this would be an ESA, and not a service dog, right?

[Alia3]

I have several...conditions?  disabilities?  I'm not sure what they would be called under the ADA but they definitely effect my life.  I have prosopagnosia, so I don't recognize faces of people, including those of my parents, or my own.  So, (I have been told this over and over and over again) people think I'm unfriendly and a snob, since I never say hello to them in public.  I don't recognize people out of context, or if their clothing or hair has changed.  I also have a learning disability which may or may not be on the autism spectrum, depending on who you ask.  One of the ways it effects me is that I am hopeless at finding my way around.  One or both of these conditions make it really hard for me to tell what people are saying with their faces and body language.  I can talk to people for days about the things I am interested in but I am horrible at making small talk with new people, and since I won't be able to recognize them anyway, it's hard to make friends and right now I pretty much have none.

I want a dog because I love animals, having pets make me happier and a dog is the pet which would best fit my lifestyle (I have a lifelong history of depression which may or may not be a side effect of the conditions I mentioned above), a dog would be something to talk to people about, most people who have dogs like to talk about dogs and once I get to know somebody I find it a bit easier to talk to them.

Going a bit more out on a limb, I imagine that it will help me recognize people if they repeatedly come over to my dog while I am walking it, or, I meet the woman who walks the grey poodle, etc, and because I see her walking I'll be able to recognize her walking in the mall or whatever, sans poodle. 

I have thought that maybe a dog could help me get home if I go for a walk, but I'm so used to getting lost and eventually finding my way home, and I have always lived in small towns where getting seriously lost for more than a few hours is difficult, so this isn't really necessary.  I have also thought that a dog could be trained to alert me when somebody we know goes by, if it's a person we know well,
but again, if it's a family member or something I'll know them by their clothing, shoes, hair, walk etc.

I've read that a good way to figure out if a service dog could be of help is to imagine a friendly robot, and how it could help, and then see if a dog could do that.  If a robot would nudge me whenever a person I knew, or should know rather, was present, even50% of the time, that would be amazingly helpful.  I have a good memory and could sort through my brain files and figure out who the person was, likely, as long as I knew they were there, but I don't suppose that is something a dog could be trained to do.

I'm at a point in my life where I'll be moving a lot in the next few years, but I've basically decided that if I have to move where I couldn't have a dog, I won't go.  I desperately want a companion.  Would it make sense to get the dog as an ESA in order to have an easier time finding housing?  Does anybody else have prosopagnosia or an autism spectrum disorder or anything, and is there some way a dog could help but I'm not thinking of?

  I don't want to cheat the system, and really I think I'm looking for more of an ESA but I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[Spectrum]

You sound SO much like me in many ways. I also have mild prosopagnosia and an autism spectrum disorder, and one of the biggest things my SD will do for me is finding things - home, the car, bathrooms, exits, and eventually I'll probably have certain people he will find.

I started with an ESA. It really was a good starting place for me because I learned A LOT from the experience, and at the time a dog was the best thing I could have done for myself. I'm thankful every day for getting Gavroche. At the time he was "just" a pet but still exactly what I needed. After about 8 months he became my ESA on paper, and a year after I got him he became an "official" ESA when we moved into no-pets housing. I got lucky and had a landlord that accepted him with NO problems at all. I brought his stack of paperwork and they didn't even really look at it. I brought him to meet the landlord and the office manager and they loved him - and the landlord even admitted she usually didn't like dogs. The office manager invited me to bring him with me when I came to pay the rent every month. It worked out well for us in that Gavroche is a very easy dog to have in an apartment, nobody in the complex ever gave me any problems, and I did put some tasks on him during that time (he is not a public access SD due to temperament/behavior/health issues). Gavroche will find home and the car, and I started teaching him guide work as well. He still does more for me at home than Logan (my SDiT) does. Still, I will always try to find pet-friendly housing first, because it's much less of a headache and generally there's more room to have animals in a pet-friendly place. We went from living in a tiny no-pets studio to a huge house with a fenced in yard. I much prefer the fenced in yard, even though the studio meant Gavroche got VERY solid on his potty-on-command cues!

