Autism Service Dog

Service Dog Gretchen

At 6 months old, Bill Austin’s new service dog, Gretchen, is still a pup learning the basics. But already, she takes her job seriously.

Working with trainer Karen Duty of Hellroaring Kennels outside of Polson, Bill and Gretchen recently took in the newly remodeled Showboat Cinema. Socialization training is a lifelong process of exposing service dogs to as many unique situations as possible. They learn how to filter out what is distracting or frightening to them and concentrate on their tasks for helping their handler.

On this day, Gretchen was introduced to a 6-foot inflated snowman, dark hallways, stairs and aisles of seats she needed to back into and tuck herself under, not an easy task for a Great Dane. (She already weighs over 100 pounds and is expected to top out around 175.) Later the same week, she faced her fear of the vacuum cleaner.

Gretchen is Bill’s second service dog. Injured during his sixth deployment as a medic with the Air National Guard in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was discharged in 2009 with physical injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. When he received his first service dog, a 3-month-old Great Dane named J.P., Bill’s wife Janet said it was the first time she had seen him smile in two years. J.P. died early this year, an emotional loss for Bill.

Bill and Janet work hard to educate people about service animals, as opposed to therapy animals and emotional support animals. Animals whose main job is emotional support have no protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act. They require no specialized training, and business owners have no legal requirement to allow them on the premises unless they are a pet-friendly business.. Therapy animals must be highly trained and certified so that they can safely navigate hospitals and convalescent homes, allowing themselves to be petted and handled while not disrupting wheelchairs, crutches, hospital beds and often delicate instruments.

Service animals (dogs and small horses), they said, are the only category specified in the ADA with legal requirements for access to public spaces for them and their handlers. There is no legal certification for service dogs, though some people print fake certificates from the internet. Some training organizations like the one Bill and Karen are working with, Dog Tag Buddies in Billings, will provide a special tag if the dog passes all of its tests, but this is not a legal certification.

Authentic service dogs are known by their behavior and how they are handled, Bill said. They focus on their handler rather than seeking attention from other people or dogs. Larger breeds are trained to lie under a table at a restaurant and service dogs are never to be fed from a human’s plate. A small dog in a restaurant should be carried in a pouch, facing its handler so it can detect impending seizures or chemical changes if it’s a seizure alert or diabetic alert dog.

Otherwise, it too should be on the floor. Service dogs must be under control at all times, tethered with a leash unless performing a specific off-leash task.

“Businesses are getting really beat up with people claiming they have a service dog so they can bring it in,” Janet said. She and Bill give presentations to help people understand how to behave around service dogs, and the related legal requirements.

“Businesses do have rights,” Janet said. “Many times someone with a fake service dog will get loud and unruly, demanding to be allowed to bring their animal in. They are not required to do this unless it is a service animal. Even then, they can have the handler remove the animal if they show aggression or disruptive behavior. In fact, any animal that shows aggression is disqualified from service.”

The Austins testified in Helena in 2019 in front of the Montana Senate in support of legislation that now makes telling someone your dog is a service animal, when it is not, subject to a fine. The change aligned the Montana laws with the ADA guidelines.

“Service dogs are trained to perform tasks specifically to help people with disabilities to mitigate everyday life situations that the person can’t do on their own,” Bill said.

Some dogs detect chemical changes in a person to help alert them if a seizure or diabetic crisis is coming on. Some work to support autistic children, while others help people with mobility difficulties pick things up, open doors and turn on light switches. Seeing-eye dogs are highly trained to help their handlers move safely through the world.

J.P. was a PTSD service dog, helping Bill feel safe by “having his back.”

“When somebody comes up behind me, my instinct is to swing,” Bill said, describing a remnant reaction from his wartime experience called “hypervigilance.” J.P. would let him know when someone approached. He would sleep by Bill’s bed and comfort him if he had flashbacks, to keep them from becoming severe, and help him get to sleep by resting his head on Bill’s shoulder. His large size made it possible for Bill to lean on him for support getting out of a chair. Gretchen is learning to follow in J.P.’s footsteps, though she has her own playful personality.

