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Psych Dog Skills

The Service and Therapy Dog forum is for all service and therapy dogs regardless of whether or not their status is legally defined by federal or state law, how they are trained, or whether or not they are "certified." Posts questioning or disputing a person's need for a service or therapy dog, the validity of a person's service or therapy dog, or the dog's ability to do the work of a service or therapy dog are not permitted in this forum. Please keep discussions fun, friendly, and helpful at all times.

  


Member Since
12/29/2012		 
 
Barked: Sat Dec 29, '12 7:13pm PST 
PsychDogs.org had excellent content for developing a Psych Dog for mood disorders such as depression, anxiety or bipolar. Does anyone know of similar lists of the same detail?

It was highlighted in yellow, with behaviors and working responses.

Or possibly, know how to acquire similar content from the former PsychDogs.org? Or from a similar site?

I'd be happy to take on rehosting PsychDog.org with the same content. Anyone know how to get hold of the former host?

But I'm trying to put together details for a psych dog trainer I'm trying to hire. Bipolar is a new topic for her but she has extensive work with similar disorders, But she wants me to put together a list of behaviors, symptoms, issues a dog can respond to.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Isaac

1278829		 
 
Barked: Sat Dec 29, '12 9:19pm PST 
Are you hiring a trainer to train a dog for you? I ask because the tasks you need a dog to do may well be different than the tasks someone else with the same disorder would need help with. Some things a service dog can do is remind people to take medication, interrupt compulsive behaviors (like hair pulling or picking at skin), summon help if needed, and so on. Someone suggested to me, before I got my service dog, that I make a list of things I am unable to do for myself that I need help with, and then see if there were things on that list that a dog could be trained to do for me.
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Member Since
12/29/2012		 
 
Barked: Sat Dec 29, '12 11:09pm PST 
Yes, its for me. And yes, the specific triggers for the service dog are unique to every handler. I've been managing this disorder for 25 years. Plus I'm a counselor in training and would like to bring service dogs (and therapy dogs) into my practice. But PsychDogs.org had an excellent detailed list that I want to get to my doctor and trainer. I'm self-employed so this is a tax write-off for me. Having such a list in all hands solidifies the purpose and and need for the dog in the eyes of the IRS, my doctor, my insurance carrier... And provides as a great template for my trainer. I directed her to PsychDogs.org but the site is down. It doesn't make me look very serious in the eyes of my doctor if the organizations are folding...

Does anyone know the former host? I'd be glad to pay for the content.
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Bianca CGC- TT HIC Thd- ♥

What big ears- you have...
 
 
Barked: Mon Dec 31, '12 12:01pm PST 
Have you tried Wayback Machine, the Internet archive to look at the content that used to be on the site?

Edited by author Mon Dec 31, '12 12:01pm PST

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Crazy Sadie- Lady

Im a SD and- proud of it so- there!!!! 		 
 
Barked: Thu Jan 3, '13 3:29pm PST 
I agree with Isaac cause I was just saying that everyone has their own way of training tasks for their SDs. Sadie knows me and is tuned to my every fear or erratation. She sinces if I need something like comfort her best task is the tacstile or grounding.
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Happy

The Boy Wonder		 
 
Barked: Thu Jan 3, '13 11:33pm PST 
You can try IAADP's list of tasks though it isn't organized like Psychdog.org's was. There were a lot of internal issues with the group and the rights to all of the materials were not always credited as they should have been. That said for a psychiatric service dog every individual's task list will need to be somewhat different (and could use more detail than the one on any of the sites) because different tasks will work differently for different people.

I always recommend that people start by sitting down with their therapist or psychiatric doctor and write out a list of the symptoms they personally have under each diagnosis. Make a list of triggers for each symptom, making it personalized to you. Then working in conjunction with a trainer and your psych team set up a list of tasks that will work for you as well as your response to what the dog is doing. When you start training this list will need adjustment, and will need adjustment from time to time though out the dogs life because some things look very good on paper but end up not working for you.

If you would like my email is listed on Happy's page and I'd be willing to go over my current list and help you if you need ideas or just need to talk over tasks. I'm working on a new list currently since I'm in the beginning stages of training a dog to take over for Happy.

Jeanene

edit : added link

Edited by author Thu Jan 3, '13 11:34pm PST

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Mikal

SDIT 		 
 
Barked: Fri Jan 4, '13 12:32pm PST 
I'm in the process of training my own PSD, and what I did was sit down with my family and write down everything that they need to help me with then what a dog could do to help. For example, I have a tendency to act on compulsive behaviors like head banging and pacing but I can usually stop when someone points it out or tells me to stop, so one of Mikal's tasks will be to respond to a cue related to one of those behaviors (such as when I start to bang my head or pace) and either bark or nudge me or something to bring me out of it. I haven't quite decided what we'll train her to do just yet. I'm going to be sitting down with our trainer within the next week or so to decide when and how to go about training her tasks.
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