Someone has (once again) told those on this forum that a SERVICE dog MUST be trained in SPECIFIC TASKS that enable a person with a disability to function more fully in this world, whether at home or in private. They follow this up by explaining that there could therefore be NO psychiatric service dog unless the dog was needed to fetch your medicines along with a bottle of water or (presumably) to knock you down and restrain you (with his vast body weight if not his jaws) if you, as a psychiatric patient, are in the midst of a paranoid wild-eyed state of ranting and raving. Just joking - and NOT making fun of the mentally ill - I IS ONE!!

There CONTINUES to be a lot of prejudice against those physical brain conditions and illnesses that are considered "mental illnesses" and therefore "all in your head" (ie, if not exactly imaginary, then most certainly a put-on to get attention or to excuse less than "normal" behaviors, emotions, interpersonal functioning) and (sometimes) the ability to be gainfully employed (because of inabilities to move (or restrain movements). With the so-called MENTAL illnesses (and they ARE true legitimate PHYSICAL BRAIN illnesses and/or disorders), the disability is most often related to such things as the inability to cope with others at work or with the structure or lack of structure in the workplace, or to such things as the achieve "normal" goals such as finishing an education or maintaining a stable long-term adult relationship. It even includes the inability to function in "normal" day to day tasks and create and/or maintain a stable and orderly environment, including routine wake/sleep cycles.

My psychiatrist classified my dog as a SERVICE ANIMAL because she enables me do "normal" things like exit my apartment more often than every three weeks (only because I run out of bread & milk, even that stored in the freezer) or being unable to exit the apartment during the daylight hours. And unable to utilize a laundry room, unable to dump trash unless it was in the wee hours of the morning around 4 am. Because my landlady would leave a note on my door that I HAD to empty my mailbox because it would not hold one more thing. Because I could not drive alone more than a short distance from my home and NEVER to the small nearby city without having a disabling panic attack and hysterical crying for fear I would crash if I left on the drive.

The above mental illness governed emotional responses to "normal daily activities" and my dog enabled me to overcome years of home confinement and social isolation. When a dog can make such a severely disabled person achieve activities that nearly 100% of the population consider so normal that they don't consider them as "equal" to being confined to a wheelchair or other visible disabilities.

She is my "furry valium" and one cannot drive a motor vehicle while doped up on valium. She makes it possible for me to be independent. She enabled me to not only get on a series of jets and travel 2500 miles, she enabled me to retrace my steps and MOVE back those 2500 miles --- driving, hauling a trailer, sleeping in truck stops between 18-wheelers, with my small dog elevated in a specially built safety platform on the bucket seat beside me so she could spend her days with a view.

This was a very healthy move for me, one my psychiatrist & therapist had urged me to do (to get away as far away from my toxic abusive family as possible). True, it took me two months to pack up my one-bedroom apartment.... It took me resetting my disconnect/connect utility dates several times (and my very sweet and understanding landlady accepted my repeated notices of anticipated move-out dates). After knowing me for the years I had lived there, she (like my parents) truly thought I would never actually move. I had tried to do so before and finally realized that my terror was so incredible at the thought of moving to someplace where I knew no one that I just gave up on any idea like that at all. I knew I was terrified to the point of actual incapacity to act.

Because I live in a subsidized apartment (a benefit of being on SSI and requiring heavily rent-subsidized housing - since SSI means varying amounts over $600 a month), having my dog means I HAVE to open the door and go out at least twice a day, and she enables me to go shopping as often as I need to or when the specials are too good to pass up. She enables me to periodically pick up my mail at the post office tho she can't solve the problem of getting me to open my mail - tho I am improving over the years when I simply threw the accumulated scattered piles away every few years.

There are TWO KINDS OF LAW (lots of lawyers in my family). There is law that is proposed and approved by the vote of governmental bodies of duly elected representatives of the people. These constitute and fill the books of statutes and codes that line walls of law libraries - this is codified law. Then there is "Case Law" created by some person or group of persons who challenge "the way things are". Case Law, if strong and supported regardless of various legal challenges in the courts, will become codified law. Look at things such as curb cuts, accessible toilets, slanted entries into various public-accessible buildings. Case Law also created the RIGHT of the disabled to fight for equal rights to be considered for employment on an equal basis with the non-disabled. Case Law eventually becomes codified law. "on the books" as they say.

You see, many (but obviously not all) MENTALLY ILL persons have persistant and all-pervasive disabling conditions that keep them from having equal rights of access and opportunity. THOSE conditions and the results of those conditions are FULLY codified as being part and parcel of the LEGAL CRITERIA for "legally disabled under federal law".

So what does a Psychiatric Service Dog need to be trained to do? Unlike a purely emotional support animal who usually is needed for solely for physical calming and easing of emotional lability, a service dog MUST be perfectly behaviorally trained AND also of the perfect temperment to lay quietly in the bottom of a shopping cart, at my feet or in her over-the-shoulder carrier for up to HOURS at a time without fuss or breaking command.