The first thing to do is determine if you are disabled. Your doctor/counselor/therapist/etc can help with this, but they can't say so definitively (only a judge can, and that's something most people never have to do). You need to be disabled to have an ESA. For housing and flying you need a doctor's note (the front end of the site has some good examples).

As for as a service dog, if you determine it is best for you, you can go that route too. I don't know if signaling you to people you know would be trainable, as it's pretty broad. How does the dog know who you know? What if it's someone you met before you got the dog? what if the dog thinks that just because you passed someone in a store before, this is now "someone you know"? i'm just having a hard time wrapping my mind around how to train that one and how it would work. I have a task "wish list" around here somewhere, but as of right now Logan's most important tasks are finding things. He is/will be trained many other tasks, including deep pressure/sensory/light mobility tasks, but the ones I have and will be using the most are the "find" tasks.

[Spectrum]

Oh, and welcome!   Oh, and a good resource for topographagnosia/developmental topographical disorientation is http://gettinglost.ca/ though the forum isn't very active. But there are some cool things there.

Once you have PM ability here, feel free to PM me any time if you want to talk

[Roxie]

Welcome to the group!!!  Happy you are here!

My SD Tay helps me with balance and mobility, and I believe he is the only dog in the group that helps with the symptoms of Alzheimers! A lot of that is to find out, the car, my shoes, my jeans.

I have learned in this group there are a multitude of disabilities and many of them are very similar with the symptoms!

Roxie

[Alia3]

Thank you for the welcomes! 

I guess thinking about it more now, when I am less tired, if I were to live in the same town as where I worked, it would be helpful for a dog to recognize my boss, and maybe some other important people from my job, so I wouldn't ignore them if I were in a store with them, or whatever. 

I will talk to my doctor about whether or not I am disabled. 

Spectrum, does your dog find the bathroom in unfamiliar buildings?  And does he find the car in new parking lots?  The parking lot skill would be helpful to a certain extent, but I also have spent my entire driving lifetime either parking away from the store where nobody else has parked so I can see my car, or spending however long it takes going up and down the rows of cars til I find mine.  Would it be convenient for me to be able to right to the car?  Yes, but, I feel like that would be cheating the system a bit. 

[labs4ever]

Welcome!    I would talk with your doctor as to wether or not your are considerd disabled by ADA standards.  IF you are  then  you can decide wetehr your next step is ESA or SD.   


I wonder if  learning  "blindness" skills would help you with some of your  issues particulary the   knowing who people are part.  I am blind and have been all my life.  (I can see a litttle bit but not enough to  do much with!)     I  know who people are by the sound of their voices or their shoes, (shoes is only if I have seen them that day and they have loud shoes! )   There are some other skills that might be useful too.   I do think  you could put guide work on a dog and   that could help you the same way it does Spectrum.   But if you feel more comfortable jumping into this slowly I would say an ESA is your best bet, but I wouldn't  count out an SD.    Welcome to the group! 

[Spectrum]

My dog will find bathrooms in places we haven't been before. He will find the car in any parking lot, and will find whatever car I drove, even if it's not my car. I assume he finds new bathrooms by their scent. He will not only find the bathrooms, but the correct bathroom!

[Alia3]

wow.  this is really getting me thinking.  In restaurants for example, I don't usually have a problem finding bathrooms, but finding my table again is a BIG problem, since I find it extremely difficult to recognize people while sitting, and possible from the back, plus I have no sense of direction so I can't get back by just retracing my steps.  All the tables look alike. 

Most of me doesn't want a SD, even if I am disabled, because it would mark an invisible disability, but a little part of me is saying wow.  That would be amazing to not get lost in parking lots, and restaurants, and to be able to find my way back to people.  Would those be  legitimate tasks though? I CAN get back to my table if I wander enough, and somebody usually calls my name when they see me looking confusedly around.  It's embarrassing and stressful, but it works.  As for knowing I'd be alerted to important people, like my boss, or family or whatever, that would get rid of a lot of stress and make me feel better at work, but again, I'm getting by, I guess, being a "rude snob".  I mean, these things impact my life, and they do close doors, but I can get by.

