks. She adopted her job with full force. 

On top of this, she was completely owner trained. Commonly, SDs are trained by or with the help of a professional trainer, due to the rigidity and precision of the dog's job. However, her trainability really shined as she soaked everything up like a sponge. Another plus is that it stuck... I have gone months without taking her out vested and no training refreshers and she'd pick up like nothing ever happened. 

Pretty soon she figured out what her job was and came up with ways on her own to perform it better. Below are some tasks that she came up with and taught herself:

• Cortisol spike detection -- cortisol is a hormone released when a person is stressed. SDs that alert to high heart rate, diabetic spikes/dips, seizures, and go through special scent training. But sweet Luna taught herself! She will smell when I'm anxious or stressed (sometimes before I even recognize it) and determined which tasks she feels would be most helpful. She decided that DPT and licking my fingers were best and decreased my cortisol levels (which I agree with her!).

• Depression reaction (with crying) -- most SDs get this one by themselves, but from very early on when she was just an ESA she taught herself to lick my face and nudge my hands when I cry until I stop. Because it's hard to cry when a brown eyed puppy is obnoxiously licking you!

• Depression reaction (without crying) -- this one is a new one! She picked this up just a couple months ago. She figured out that sometimes you're just too sad to cry! So to account for this, she somehow can tell when I'm silently sad (through scent?) and acts accordingly. If I show mannerisms of being sad but not crying (such as slouching) she will start licking my face. But if I show no mannerisms or am trying to hide I'm sad, she will find me, smell me to assess, and lay next to me or do DPT until improvement. Every few minutes she will smell my hand to see if I am anxious too (cortisol detection) and act accordingly.

• Environmental stress/trigger recognition -- sometimes she's not close enough to pick up on my cortisol smells, so she taught herself to look for scenarios that typically increase my stress level. When she recognizes it, she will find me, smell to assess which emotions I'm feeling, and task accordingly.

• Voluntary DPT -- I mentioned above when she uses this, but still interesting! While she likes laying partially on me or just next to me on a regular basis, she will do full DPT when she sees I need it and stays until I tell her off (she has stayed in place voluntarily for up to an hour before I tell her off)

• Leg shaking while sitting -- I noticed sometimes I would wave my legs while sitting when I am anxious. But how what should I teach her to help me to stop...? I waved my legs just curious what she would do, and she whimpered and stuck her head in between my legs to keep them from waving! Here is a cute video on her Instagram when I discovered her doing this.

Here are more tasks that I taught her:

• Prompted DPT and LPT (light pressure therapy, where she puts her head on my lap while I'm sitting or not in a position for DPT)

• Medication Retrieval

• Self-harm (itching) disruption. She is very passionate about this one and performs this one religiously. I cannot tell you how many times she's been in the other room, heard me itching, and has come running full speed to body slam me haha! And she does very well at nudging or pawing my hand away until I give up itching. Here's a video of her waking up from sleeping to stop me. It's cute ;)

• Tactile Grounding. If she sees my legs shaking, she will either boop me with her nose or run in between my legs for support. She can also go in between my legs and walk with me (forwards, backwards, and turning) upon command. Unfortunately she loves this one a little too much and will do this to friends and family members, which has resulted in many unexpected instances of being goosed in the bum haha!

• Tactile Grounding version 2. While I am walking and need some grounding assistance, I will subtly wiggle my fingers and she will either lick my hand or put her head under my hand.

What's a service dog?

A service dog is trained to mitigate a person's (known as a handler) disability. A trained service dog (SD) can go almost anywhere with their handler that regular pets aren't allowed to go such as grocery stores, schools, movie theatres, etc. But they must be trained how to act properly in public including not sniffing merchandise (unless for allergy alert dogs), ignoring people, quiet, in a close heel, no toileting inside, and completely focused on the handler. But the most important job of an SD is tasking! They are taught (or learn on their own) tasks to help their handler live a more normal and safe life. Different types of SDs include medical (seizure, cardiac, diabetic, POTs...), seeing eye (for the blind or limited vision), and psychiatric (PTSD, autistic, debilitating depression/anxiety...).

