# How to train a psychiatric service dog



## tgolike

How do I train Major as a psychiatric service dog for me? I already have a service dog for mobility and vision assistance, as I am severely disabled there as well, but I want to add psd for Major. Summer already does it kind of naturally, but I don't know how to train for it. Any ideas?


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## AbbyK9

I would start by sitting down with the computer or a piece of notepaper and make a list of the behaviors Summer does naturally for you now, that help with your disability. Get an idea of what she does and how she does it. Then make a separate list of the behaviors you want/need Major to learn for you out of the list of things Summer does.

When you have a list of behaviors you WANT, pick the ones you need most and train them first. Whenever you train a complex task, break it down into little bits and work on those parts of the task before putting the whole thing together.

For example, if you wanted your dog to retrieve medication from your purse, you would start by teaching your dog to pick up an item, carry an item, and give you an item before you would put it together to where your dog will go get and bring the item to you, and then move on to getting an item from your purse (which may be in another room) and bring it to you, etc.


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## Cassidy's Mom

Can you have more than one service dog at a time?


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## Lin

Major is only 10 wks old right now, her current service dog isn't able to perform in public full time so her plan is that for Major to take over as her service dog once he is finished with training.

Because of the length of time that it takes to finish training a service dog is common for owner trained homes to have a SDIT and SD at the same time. I am training my pup Emma to be my next SD currently as Tessa is 6 yrs old and will be needing to retire from mobility assistance in a few years.


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## Cassidy's Mom

Oh, okay - that makes sense. I didn't see the other posts that explained the situation, and I'm picturing someone going everywhere with two dogs instead of one!


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## tgolike

thanks for the advice, and it is a very good idea. I also found a manual from guide dogs for the blind for their puppy raisers online, and I plan on following that except for the retrieval part because I need a good retrieval from him. 

Also, the other poster was right. No way would I have any desire to have two service dogs working in public at one time. As Major gets more trained, and is able to help more and go out into public more with me, Summer will end up becoming an at home service dog and emotional support dog for my daughter who has aspberger's syndrome, my son who has schizophrenia, and my husband who has depression and anger problems. She will also compete in rally and possibly obedience. She will also be a back up dog for me and will help me in public when Major is sick or not able to go with me. 

It is hard enough having one service dog at a time in public. No way would I want to have two.


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## 3K9Mom

If I needed a service dog that would perform tasks to mitigate mental illness issues, I would absolutely start with this useful book: Healing Companions: Ordinary Dogs and Their Extraordinary Power to Transform Lives by Jane Miller. This is her website: | Healing Companions by Jane Miller 

Additionally Joan Froling has a section at IAADP that is detailed: http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html

You may also find the Psychiatric Service Dog Society helpful.
Psychiatric Service Dog Society

In addition to Chris's suggestion of figuring out, first, what your most urgent needs are, the above should give you a clearer idea of what a dog CAN do for you and some ideas of how to how they can be trained. 

If you're not familiar with clicker training, you may want to learn. Tasks are usually complex behavior chains, and I've found it's SO much easier to train them using a clicker. As Lin says, we break the behaviors into tiny bits, then string them together. 

Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot the Dog! Audiobook is good (Pay attention to when she talks about back-chaining) 

And Pat Miller's Shop Peaceable Paws, LLC - Books :: The Power of Positive Dog Training 

A "psychiatric" service dog -- to me -- is just a service dog. You are disabled and have a medical need. A dog can mitigate your disability. You train him a task to do so. Throwing the word "psychiatric" into the mix seems to make it more complicated and mysterious than it is (and if you tell people he's a PSD, then you give them private information that they don't need). 

He's a service dog. That's all.


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## FuryanGoddess

tgolike said:


> thanks for the advice, and it is a very good idea. I also found a manual from guide dogs for the blind for their puppy raisers online, and I plan on following that except for the retrieval part because I need a good retrieval from him.
> 
> Also, the other poster was right. No way would I have any desire to have two service dogs working in public at one time. As Major gets more trained, and is able to help more and go out into public more with me, Summer will end up becoming an at home service dog and emotional support dog for my daughter who has aspberger's syndrome, my son who has schizophrenia, and my husband who has depression and anger problems. She will also compete in rally and possibly obedience. She will also be a back up dog for me and will help me in public when Major is sick or not able to go with me.
> 
> It is hard enough having one service dog at a time in public. No way would I want to have two.


My son has Asperger also.


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## ILGHAUS

> You may also find the Psychiatric Service Dog Society helpful.
> Psychiatric Service Dog Society


Be careful with some of the advice given on this site. They may have removed "Hugging" etc. from their public listing but their inner forums still promote feeling good as a task.

I just went back to check and still on their task list:

Symptoms and Trainable Tasks
Feelings of isolation -- Cuddle and Kiss
Tearfulness -- Lick Tears
Aggressive Driving -- Alert to aggressive driving
Forgotten personal identity -- Carry handler identification documents


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## AbbyK9

> Summer will end up becoming an at home service dog and emotional support dog for my daughter who has aspberger's syndrome, my son who has schizophrenia, and my husband who has depression and anger problems. She will also compete in rally and possibly obedience. She will also be a back up dog for me and will help me in public when Major is sick or not able to go with me.