Service dogs should have a high standard of training, Bill said, although even some of them may be good at their jobs but not so well trained in manners, which hurts the cause of accepting service animals. Several nonprofit organizations train service dogs for free, he said, such as Dog Tag Buddies, which helps train dogs for veterans with traumatic brain injury, PTSD and other injuries. They are looking to train more trainers in Montana.

Amazing Goldens

A Vineyard family was given a very special therapy dog thanks to Amazing Goldens in Utah County.

In a year full of unexpected events, Chally Cox and her family never anticipated receiving a therapy dog would be on the list.

“It is absolutely life changing,” said Cox.

But it is one they gladly accept with open arms.

Cox and her family call it a blessing. They have been wanting to get a therapy dog for their 4-year-old son for a couple of years now.

 “Layne was diagnosed when he was 2 years old with autism spectrum disorder,”Cox said, adding that certain things are sensitive for Layne. “He does better in his own world.”

She said having a puppy that is calming and therapeutic will be good for him.

“We had a black lab when Layne was born, and he was the first one to get into Layne’s world,” said Cox.

Sadly, their black lab has since died.

“Today, to have him have a dog that is going to be all of his, it’s just incredible,” Cox said. “It’s really amazing,” said Cox.

It is possible because of one amazing family in Lakeshore, who breeds and raises Amazing Goldens for reasons just like this.

“Over the years we’ve donated a lot of dogs, but this year particularly because a lot of these kids that do have disabilities have impacted them even more it has impacted where they can go their school,” said Nicole Herbst.

She and her family have also learned donating their goldens is a gift for them as well.

“The opportunity to be able to do this Blesses our family just as much,” Herbst said.

The Cox family were among several nominees looking for an extra helping paw, and Cox couldn’t be more grateful because her husband suffers from PTSD and also has his own therapy dog.

“To have that support, for both of them, is going to be incredible and not something I expected at all,” she said. “Pretty much the best Christmas gift we could get.”

Dogs Saved From China

Dogs Bring Christmas Cheer

The holidays can be a lonely time for nursing home residents. That rings particularly true in 2020 when most residents cannot have in-person visits with family members.

The Triple Creek Retirement Community had a special guest Friday to help with the isolation and to bring some holiday cheer.

Annie Rose, a 3-year-old therapy dog, held window visits with several residents.

Several of them even greeted her with hand-drawn signs, expressing their excitement.

“It gives us pleasure just to take Annie around and let her look in the window for a few seconds and give them a few seconds of happiness,” said Jack Rahn.

He and his wife Lori take care of Annie Rose and bring her to nursing facilities several times a year. Triple Creek has become a favorite stop for them around the holidays.

“Our parents were elderly and they were in nursing homes and you can’t imagine how these people feel not necessarily knowing what’s going on on the outside,” Jack Rahn said.

This year, they know it is especially important for residents to feel connected to the outside world.

“We want them to know that the outside world is still thinking about them, cares about them and loves them,” Lori Rahn said. “They love her. They look forward to her visits.”

Mollie Zinser, who works for Trilogy Health Services, the retirement facility’s parent company, said 2020 has been difficult on staff members and residents.

“COVID has been a long road, particularly for our residents and the opportunity to see the joy that Annie Rose brought to them today, I think we all needed to see a little bit of that,” she said. “It was exactly what they needed as we approach the holidays.”

She explained that the facility’s life enrichment team coordinated visits with residents in different parts of the building.

“Those are the folks that you would have seen today that were going room to room, changing their PPE each time, making sure that the residents got to the window,” she said.

Dorothy Gillespie is one of the residents who was visibly excited about Annie Rose’s visit.

“You come back again, Annie. Anytime,” she told the dog.

“Don’t tell her I like cats,” she joked with the Rahns.