Tempermentally, my dog is about as cuddly as a ceramic dog or a particularly aloof and independent cat - but I do not need and indeed could not emotionally handle a dog who was so bonded to me that she constantly dogged my every step, or had to have frequent petting and interaction. She is a perfect match for my needs and a perfect example of ANY service dog when she is in public "at work". When we are out on her long lead, just out for a walk to enjoy walking, she knows she is not "at work" and runs and bounces, acting just like any other dog, showing absolutely no outward signs of being well-behaved. This, too, is a perfect example of ANY service dog. Dogs need "off duty" time to be emotionally stable and refreshed for again being "on duty".

The long and short of it is this - My dog is allowed into NO PETS federally-subsidized housing (without any "pet deposit" allowed) because she IS a service animal -- and her right to do so has been established thru years of those who OWN rent-subsidized housing fighting this out in court cases with the federal government always winning.

My current small local grocery has asked me to not take her down the produce or meat aisles and to bring a towel or blanket for her to lie upon in the basket, but they have no grounds for banning her. They would have to hire an attorney and fight it out in court. I don't mind the aisle restrictions as I can park her at the end of the aisle where she can see me the entire time. The fact that most people who pass me shopping me never even realize that there is an animal in my cart shows that it is working very well. If she barked, tried to get attention from people, stood up and leaned over the side, then they would no doubt complain, but she would then not be my service animal --- she would have a different owner and I would own a different animal who COULD be trained and who had the needed calm and patient temperment.

She is always welcomed at WalMart (because it is crowded there, she prefers that I bring her soft crate in so she can be hidden in "her cave" and snooze away in padded comfort), at the post office, the city government office, my doctor appointments and (in her padded soft-side crate) into restaurants and, of course, onto planes. Crated, she can ride beside me or beneath the seat on public city transportation.

At the airport, I am placed in the "load first" line with unaccompanied children and those in wheelchairs or needing an assistant. If it is available, I can have a bulkhead seat and even on the SAME airline (Southwest Airlines), she may be (or may not be) allowed out of her crate to sleep stretched out at my feet or curled up on my lap. It all depends upon the head steward - but usually she is the spoiled darling of the attendants. The bulkhead seat means she can watch me go into and come out of the restroom, so she doesn't freak out at "my losing her and her losing me".

The lesson is for you and your therapist/psychiatrist to evaluate your own conditions to evaluate whether you qualify for a service dog. Next is to evaluate your present dog or the adult dog you intend to adopt for their fitness for perfect "in public" behavior as well as their temperment for what comes with the territory. Additionally, they must be dogs who will NEVER EVER bite someone. I do not let children near her when she is on duty (as I educate them and their parents) and I dissuade adults from fawning over her, explaining that she is at work and could become "untrained" from the behaviors she needs to exhibit when on duty.

Most small companion lap dogs are WAY too small for the Service Dog vests freely offered for sale online to ANYONE with a credit card with no proof of a qualified animal on the receiving end of the shipment, and special collars and tags can be totally undetectable under long furry coats, but there ARE leashes with various messages printed on them. Whenever you are encountering a new situation, it is best to carry the printed out federal law defining the nature of protected "disability", a bundle of case law, and the letter from your psychiatrist (an M.D. carries more weight than from a therapist). Crossing borders and boarding planes, have the actual paperwork from the rabies vaccination and a fairly current statement of the health of the animal.

As anyone can tell up to this point, golden retrievers and labs (never mind the scores of breeds larger than toys) are NOT good psychiatric SERVICE animals as walking a dog down a grocery aisle with the leash between you and a casually strolling animal is a potential actual hazard - and the chances for a passing person to act inappropriately and get growled or snapped at --- well, it just don't work. Plus, city buses can restrict you to a single 2-wheeled shopping cart or two shopping carry-totes, so any dog MUST be crated and able to be stowed under your seat. This disgruntles many men who want their pet to be able to go anywhere with them on leash.

A psychiatric service dog should only be prescribed when it is a NECESSITY rather than an option, therefore it is the burden on the patient to choose only an appropriately trained animal to fulfill the role. This is the only way to gain the recognition of the range of psychiatric disability and thus the acceptance by the public.

An aside. While it is NOT necessary for your psychiatrist to name your illness or even the reasons the SERVICE animal is needed, but I am a strong proponent of putting and keeping mental illness in the public's face on a continuing and strongly demonstrated basis. I have no problem with telling people that I have severe cumulative post traumatic syndrome and bipolar disorder (ie, manic-depressive disorder), and explaining to the shocked, outraged or the merely curious that she is "my furry valium". I often, for the disbelieving or totally clueless, enumerate, in detail, the nature of my qualifying symptoms and explain how my service dog has changed my life.

I hope this helps give valid support and helpful advice to those who ARE in legitimate need of a service animal regardless of the fact that there are always those who will assert that the mentally ill never need anything more than an emotional support animal and that the nature of their disabilities could never approach the level of their actually NEEDING an animal to allow them rights guaranteed to the disabled under federal law.

Keep your chin up, be strong and persistant, and CHOOSE THE RIGHT DOG, no matter how much you love that cute puppy or wish it could be your current dog or your favorite breed.

Theresa
OneMoreTime