I think that is asking A LOT of one dog. If this were my dog, I would keep her as an emotional support dog and "backup" Service Dog, but I would not also compete her in a performance venue.


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## Chicagocanine

Cassidy's Mom said:


> Can you have more than one service dog at a time?


I actually know of a few people who do have two service dogs, for example a guide dog and a diabetic alert dog. In the instances I know of it is usually one large dog who is a guide or mobility dog and then another (usually smaller) dog who does some type of alert (predicting a seizure, diabetic early alert to low blood sugar, etc) or one dog works in the house primarily. For example I know one person who had a guide dog, and adopted a second dog for a pet. The pet dog started to alert to their blood sugar levels before they felt the effect, and they then trained the dog for public access as it prevented dangerous episodes.

It is also common when one dog is getting older and a younger dog has been trained in order to take their place as they are phased out of working "full time."


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## 3K9Mom

ILGHAUS said:


> Be careful with some of the advice given on this site. They may have removed "Hugging" etc. from their public listing but their inner forums still promote feeling good as a task.
> 
> I just went back to check and still on their task list:
> 
> Symptoms and Trainable Tasks
> Feelings of isolation -- Cuddle and Kiss
> Tearfulness -- Lick Tears
> Aggressive Driving -- Alert to aggressive driving
> Forgotten personal identity -- Carry handler identification documents


 
I know that some of their info is iffy... I hesitated whether to list them at all. But I know someone that found them very helpful, so I thought it was only fair to list them as a source for info ... after Miller's book and the IAADP's site, which makes it clear what a task is and is NOT.


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## Lin

I think its also safe to recommend that site here, because her dog is going to be a mobility assistance dog as well so theres no worry of what psychiatric tasks are actual tasks. But good to point out for others reading the thread!


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## tgolike

okay, I have a question. How in the world did this entire thread end up being put on a-dog list? I didn't do it, and I don't recognize the name of the person that did it. Can anyone advise? Not that I am trying to hide anything, just not sure why someone would copy this entire thread there?


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## Lin

what dog list? do you have a link?


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## tgolike

assistance-dogs

Here is the link:

assistance-dogs : Assistance Dogs

This was posted there yesterday:

German Shepherd Dog Forums > Working Dogs > Guide, Therapy & Service Dogs
How to train a psychiatric service dog


Yesterday, 01:28 PM #1 (permalink)
tgolike
Junior Member

Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Evansville, IN
Posts: 37
How to train a psychiatric service dog
How do I train Major as a psychiatric service dog for me? I already have a
service dog for mobility and vision assistance, as I am severely disabled there
as well, but I want to add psd for Major. Summer already does it kind of
naturally, but I don't know how to train for it. Any ideas?




_---- Posts other than first and last and added remarks by the OP were deleted by Moderator. This post was over the 1,000 word limit & original posts are on this thread. ----_




Yesterday, 09:30 PM #10 (permalink)
AbbyK9
Crowned Member



Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Country, NY
Posts: 10,726

Quote:
Summer will end up becoming an at home service dog and emotional support dog for
my daughter who has aspberger's syndrome, my son who has schizophrenia, and my
husband who has depression and anger problems. She will also compete in rally
and possibly obedience. She will also be a back up dog for me and will help me
in public when Major is sick or not able to go with me.
I think that is asking A LOT of one dog. If this were my dog, I would keep her
as an emotional support dog and "backup" Service Dog, but I would not also
compete her in a performance venue.
__________________
- Chris
GSD Abby CGC TDI HIT
Malinois Ronja CGC TDI
Kitties - Finn & Ratchet
(Blog & Photos & Store)



slk

chusakaandme
"All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in
the dog." - Franz Kafka - Investigations of the dog



Like I said, it isn't that I am trying to hide anything, but I don't understand why someone would post this at that group. I feel like it was meant in some way to cause problems for me, but I don't know how or why.


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## AbbyK9

Wow ... that is weird.


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## ILGHAUS

I just went and posted my reply on-site at assistance-dogs:

I am a moderator at the german shepherd board referred to here.
I too would like to know why a complete thread posted at that site is copied here. Such a posting is against our policy and we in turn do not do so from other sites. It is a copyright violation.

I have never seen a post such as that here and am concerned more than anything as to why it was done. The poster did a cut & paste and did not even make any remarks. Now we have a member who is upset and I do not blame them.

If it is found out that the person who did so here is a member of our site they stand a very good chance of being banned for this violation.

Since I do not cut & paste from other sites I will not include the posters name, but I am posting a copy of my response over at our GSD site. I am also notifying the Admin and site owners of this violation. Personally I find this very unethical of the poster here to do such a thing. Put aside the legality of the matter and consider the person who posts and asks for help from any source. Are they or anyone who posts on this site now going to have to wonder if someone (such as the person who started this thread) is going to come behind them and repost what they ask or remark on in any one community? You may want to ask yourself if this person has copied & pasted any of YOUR postings or threads elsewhere?

Vomilghaus aka "TJ"
Member of this group and also
Member and Moderator at German Shepherds : German Shepherd Dog Forums


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## ILGHAUS

OK, let us get back to the original topic and let the Admin on both sides handle the matter if they wish to. I voiced my opinion and concern to both sides so from this point on it needs to be a private matter. 

tgolike, you are welcome to send a PM to any of the Admin here if you wish to and also the list owner there. 

So back to original topic ....


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