Gillespie’s children have come for window visits at the nursing facility, but she said she misses hugging them. She is disappointed they won’t be able to have a big family Christmas dinner this year.

“There’s Linda, there’s Tommy, there’s Bobby and there’s Betty,” she said. “Merry Christmas. I can’t see you in person, but I’m thinking about you.”

Veteran’s Therapy Dog

Caught in the undergrowth by the twisted web of the harness he was wearing, Damien, a three-year-old husky cross, could only wait in the chilly rainfall for searchers to find him.
Bruce and Linda Rolfe in Yarmouth immediately started searching for their dog on Dec. 11, after their neighbour returned without him.

The neighbour had kindly volunteered to walk both of their dogs – Magnum and Damien – as Bruce had injured his knee and was waiting for an operation.
The dogs were wearing new harnesses with a connector. The neighbour took the dogs behind the hospital where they could romp off leash but when Magnum stopped suddenly, Damien continued forward, pulling Magnum’s leash and harness over his head. Damien took off wearing his harness with Magnum’s gear slapping beside him.  His owners began searching and didn’t stop until 1:30 a.m. They returned home and put Damien’s bed outside for a familiar scent.

The couple were up several times through the night, checking out the front door for their boy. At 6 a.m. they resumed searching, extending the area to around Caie Crescent.
Searching is a familiar activity for Bruce, the safety officer for Yarmouth County Search & Rescue (YCGSR).  His past also includes service in Yugoslavia in 1995 (UN mission) and Bosnia-Herzegovenia (NATO mission) in 2001. As did others, he developed PTSD. Memories of his time overseas continued to haunt him years afterwards. His dogs are a huge comfort in rough times. No matter where he is, he knows he has their company. Damien and Magnum will sometimes accompany him in a sidecar on his motorcycle. He also has tattoos of them on his arm. “They’re in my heart so I might as well have them on my skin too,” he says with a smile.
On Dec. 12, YCGSR training director Wayne Zwicker stopped at the family’s home.

“Next thing you know, he’s out there with his kids, searching and then Corey Burke, the YCGSR president, and others joined in,” Bruce says.
The searchers continued to expand their area to Lakeside, Overton, and Grove roads.

Later that day, Bruce received a message of a mock YCGSR search on Sunday, Dec. 13 at 10 a.m., with vehicles setting up at R&D Harris Excavating parking lot on the Main Shore Road. Preoccupied, he filed it away in his thoughts as he and Linda continued to search, until around 9 or 10 p.m. that Saturday night.

The couple was up at 6 a.m. the next day and went to check a swamp on the Grove Road. Around 8:30 a.m. they went to grab a bite to eat. Bruce decided he wouldn’t have time to attend the mock search. He sent a message saying he wouldn’t be able to make it as he was still searching for his dog.

“This is for your dog,” he was told – his voice breaking as he tells the story. He told them he’d be there in 10 minutes.

The YCGSR co-ordinator sent out three teams to check the roads. Corey Burke and Al Killam headed down the Grove Road on the north side and along the river in the cold drizzle and fog. Another team went south from the helicopter pad behind the hospital.
Finally … a call. “Wayne says, ‘Come here. We found your dog,’” says Bruce, overcome with emotion. Burke and Killam were with Damien.

“It was a nasty tangled jungle between the Grove Road and the hospital, down in the swamp where there was lots of deadfall,” says Burke of the location. There was a family of chickens clucking nearby and a dog on a hill was barking.

“We got closer and I called his name and he barked. He seemed right close. We picked our way through these little deer trails and saw him. He was tangled so tight he couldn’t even lay down. He was just sitting right there,” he says.

The place had been searched previously on Friday night and Saturday. Damien had gotten himself twisted so badly he couldn’t even lick his paw. When it rained the Saturday night, all the water he could drink was what he could lick off the branches next to him.

“He was parched and tired and sore. He had tried to remove the harness and twisted himself so badly, it scraped all the hair off his leg,” says Bruce.