Service dog vs therapy dog vs emotional support animal (ESA)

There are important differences between the three.  

Some other important things to note include:

• ESA's can only be owned through a doctor's note, whereas therapy and SDs don't have to be (although sometimes it is helpful for housing to have a doctor's note for an SD)

• Any type of animal can be an ESA, whereas only a dog or miniature pony (and a cat in Canada) can be a therapy animal or service animal

• SDs and therapy animals need special traits and extensive training (about 2 years for SDs) to do their job, so not all dogs can handle these special jobs and have to be "washed out" or dropped from training. ESAs require no training 

• Therapy animals are used in hospitals, schools, and nursing homes to provide comfort and calm to families and individuals, but are not taken to grocery stores, theatres, etc. 

What's a psychiatric service dog (PSD)?

A PSD is trained to help their handler with disabling mental issues such as PTSD, autistic, or debilitating depression/anxiety. These can be confused with ESAs because they are thought to provide just comfort to the handler. However, an ESA is not trained any tasks and a PSD does more than just provide companionship. 

What are some psychiatric tasks?

A task is an action or duty the animal provides that either the handler cannot do on their own or aids in handling their disability. Some examples include:

• Deep pressure therapy (DPT). This is where the dog will lay across the handlers lap or chest to apply pressure. The pressure decreases heart rate, slows and deepens breathing, and helps the handler transition faster out of PTSD flashbacks, seizures, or panic attacks

• Tactile Grounding. Sometimes you need something to bring you back to planet earth... tactile grounding does just that! Standing between the owners legs, licking fingers, licking face, etc can snap the handler out of disassociation, panic attacks, and PTSD flashbacks

• Medication retrieval. SDs can be trained to either fetch medication for the handler on command or by a certain cue they see (heavy breathing, elevated heartrate...) 

• Self-harm disruption. Often times handlers will have a habit of scratching/itching, picking at fingers, or rubbing their hands when anxious. SDs can nudge with their nose or swipe their paw to stop the handler.

• Scent training. Did you know that dogs can smell your hormones or can smell when your heartrate increases? Some SDs are scent trained to detect heartrate or cortisol increase (the hormone that is released when someone is stressed). They can then alert the handler with a nose boop (or whatever cue they are trained to do) or automatically do a different task such as retrieve medication or encourage their handler onto the ground to perform DPT. Scent training is one of the harder tasks for SDs to learn. Not all dogs can figure it out so some unfortunately cannot be successfully scent trained.

• Crying/panic disruption. Dogs can be trained (but often learn on their own) to disrupt panic attacks and crying. This is often done through nudging the owners hands from covering their face and licking their face until the owner stops crying or slows their breathing down. It's hard to cry with a cute doggie licking your face!

• Crowd control. Some handlers have severe social anxiety or get overwhelmed when people are closeby to them. SDs can help by putting space between them and other people. This is done by orbiting (circling) around the owner to make space or back blocking by standing right behind perpendicular to the owner. 

• Emergency person retrieval. Sometimes the handler needs help from a human! SDs can be trained to either find a particular person (like a parent or friend) or the nearest person and guide them to their handler.

• Guidance. Often times in cases of PTSD or severe anxiety, the handler will become disoriented. The dog will guide the person to a particular spot, often either in a quiet place or to the exit of the store. 

• Trigger avoidance. Dogs are very good at recognizing patterns. They can be trained to (or learn on their own) to recognize what triggers their handler. They can then perform certain tasks automatically when they spot this upsetting influence or physically guide the handler away from it.

• And SO many more!! Whatever the SD can do to help the handler live a more normal and full life is considered a task. The possibilities are endless! 

How is a PSD different from an ESA?

It should be noted that companionship is not considered a task. Having a dog present or just petting a dog is not considered a task and thus does not qualify them to be an SD. That would just be an ESA. It must be an intentional act done by the dog to be considered a task. Typically a dog must know at least two tasks to be an SD. Additionally a dog must have public access training (training on how to behave and stay focused to task in public) to be different from an ESA.