Pets and DID

We have been a performance dog competitor for decades. Have One who trained, went into ring, taught. Then we went 4 years without our own dog. Recently got a dog who will be trained to be out service dog for medical issues.Talking with T, he off-handedly mentioned our dog could be a big help with insiders. When they get upset, now that we are are talking more to each other, the *upset* is felt by more insiders.

Asked if our other dogs recognized that there were other insiders. He said he was sure they did. Never crossed our mind that this was the case. Our instructor wants a list of tasks we (I) think would be helpful. She doesn't know about DID.

Do your pets know your parts? Do they act differently? If there was something you could train to help your parts, what would you train?

The cat was annoyed with Karen apparently. Really it's Karen's cat. When she came back the cat was off with her. Ran away, doesn't do that normally. So I think they do. I don't think the fish notices though lol but you never know.

We have 4 cats here, one of them just loves V1. When V1 fronts, that cat is all over her. When V1 came back after like 14 months away, the cat took a few hours to notice, but when she did it was like a big reunion or something.

The other 3 cats don't seem to have favourites, that I can tell.

Viola

Thanks for the replies. Never thought about the opposite..the animals having a preference! Oh, what if York doesn't like one of us???!!! Are there such a thing as service fish lol !!!
Thanks!

KingsleyHere wrote:We have been a performance dog competitor for decades. Have One who trained, went into ring, taught. Then we went 4 years without our own dog. Recently got a dog who will be trained to be out service dog for medical issues.Talking with T, he off-handedly mentioned our dog could be a big help with insiders. When they get upset, now that we are are talking more to each other, the *upset* is felt by more insiders.

Asked if our other dogs recognized that there were other insiders. He said he was sure they did. Never crossed our mind that this was the case. Our instructor wants a list of tasks we (I) think would be helpful. She doesn't know about DID.

Do your pets know your parts? Do they act differently? If there was something you could train to help your parts, what would you train?

Our first dog became 'Maddies assistance dog' - Maddie shut down and went back inside after the dog passed away. Maddie and Kit were the only ones about during that dog's life the dog seemed to take everything in her stride. At the time we didn't know we had DID so both Maddie and Kit saw themselves as 'me' when they were up front.

Our younger dog seems to get a little more spooked by changes but since Maddie left and others started coming out more often the switches have been more often, some times a couple of times within the same day if the little's want to come out to play.

I guess we must act differently now knowing we are only a part of a multiple system? It's caused a few problems for us like if Kit can set off for a walk nice and relaxed and because we auto switch if anyone looks like they might approach us (Kit won't speak in public and doesn't like having to deal with people) the dog senses the switch and started getting reactive to other people and dogs approaching us. He's a big dog to control too. ..but we can't really get outside help for it without revealing we are multiple and no-one in our lives know about 'the others' as they've never come out in front of other people.

I'm quite sure that our cat recognizes and favors some of us.

As for instance she behaves more affectionate if littles are around and she likes to rub her head at their head. If I try to do this, she runs away

Only Rhea is allowed to have her on the lap when sitting at the pc.

We also noticed that sometimes after a switch she performs her "greeting ritual" which she usually does, if we come home in the evening.

-Autumn

KingsleyHere wrote:Thanks for the replies. Never thought about the opposite..the animals having a preference! Oh, what if York doesn't like one of us???!!! Are there such a thing as service fish lol !!!
Thanks!

A lot of cats will avoid humans who doesn't understand how to behave with them. I think that's why cats are more prone to avoid some alters and "play favorites". They just go to the people who seem to understand their language (and each cat have their own).
Dogs are less prone to do that, usually it takes a lot to have a dog avoiding you

My cat totally sense each alters and adapt her behavior depending on who is close to the front. She will stick to us like superglue, following us in every room, when it's the Littles. She obeys mostly to Daem and me. She is way more cuddling with Kal, I think she can sense that he only tolerate outside physical contact with animals and really needs it.
She also senses stress and dissociation, and will do everything to catch our attention when she feels we're on the verge of a panic attack or a flashback. It took me a while to understand why she could suddenly misbehave (it triggers Daem) and/or meow like she was trying to howl at the moon (it triggers me).