[FrostedAcres]

If you get lost easily, how do you safely drive? Curious on that---
 I found having a SD find my vehicle to be very usefull--I no longer needed to park in the same aisle in the parking lot! My dogs have always been able to recognize my 'friends' and neighbors-- they learn who you hang out with!!! Disoriented in a new store or building-- a good dog easily performs "get me out' (did that with a blind classmate on a field trip-- I couldn't make sense of the museum map, and of course, the classmate couldn't see very well--my dog got us out!) One of my previous dogs would even remember that we took the bus rather than drive! Oh yes, a dog will take you directly back to your table--- just put a 'return' command on it--
 Even my mobility issues are 'invisible-- arthritis and torn tendons don't make themselves very obvious-- so, welcome, learn, enjoy!

[Spectrum]

I have wondered if O&M training would help. Sadly, I can't even being to try that because I can't afford it on my own, and I'm sure my insurance won't cover it (it doesn't even cover ANYTHING remotely autism related for people over age 17 - no neurologist, no OT, not even a diagnosis).

If you get lost easily, how do you safely drive? Curious on that---

GPS is my best friend   I really need to update my maps though...Tulsa was a nightmare. But it's hard to pay $50 to update maps every year when the GPS only cost about $100 :/ If all else fails, I hit "detour" until I find a route that works

Before I had GPS I had to go home between every place - I could remember, for example, the route from home to the store and back ,home to work, home to school, but not school to work, work to store, store to school, etc. I also relied on calling my dad A LOT asking where I was and how to get where I was going. I can eventually learn habitual routes but it takes a LONG time. I could not drive on the highway before I had GPS - too much confusion. My GPS has made it possible to do so many things I otherwise would never have been able to do - going to dog shows, for example, would be impossible without my GPS.

What sucks more than not being able to figure out a route, is being somewhere - usually somewhere I should and usually know well - and everything going blank and not having ANY idea where I am. Nothing looks familiar, nothing is in the right spot, etc. Most of the time it lasts just a couple minutes, but sometimes it takes a while to figure out where i am and where I'm going. This happens even driving in a straight line from one side of town to the other 

[Alia3]

Before I had a GPS, I didn't drive.  Now sometimes I still get lost if I mix up right and left, but the GPS sorts it out and I love being able to go places by myself.

This has all given me lots to think about so thanks for all the replies!  Also, what's O&M training?

[state_of_nowhere]

Also, what's O&M training?

Orientation and Mobility training. It is used to help those with visual impairments and other processing disorders learn how to navigate their environments better.

[hopesclan]

Most of me doesn't want a SD, even if I am disabled, because it would mark an invisible disability, but a little part of me is saying wow.  That would be amazing to not get lost in parking lots, and restaurants, and to be able to find my way back to people.  Would those be  legitimate tasks though? I CAN get back to my table if I wander enough, and somebody usually calls my name when they see me looking confusedly around.  It's embarrassing and stressful, but it works.  As for knowing I'd be alerted to important people, like my boss, or family or whatever, that would get rid of a lot of stress and make me feel better at work, but again, I'm getting by, I guess, being a "rude snob".  I mean, these things impact my life, and they do close doors, but I can get by.

I think what you really need to think about in getting a service dog is not if you are 'legally disabled' enough and have the necessary tasks according to the ADA, but if the merits of having one truly override the hassles and stress they bring.  The people who judged you as a "rude snob" will have all sorts of thoughts about "that girl with the dog."  You will now be rude for bringing the dog inside, rude for not letting them pet it (or their children poke their fingers up its nose), rude for not letting them feed it, rude for not explaining what your issues are, rude for going on with your life when they want to stop and tell you about every single pet they ever owned or a TV show on dogs they saw or...

Living a service dog lifestyle has many challenges.  With an ESA you take those challenges out but of course you don't get as much help in public (though a pet can help you decompress before you leave and when you come home).  I am between SDs right now and the foster cat I have helps me tremendously even though she is a bratty cat.

My brain has just stopped working, so I will stop now.  I did want to say I have many of the same issues, so I do understand how hard and frustrating it is.

[Roxie]

Great points to consider, Hope!

Roxie

[Alia3]

Hope, those are really good points.  And I really don't think I want a public access service dog at this point in my life.  In my thread "Criteria for an ESA" in the ESA section, I've listed my main problems.  I'm still not sure how to go about dogs and dog training and what is right for me though.  So any input  over there would be much appreciated. 
Many thanks!