Service Dog Life > Is a Service Dog for You? (publicly viewable board)

In-home SDs?

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hitchhiker:
Hello, all!  I've been lurking this board for ages, and finally have come across a problem that hasn't quite been answered to my satisfaction by someone else's post, so here goes, with a few paragraphs for background (and, before anyone asks, I am blessed with the money, experience with dogs, access to a professional trainer, cooperative and encouraging doctors, and relatively cooperative and encouraging family to facilitate either an ESA or a PSD, and I do fit the legal definition of disabled, as much as I'm in denial about it). . .

Way back when (ie: 1-2 years ago), I discovered the concept of psychiatric service dogs, and immediately they seemed like the perfect solution to my crippling anxiety and cycling depression.  As time went on, of course, I did my research, and the more I realized all the potential downsides - the cost, the anxiety of dealing with public access issues, the investment of time and emotion - the more I doubted that a service dog was for me, and, especially over the last few months, I've gravitated towards an ESA.

Conversely, though, my actual need for a service dog seems to have grown in inverse proportion to how much I wanted one.  When I first started to look into PSDs, my illness was at a point that wasn't truly disabling - sure, I'd have panic attacks all the time, in public, serious periods of disabling depression, but they were always manageable through cbt or medication.

Since then, I've developed chronic derealization that has resisted all anxiety treatments, and despite becoming a lot more stable as far as general anxiety, agoraphobia, and depression, I now experience tenfold physical symptoms that hit me every time I have to do anything more strenuous than sit in a dark room at a computer.  While a pet dog/esa would undoubtedly be great for comfort and a little routine, my cats already do that - what I really would need it to do is tasks to mitigate the severity of my current condition.  But as much as a service dog could do for me (I won't mention specific tasks, I know how y'all feel about that) that medication and therapy so far have not been able to do, I'm still hesitant, and am considering a third option.

My question is, have any of you ever, for whatever reason, selected and task-trained a dog as an SD, and trained it for public access just in case, but basically keep it as a pet that just mitigates your disability in the house?  I know that that might sound like it contradicts the entire definition of a disability, because a disability is all the time and you'd need the dog to mitigate it all the time, but at the same time, for people such as myself who as of yet haven't quite come to terms with the concept of working with a service dog 24/7 and all of the potential pitfalls and anxiety-inducing situations that might entail but are still disabled in such a way that even at home there are tasks a dog could perform to help, could it perhaps be a good option?

There don't seem to be any huge legal pitfalls here - all the ESA protections for housing would apply as far as I can tell, and since the dog wouldn't be out in public really that's not as much of a concern either.  My main worry is, would this be unfair to the dog?  If my condition worsened (or if I stopped being so heavily in denial about it, heh) to the point where I utilized the public access training and did take him pretty much everywhere, would it be too much of a shock?  Is public access even the kind of thing that you can train for in the first place and then not really do except a few times a week or month?  I can't seem to think of any really logical reasons why it would necessarily be a bad situation for the hypothetical dog here, but my gut is still telling me it might somehow be unfair.

I know, I know, I'm the only one that can make this decision for myself, but this forum seems like a good place to get honest opinions, so I thought it might be worth a go.  Thanks in advance for any feedback, everyone!

eta: it occurred to me after posting this that, while I thought that the whole issue of owner-trained or program-trained or what-not went mostly without saying, I remembered what forum I'm posting on [:wink:] and thought some clarification might be in order; I would be looking at owner-training with LOTS AND LOTS OF GUIDANCE BY PROFESSIONALS.  I have experience with training dogs as far as tricks and up to intermediate agility, I have several good friends that are professional trainers who've put obedience and agility titles on dogs, if I decide to go this route and pick out the dog initially as an SD there are a few organizations/trainers that I'm looking at to pick out the dog, and several private trainers w/ SD experience I'm looking at to work with afterwards, with the trainer friends as back-ups. Of course if the dog isn't cut out for work I would never work with it as an SD whether in public or not anyways, and would have no qualms either emotional or financial about washing it out, and if that happened and I was at a point where I was ready to commit to a 24/7 SD instead of the situation I've asked about here, I'd go through a program instead.

Kirsten:
A dog trained to perform tasks to mitigate the disability of the owner is a service dog, regardless of whether it is ever used in public access or not.  Home-only service dogs are not rare.  Most (but not all) hearing dogs are home-only service dogs.  They are 100% as legitimate as any other service dog.

There are some groups, particularly about PSDs that will tell you that to be legitimate you have to drag your dog with you 24/7.  This is not true.  If your disability is periodic, you wouldn't drag your wheelchair with you on principle, just when you needed it.  The same is true with a service dog.  These people will try to claim that the dog's training deteriorates if it isn't with you 24/7.  I think the real issue is that that group gravitates toward dogs that have separation anxiety and/or they instill separation anxiety in them because it feels good to be desperately needed (I'm not suggesting this is intentional, but it is common).  A mentally sound, trained service dog is perfectly capable of being left at home and there are times when it is better to leave the dog and take a service human, such as for some medical procedures.

Do some people have home-only PSDs?  Sure.  We have some on this forum.  Often they are dogs who just didn't work out for public access.  I think it would be unusual to never wish to use a PSD in public access, but that's up to the handler whether they feel that is appropriate in their unique situation or not.  I could see some deciding it wasn't worth the aggravation of dealing with the public or gatekeepers over the dog, especially with an invisible disability.

I have a wash-out right now, who was meant to replace my retired dog.  She works great at home, doing the bulk of the work.  She is public access trained, but has some issues with how she deals with stress that make her not suitable for some public access situations.  So I guess technically she is a home-only service dog with very limited public access.  Most of the time I use a service human these days when I leave the house.

Can you do what you propose?  Sure.  It's the way I would approach it if I thought I didn't need a public access service dog but wasn't sure.  I'd rather plan for public access as an option and not use it, than make a choice that would preclude it and then regret that choice later on.

Rovingrebel:

--- Quote ---trained it for public access just in case, but basically keep it as a pet that just mitigates your disability in the house?  I know that that might sound like it contradicts the entire definition of a disability, because a disability is all the time and you'd need the dog to mitigate it all the time, but at the same time, for people such as myself who as of yet haven't quite come to terms with the concept of working with a service dog 24/7 and all of the potential pitfalls and anxiety-inducing situations that might entail but are still disabled in such a way that even at home there are tasks a dog could perform to help, could it perhaps be a good option?
--- End quote ---
The only problem I can see with this is that in order for a dog to maintain it's public access skills and training the skills must be used and practiced at least a couple of times a week or the dog will loose them.

hitchhiker:

--- Quote from: Kirsten on November 23, 2011, 10:55:57 AM ---Can you do what you propose?  Sure.  It's the way I would approach it if I thought I didn't need a public access service dog but wasn't sure.  I'd rather plan for public access as an option and not use it, than make a choice that would preclude it and then regret that choice later on.

--- End quote ---

Thank you very much (for such a considerate and comprehensive reply in general, but esp for the quoted bit) - logically I'd guessed as much, but because I'd be doing owner-training in this particular situation I wasn't as sure, and there was also that gut feeling.  Of course, my gut was also feeling hungry at the time, so :biggrin:

and rovingrebel - I did think of that, and if the dog was successful in public access I'd definitely still take it out on a regular basis so it doesn't lose those skills.  I wasn't previously aware of how often I should in such a situation, though, so ty for that indirect suggestion!

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