Special Needs Training

Special Needs Dog Training

For hundreds of years humans have used the dog’s qualities and characteristics to assist them with work, hunting and protection. In more recent times we have discovered that these attributes can also be used to help people with special needs and disabilities. Almost any breed of dog can be trained to assist humans with special needs; the main prerequisites for this type of work are a good temperament and intelligence. There are many types of jobs dogs can perform to assist humans with special needs and their training differs depending on their duties.
Therapy and grief therapy dogs are becoming more popular every day. These dogs provide comfort, support and affection to people suffering from mental or physical difficulties. They are commonly found in hospitals, hospice centers, schools, retirement homes and funeral homes. Any breed or mixed breed of dog can be used for this type of work, as long as they have an excellent temperament. Training for therapy dogs requires that they are comfortable in strange situations with strange people petting and handling them. A therapy dog must have excellent dog manners and follow instructions perfectly. Because they also are required to work in different places, they also must be trained to deal with noises, large groups of people, other dogs and machines. A therapy dog is relaxed and affectionate with people who require special care. These types of special needs dogs are not listed in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 however, so they require permission to enter institutions or buildings. Most institutions looking to use therapy dogs will require that the animal pass the American Kennel Club’s (AKC) Canine Good Citizen Test. Based on the positive affect therapy dogs can have on recovering patients, these types of dogs are becoming increasingly popular forms of treatment for people suffering from grief or health issues.
Service or Assistance dogs provide direct assistance to humans with special needs, often providing services that cannot be obtained anywhere else. Most people find their service dogs to be extremely valuable tools to their everyday lives. These dogs are specially trained to handle the needs of each specific person and their form of disability. Service and Assistance dogs are directly covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and allowed to be anywhere a person with special needs goes. This includes public and government buildings as well as businesses. There are many types of service and assistance dogs that can be specifically trained to assist with a wide range of duties.
Service dogs may be trained to assist people with mobility issues, psychiatric conditions, autism, seizures or any other form of disability. For people confined to wheelchairs or who have other difficulties with movement, service dogs can perform many tasks like providing balance when moving, picking up objects, opening doors and even pulling wheelchairs just to name a few. These dogs are useful for people with autism as they can often signal their owner to help them stop repetitive movements and noises or assist in daily living needs. Service dogs may also be specifically trained to alert their owners when they are about to have a seizure. The dog may stay with the owner and provide support or fetch help. They can be trained to press a 911 alert button when their owner needs them to. People suffering from psychiatric disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or schizophrenia may not be able to leave their homes or function without the help of their service dogs. These dogs are trained to never leave their owner and provide comfort, support and physical assistance when needed.
Guide dogs can be specifically trained to assist people who are visually or hearing impaired. These dogs help guide and protect people with visual disabilities or signal when specific sounds occur to their owners who may be hearing impaired. Because of the large amount of duties and services these types of animals can provide for people with disabilities, many people can live their lives normally and be self-sufficient. Many disabled people feel that their service dogs are absolutely essential to their survival and consider them family members as well.
Service and Assistance dogs can be trained to provide combinations of different services depending on the needs of their owner. The most important attributes for a service dog are intelligence and a good temperament. These dogs receive specific training not only to learn to perform the tasks needed for their disabled owners, but they also must be well socialized to strange places, people and other animals, they must be able to ignore distractions, focus on their jobs and must learn to follow instructions. A working service dog should never be interfered with by a person other than their owner. Dogs that are trained to provide assistance to people with special needs are a great example of how dogs continue to be useful to their human owners.

Recommended Readings

Animals In Translation - Using The Mysteries Of Autism To Decode Animal Behavior

ANIMALS IN TRANSLATION, By Temple Grandin

From Scientific American

Temple Grandin has been known to crawl through slaughterhouses to get a sense of what the animals there are experiencing. An autistic woman who as a child was recommended for institutionalization, Grandin has managed not only to enter society’s mainstream but ultimately to become prominent in animal research. An associate professor at Colorado State University, she designs facilities used worldwide for humane handling of livestock. She also invented a "hug machine" (based on a cattle-holding chute) that calms autistic children. In Animals in Translation, co-authored with science writer Catherine Johnson, Grandin makes an intriguing argument that, psychologically, animals and autistic people have a great deal in common—and that both have mental abilities typically underestimated by normal people. The book is a valuable, if speculative, contribution to the discussion of both autism and animal intelligence, two subjects on which there is little scientific consensus. Autistics, in Grandin’s view, represent a "way station" between average people, with all their verbal and conceptual abilities, and animals. In touring animal facilities, Grandin often spots details—a rattling chain, say, or a fluttering piece of cloth—that disturbs the animals but has been overlooked by the people in charge. She also draws on psychological studies to show how oblivious humans can be to their surroundings. Ordinary humans seem to be less detail-oriented than animals and autistics. Grandin argues that animals have formidable cognitive capabilities, albeit specialized ones, whereas humans are cognitive generalists. Dogs are smell experts, birds are migration specialists, and so on. In her view, some animals have a form of genius—much as autistic savants can perform feats of memory and calculation far beyond the abilities of average people. Some dogs, for example, can predict when their owner is about to have a seizure. Delving into animal emotion, aggression and suffering, Grandin gives tips that may be useful for caretakers of pets and farm animals. She also notes that humans seem to need, and thrive on, the proximity of animals. Indeed, she states provocatively, in the process of becoming human we gave up something primal, and being around animals helps us get a measure of that back. Kenneth Silber

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