Service dog outside of guide dogs aren't really known in France, and mental health service dog are even more unknown (only one association have started to train them), so I've discovered that only few months ago.

As I do zootherapy with my cat, with children who have school issues, I've already trained her to a lot of commands : she knows about 20-25 command words, she knows how to adapt and combine them depending on the context, and she pays so much attention to everything we do and say that I've lost the count of all the words she responds to in the daily life. And she knows how to walk with a harness and leash, she is used to public transports. Yes, she's basically a dog I wish we could take her everywhere with us, but sadly, a lot of places aren't safe for a cat...
When I discovered that service dog for PTSD and even dissociation were a thing, I started to train her for specific things for us.

We taught her to paid attention when we're in the bathroom, in order to disrupt our picking behavior by jumping between us and the mirror if we stay in front of it for too long ; to lay down on us when Nico or Kal has a panic attack (deep pressure therapy, if one of your alter is prone to panic attack, you should have a look at this for your service dog). She's a 5kg Norwegian cat (cousin of the big Maine coon), so between her weight, her long soft fur and her loud purring, she helps a lot with grounding.

We had a spinning ring for our birthday, and the ring makes a noise when spinning. We're currently training her to come to us every time she hears that noise.

Just those three, plus what she's naturally doing, she's a huge help, and I seriously consider taking and training a dog when I will graduate from university and move from my mom's place.

I've got a YT playlist about service dogs and emotional support animal, mental health related or not, if you want to have a look : SD and ESA

We have two dogs (outside)... and like neither of them act any diff with diff ones of us out. IDK if they even notice. lol
One is happy to cuddle and/or like lay around lazy like (despite being only like 3 years old); the other is happy if someone is throwing his ball once in a while for him- cuz he LOVES to chase it... over and over and over and over... lol

{\Pixie/}

We have dogs and they seem to notice. Blaze got creeped out by them the other day. When he came out, they growled at him. They really love Mary. They seem to like me too. Others- however- they'll run away from or act like they don't know us. We're not sure why. It's creepy to us. It's like we're not "invisible" to them.

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I guess we must act differently now knowing we are only a part of a multiple system? It's caused a few problems for us like if Kit can set off for a walk nice and relaxed and because we auto switch if anyone looks like they might approach us (Kit won't speak in public and doesn't like having to deal with people) the dog senses the switch and started getting reactive to other people and dogs approaching us. He's a big dog to control too. ..but we can't really get outside help for it without revealing we are multiple and no-one in our lives know about 'the others' as they've never come out in front of other people.[/quote]



Thanks for the input, Kit. I'll look for those Qs. Nobody but our T knows about our DID either. The most common training for dog getting reactive is simply remove them. So like simply turn and walk in a different direction.

It's amazing what dogs can do. Don't know if I'd call it reactive. Sounds more protective. Doesn't sound aggressive. Sounds like dog realizes he needs to take more of an in-charge, protective stance. May need to set a limit but not sure I'd want to eliminate that behavior totally. Perhaps use it as a signal for an older or guardian to come help. Oh, don't mean to sound like telling *you* what to do. Just thinking out loud what we could do if our system faces similar situation. Our little ones have been out more and more...less supervised.
Thought more of them playing ball or something with York. Not the dog reacting as you describe. Thanks for bringing it our attention.

-- Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:53 am --

Ponyta wrote:We have dogs and they seem to notice. Blaze got creeped out by them the other day. When he came out, they growled at him. They really love Mary. They seem to like me too. Others- however- they'll run away from or act like they don't know us. We're not sure why. It's creepy to us. It's like we're not "invisible" to them.

Wow. Really amazed we never noticed these kinds of things with our other dogs. Sounds like we didn't know but our dogs did. Amazing creatures. Thanks.