War veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder are training their own assistance dogs, and it's making a big difference to their lives.
Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this articleWar veteran Ian McMahon says he would not get by without Missy, his assistance dog and "best mate".
He is one of more than 30 war veterans who have trained, or are training, their own accredited assistance dog through the Tasmanian social enterprise Care Dogs and Co.The organisation's founder Alyssia Coates, from Smithton, in Tasmania's north-west, says many of those war veterans are dealing with severe challenges, but they generally make "tremendous" dog trainers.
And assistance dogs, unlike therapy dogs, live with and play an ongoing critical role in the lives of the people they are assisting, Ms Coates says. The program typically takes 12 to 18 months for each owner-dog team to complete, and involves a series of tests, the final one being the Public Access Test , which they must pass to earn accredited assistance status for the dog.
Ms Taurian says this behaviour, as well as others many dogs naturally exhibit to help their owners, like touching them or leading them away from a certain area, cannot be taught.But such "mitigating tasks" in dogs can be encouraged, Ms Taurian says, by making sure that when a dog displays them, their owner praises and pats them.Now Missy has completed the program, Mr McMahon says he can rely on her to apply deep pressure therapy when he needs it.
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