Back home, the mud-caked Damien wasn’t too impressed with getting a bath. He received a clean bill of health after being taken to the vet to check his leg.

Bruce says he was “really quiet and really tired,” and he doesn’t think Damien slept for the 36 hours he was gone.

Zwicker is glad the mock search had rewarding results.

The hospital area is one that the team is often called out to search annually, because of the hospital patients who wander.

“The members were due for a training exercise anyway. What’s normally done for a search is a dummy is placed in the woods someplace. Then a grid pattern search is conducted. Damien was our dummy,” he says. “In this particular case we were able to bring him home and bring Christmas back to the family.”

The couple is grateful to those who spent so much time looking for their dog.

“We were surprised at how many people helped, without us even asking,” says Bruce. “It really pulled the heartstrings.”

Coronado Pet Adoption

Robot Dogs

In 2018 a woman tried to board a plane at Newark International Airport with her emotional support animal—a peacock. That didn’t fly; well, neither of them flew that day. Still, the term “emotional support animal” has been exploited by travelers attempting to transport a variety of animals in the not-so-friendly skies, including pigs, turkeys, squirrels, baby kangaroos, and miniature horses.

The skies became even less friendly to this trend when the federal government recently limited pets on flights to dogs, giving the struggling airline industry a bit of good news in an otherwise devastating year.

But what if the kangaroo was a robot?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If we’re considering robot support “animals,” we’ll have to settle for dogs for the time being.

That’s the consensus from a group of researchers at the University of Portsmouth. In a new study, published in the International Journal of Social Robotics, first author Olivia Barber and colleagues argue that robotic dogs could soon replace real canines as emotional support animals—and will likely have an easier time and get fewer malicious stares when boarding planes.

The team brought two real dogs—a Jack Russell-Poodle mix and a Labrador retriever—alongside a biomimetic dog to visit a group of 34 children in West Sussex. The 11- and 12-year-olds had two sessions, one with the real-life canines, and a second with the robot, which was developed by Consequential Robotics. While the kids stroked animals equally, they actually interacted with the robot more.

Study supervisor, Dr Leanne Proops, knows the emotional impact that real dogs have on children and adults alike. Yet many people suffer from allergies, while others are on high alert for diseases transmitted across species. There’s also liability concerns; lawsuits over biting dogs happen. And, of course, the expense of animals is prohibitive to some. Robots could fill a void.

“This preliminary study has found that biomimetic robots — robots that mimic animal behaviours — may be a suitable replacement in certain situations and there are some benefits to using them over a real dog.”

Move over Animal Assisted Interventions. Welcome to Robot Assisted Interventions.

As the authors note, robot pets already exist. A  robotic seal named Paro is designed to keep seniors company. Social robots help stroke victims during rehabilitation and have proven useful in communicating with autistic children.

Despite the fascination, this story doesn’t end like the film “Her.” The pre-teens preferred the real animals, not the metal imposter. That said, the more time they spent with the robot, the fonder they became of him. The team chose dogs for this pilot study given their ubiquity and our longstanding positive relationship with them.

As part of the study, each participant filled out a questionnaire about their biophilic beliefs. Interestingly, animistic beliefs played a role—how willing they were to ascribe agency to the robot. The “realer” the robot felt, the more positive the affect.

Moving forward, robot support animals could help people unable to care for or be around actual animals. As Proops concludes,

“This is a small-scale study, but the results show that interactive robotic animals could be used as a good comparison to live dogs in research, and a useful alternative to traditional animal therapy.”

K9s For Warriors

Three Beaches police departments got some bark under their Christmas trees this week.

But their new four-legged gifts won’t help “collar” criminals as much as help officers with their increasingly stressful jobs.

Jamie, Duke and C4 are called station dogs, donated by K9s For Warriors to the Jacksonville Beach, Neptune and Atlantic Beach police departments, respectively, as canine therapy for officers and staff as well as victims of crime.

