Brody will be 2 in December, and you are right they do most of this on their own without being taught. Thus why a BC makes the perfect medical alert/psychiatric servcie dog. I also have two GSD females that do very well at making me feel safe at home. I was also a battered woman and even though I am now remarried for almost 9 years my ex is a very frightening man, and still to this day trys to cause me problems I dealt with that really well before this accident but now it seems like I am almost right back to where I was a long time ago. So YES MY GIRLS DO A GOOD JOB in the safety department LOL. That is so great about your dog. You do not need to be a pro, I was lucky because I trained dogs for many many years all you have to to is work at it. Bless your 4 legged freind they truly are a great help!

Ann

Ok, I will admit I did not read the whole post yet, I will, just pressed for time this second (family meeting). But it is Boo with the service dog but I am pretty sure it is for the physical limitations from the attack she endured. A beautiful Dobie. It is in the trauma diary and so is the pic...

That just sounds amazing and I could see if they were "official" so you could take them in a resteraunt or store would be majorly benificial! I think that would be of major service as I am as a result extremely agoraphobic and it is so painful to to function outside my home. I have 4 dogs. 3 Great Pyrenees, 2 for livestock guarding, one retired, and a black and tan mutt that had mange and a staph infection from a free puppy box. I was suckered by the kids as I would not get out of the truck but they brought the poor thing to me and I had to help it. She is my best friend now and very protective home-wise and socialized in parks with kids at the park during her training to behave outside the home.

But the reasons you stated sound amazing! Please share any training tips or link where we could read more about this. I would love to read up on it! Very interesting.

I am posting a link that you should check out. As far as these types of dogs being official YES THEY ARE. According to the ADA any person with a disableing physical or mental disability that uses a dog for assistance can not be denyed access to ANY public place. Of course it does help if you get them tested by say the Delta Society, or some other service dog org. but it is NOT NESSECARY. http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html This can give you a broader picture as to what your dog can do for them to qualify them as a service dog. Now I am not saying you just strap a harness on your dog or a backpack and hope things work out. This is something you really have to work at with them. There is also a set of either books or video's I choose the video's because what I read does not stick so if I watch the video I can at least grasp some of the concept. They are called Teamwork and Teamwork 2, they are written specificly for handicapped either by mental or physical individuals, so that they can train their own dogs. The waiting lists are very long and the cost and yes some places do charge, can be way out of reach, so this is a way to provide the independance for those who can benefit from a dog and also give them a sense of usefulness. I was not sure if I could still do this or not, and especially for myself but things are coming along slowly but doing this does help me. Check out the site and do a search for those video's of you are interested in doing this for yourself. Again I will be more than willing to answer any questions anyone might have.

Ann

That is so neat!! I'm going to try and teach Cougie the alarm clock one!! I never wake up to it, but Cougie wakes me all the time!!

Bec

I believe that is some very excellent information provided by yourself Ann. I can see huge benefits to the suffer with this help from the dog. Thank you. In the same breath though, I would also say that this too me is also only a bandaid, in that the use of a service dog in this situation would be warranted whilst you heal / to help you heal, but not a long term solution. I can see that a person could soon become dependant upon a dog to help them through life, and use this as an excuse to never tackle their trauma head on and live life without the need of a service dog, medications and panic attacks by simple and effective learning / coping strategies.

That is very true Anthony, and well put. Anything IMHO other than just the persons true determination to work on the long term healing by therapy, meds (if they help) and facing the trauma head on, mostly facing things and learning new ways to deal with them are the best. I know for myself even though only not quite a year into this, meds just do not have enough of a benefit to continue with them, so I went this route. Long term use of Brody porbably not but right now the comfort of having him with me and to provide the assistance that he does makes my stressing going out in public ALONE alot less. For me looking into the future and knowing where I will be is useless, I just take this one day at a time, just like 12 step program. I am determined to have a life again. So yes what you stated is a very valid point.

Ann, I think your going to recover just fine from your trauma and learn to manage PTSD, because your logic and focus is exactly that of what is needed for recovery. Bandaids are good realistically, because we all need them at some point to help us heal, though once we heal, we remove the bandaids. I think the dog though would be great, because not only do you have an aid during the healing process, you then have a great friend at the end to continue loving and getting love from.

Thank You Anthony I sure hope someday I can recover. I think at times PTSD will rear it's ugly head even when I THINK I have put it away and dealt with it. With me the other issues are actually the ones that will never heal. Today is a good day for me I feel rested, and you know some of my FIGHT is coming back:boxing: :boxing: The journey is long for me but what I have learned so far and even before this happened is that if you HOLD ON TIGHT to the things YOU CAN DO, and let go of the things you can't it opens you up to so much more. I am lucky because I have GREAT DOCTORS, my therapist well I DON'T KNOW ABOUT HER YET, I had to switch mid treatment because I lost my medical insurance so now I have to go to a county funded agency, not to my liking but I guess some talk therapy is better than none. My first therapist was truly AWSOME so at least she did open the flood gates so I could start releasing some of this CRAP!!!!!! I guess to I keep looking back at what I have accomplished with helping woman learn to overcome being battered, victims etc... I am a Black Belt instructor and ran Self Defense clinics at different Abuse shelters for many years. My shrink keeps telling me to just take is slow because oh yes I WANT THIS OVER, I WANT IT GONE, but he said it takes time and of course with the other medical issues it is going to take me longer. BUT IT WILL HAPPPEN SEE being off meds alows me to think and feel something I really need to do that I do not need to be numb all the time I WANT TO FEEL WHAT IS GOING ON so I can GET RID OF IT. And that means even if I am taking the longer harder road I was never one to take the easy way, I want to feel like I worked for it. I KNOW TYPICAL OVER ACHEIVER ATTITUDE

Do you realise, that when you said your a black belt, that is what is actually saving you now? The reason I say that, as I am one also from years ago when I used to train hard, is that martial arts is about the mind, and whether you know that at the time or not, that is exactly what its about. It is to build mental toughness, one's ability to process logically, to see past just pain and to the options. I think that has a lot to do with why your doing so well actually, and why you will recover quite quickly compared to others who are more battered without that experience. I personally believe my martial arts training has helped me immensely to deal with my trauma, and help me learn management of PTSD itself.

Yes I do believe that martial arts training has assisted me in someway, I just need to find that part of me again. I know there are so many more out there some on this forum who suffer so much more than I do with the PTSD, and I would never wish this affliction on ANYONE. Each day does bring some steps forward, and then again some steps back. What I am trying to work towards is the forward motion with no backward slides that is the hard part. That is why I am so very glad I found this forum to share to whine when I have to and to offer and get support when I need it.