A psychiatric Service Dog is simply a service dog for a person with a psychiatric impairment, like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These dogs are individually trained in obedience, performing tasks, and working in distracting public environments to mitigate their handler's psychiatric disability.
Psychiatric Service Dogs are currently the last type of service dog to be recognized by the American’s With Disabilities Act. It was thought before this that Emotional Support Animals and Psychiatric dogs were the same thing and in some ways are still considered the same or nearly the same by the Airlines and the Veterans Administration. Yet our Veterans with PTSD have been benefiting from these dogs for at least a decade.
The following list identifies a number of tasks a service dog could be trained to do that would serve to mitigate the effects of a disabling condition classified as a psychiatric disability. In particular, the tasks were developed for those who become disabled by Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or Depression, conditions attributed to a brain chemistry malfunction. The List also contains some activities that may be useful as a coping mechanism, but would not stand up in a court of law as "a trained task that mitigates the effect of a disability,” and those will be marked with a Disclaimer to provide guidance to a therapist and patient on that issue. The author, a mobility impaired service dog trainer who has been deeply involved in the assistance dog field for many years, initiated research into this new kind of assistance dog in 1997. She became familiar with these disorders through the input of early pioneers of the psychiatric service dog concept. Subsequent research has involved garnering input from experts in psychology and psychiatry and from patients to gain a better understanding of the symptoms, treatment goals, and ways in which partnership with a service dog might become a valuable adjunct to conventional therapy.
Psychiatric service dogs perform a variety of tasks for their handler. Pushing the button on automatic doors, retrieving dropped or out of reach items, answering the phone, pulling a wheelchair, fetching a cane, helping to remove clothing and many other tasks. One of the most common tasks I personally have trained in a Psychiatric assistance dog is balance and staying upright. There are many reasons why someone would need a dog to help keep them upright and being overweight is the least of those reasons. Many dogs serve as a brace for people who are ambulatory but suffer from blood pressure issues (POTS) and suffer from balance and strength issues. A Psychiatric Service dog can tug open and close doors and drawers, turn lights on and off, and summon help by finding another person in the house. In public, the Psychiatric Service dog is often an invisible helper, keeping their handler upright, on a straight path, or avoiding obstacles.
A service dog is a trained to perform various tasks for their human partners who have a disability. These trained tasks are directly related to the handler’s disability and help that handler do things the disability prevents.
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