It’s a job the trio are comfortable with, having been service dogs for returning veterans prior to their new assignments, K9s for Warriors CEO Rory Diamond said.

“Every time a police officer comes back from patrol, they are loving the dog,” said Diamond, also the Jacksonville City Councilman for the Beaches district.

“Every victim who is there, every witness who is there, they get loved on by the dog and feel better,” he said. “… It’s proven to lower stress; it’s proven to keep our veterans alive. We have a huge problem of first-responder suicide.”

As Jamie, Jacksonville Beach’s police service dog, checked out the other two at a Tuesday donation ceremony, Cmdr. Eric Shaughnessy said having the animal at the station will be the right stress relief. Their arrival is a reminder of when one of the department’s own, Cpl. Andy Lavender, took his life 18 months ago, Shaughnessy said.

“We think about Andy all the time, and hopefully if someone is feeling that way in the future, Jamie will be there for them,” Shaughnessy said. “We are hoping those folks can bond with the dog, and maybe after a particularly stressful incident or something they see, they will know the dog is at the station waiting for them.”

Ponte Vedra-based nonprofit K9s for Warriors works to end military veteran suicide by providing service dogs to those returning soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries or military sexual trauma. But the three dogs it gave to the police departments will be there to support those community’s first responders as well as co-workers and even crime victims, Diamond said.

“Our police officers are under attack, so we want to do our part to keep them alive,” he said. “They have actually done tests on this and if you pet a dog, your blood pressure goes down.” Gathering at the Wingate Football Fields in Jacksonville Beach for the donation, Diamond said the dogs have been retired from K9s for Warriors after helping disabled military veterans. He designated them for the Beaches police departments after Lavender’s suicide, saying his group had to “be part of the solution and we wanted to keep our police officers alive” by lowering stress and making them happy.

Wearing big red bows on a city football field, the dogs joined the officers in each department who have already been caring for them, integrating the animals into living in the respective stations.

Like K9s for Warriors dogs help military veterans, the station dogs will work on police officer wellness, spending time playing in the station or just going for a walk. And since police officers, like veterans, face similar issues, a service dog in the station can help reduce officer turnover and attrition and other emotional distress. “We have found that he has already blended quite well with our family at the station,” Neptune Beach Cmdr. Gary Snyder said as Duke, a black Labrador, lay at his feet. “We look forward to interjecting him into the community a little bit. He’s got an automatic calming effect for our staff and he is truly already an asset to our agency.”

The dogs are not there to be a pet, but to help officers “de-stress a little bit” and seek some therapy if they need it, Atlantic Beach Chief Victor Gualillo said. C4 will also help their dispatchers who face unique emotional issues, the chief said.

“A lot of times, they are in the midst of a high-stress incident with someone on the other end of the phone who is screaming for help,” he said. “… Having C4 there before the officers can come back and tell them how it turned out can give them a way to reach out and touch something that’s caring and loving.”

The dogs were also welcomed by the mayors of some of the Beaches communities.

“We have dogs now who are bringing happiness and comfort to officers, and what a great thing that is for each of these departments,” said Neptune Beach Mayor Elaine Brown said. “They need it, and it’s just such a good feeling to have Duke running around over there going from office to office and bringing comfort.”

The dogs will also be part of each department’s community policing program, going with officers on visits to schools and other organizations.

“Nothing breaks down a barrier like a dog,” Diamond said.

Therapy Dogs Change Lives

“On a warm summer day, I was crossing the parking lot with Caileigh to go into the hospital. There was a family standing beside their car and Caileigh was urgently telling me that she wanted to go to see them — she’s not usually like that.

We walked over and found that one of the family members was weeping but was deeply appreciative of the opportunity to be with the dog at that moment. She asked, ‘does this dog know that I need her?’ I don’t know. But there was certainly a special kind of communication taking place.

The woman asked me to visit her husband who was in the hospital. She told me where I could find him and as it happened I was going to that unit that day, so I enquired about him when I got there. I was introduced to a large man whose dementia was very advanced. He was silent and emotionally unresponsive. He had not spoken since his admission three or four days earlier.

We approached the man and asked if he wanted to visit with the dog. He maintained his silence and showed no indication that he had any awareness of our presence. There was no communication and no connection. In sadness, I suggested that we might stop by another time. As we walked away, we heard a deep, booming voice proclaiming, “That’s a nice dog!”

Caileigh had reached this individual when human professionals had not been able to do it. It was an amazing moment and one that I will not soon forget. It illustrates the powerful nature of the human-animal bond at its finest.”

“One day as Caileigh and I were visiting in the hospital, a member of the staff advised us that one particular patient was depressed and likely wouldn’t want a visit that day.

I knew this man slightly from previous visits, so I knocked on the door and asked if he wanted to chat with a dog. He said he wanted to be alone, and we respected that sentiment.

The room was dark and the curtains were drawn – it seemed like a very unpleasant place. As I walked away, another person came down the hall and said, ‘Oh, Caileigh, so nice to see you!”

Hearing that, the man enthusiastically leapt out of his bed and came rushing into the hallway shouting, “you didn’t tell me it was Caileigh!” He knelt down on the floor and hugged her tightly. It was a very touching moment.

I don’t know how she would have perceived that series of events, but somehow she knew that she was meant to be there – to bring joy and soothe souls. She has the best job in the world!”

“We used to visit an elderly woman who would tell me every week about a dog that her father brought home to her in his pocket. She would remember it so vividly, recalling every detail about the sights and sounds and emotions of that long-ago time – reaching into her dad’s pocket and feeling that warm, fuzzy puppy. But she couldn’t remember that she had told me this story so many times.

She actually celebrated her 100th  birthday during that period of time, so it occurred to me that she must have been talking about something that had happened 90 or 95 years earlier. She could remember it so clearly and perfectly, although she could not recall things that had happened much more recently. The connection to a dog allowed her to travel back in time to an event that had brought her happiness and excitement.

Connection is such a powerful thing. Sometimes I believe that we bring light into darkness and that perhaps Caileigh is able to be part of an incredibly positive experience for her human friends.”

“As we were completing our visit to the hospital one day, one of the staff asked if we would spend a few minutes with a patient who had recently arrived.  We peeked behind the curtain and approached the man who was eager to talk about dogs he had known and loved.

He stroked Caileigh’s head as she sat, appearing to listen to his stories.  As the conversation progressed, we talked a little about what had brought the man to the hospital that day.  He told me that what he called his “MAiD Day” was approaching.

He had been able to access the provisions for assisted dying that were available to him and had arranged for the event to happen at his home in a few days’ time.  There would be food and drink and the opportunity for friends and family to come and say goodbye.  When they left, his life would be ended.

When I could see that the man was becoming tired, I suggested that we leave and let him rest.  He took Caileigh’s head in his hands and said, “I am so glad that I got to spend some time with you today.”

In the midst of his suffering, when his days were literally numbered, this man found joy in the presence of a dog.  Words cannot express what a great privilege it is to be a part of this.”

This bonus story comes from hospital volunteer Joanne Rodgers and her therapy dog, Happy.

Joanne writes:

“I particularly remember one day, on my usual visit to the ER with Happy.  They had a gentleman there who was extremely distraught.  He seemed very depressed and anxious, and despite their best efforts nothing the staff did calmed him.

So I brought Happy in and sat down near this gentleman, who immediately engaged with Happy. He talked to me about his troubles.  He really enjoyed petting Happy, and as he did, his feelings spilled out. We had a great conversation while he and Happy enjoyed each other.

Eventually he was smiling and calm, and I felt it was a good time to leave.  He thanked me for my visit and said it had done him a world of good.  It had done me a world of good, too.  Happy is a special boy.  He worked his magic that day.”

Thank you to everyone for reading this special series of how therapy dogs make a difference in people’s lives!