Assistance Dogs!

Hi,

I posted a while ago asking if anyone knew anything about mental health assistance dogs.... well now I have one! Brody is a yellow Labrador Retriever, 12 weeks old and I'm training him myself under the programme of http://mhadogstest.wordpress.com/

He's obviously not qualified yet but he already helps me in so many ways and is learning lots of complicated tasks to help me further. It's wonderful and I highly recommend investigating this possibility if you love animals and feel like you would benefit from help with your bipolar that you're not getting from your meds etc.

If you're interested, you can follow Brody's progress on my page for him, here: [mod edit] and feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions! Hope it's okay to post this here, admins!

Glad you were able to get a service dog! I know they have them for all kinds of conditions but didn't know that "mental health assistance" dogs were a thing?! Oh well, you learn something new every day.

Do they do any specific things for you, besides be there to cuddle and pet and be cute? (But that's good enough for me, sometimes my moods will drive me crazy and I wish I had a dog to do that with... and the one of my two cats who I can do that with isn't big enough... ahhh I want one now!)

Yay! Good for you! I remember you talking about this a while back, so I'm really glad to know you finally have the chance to not only have a service dog, but also training him! That must be really cool.

Best of luck training Brody, I'm sure you'll both have a wonderful time.

Labrador! Deepest night's black one? :3

Also grats for having a new family member, service or no service attached.

I will follow your page. I love animals and labs. My aunts dog is a lab and they are very easily trained smart dogs as I'm sure you already know. Brody is a great looking dog. I am thinking of getting an assistant dog (German Shepherd) for my physical illness to know when I am ready to get a headache or anything else spikes. I am hoping the state would give it to me as it would be a great companion to me also even though I have two other pups (I noticed you also have two other dogs on your page).

[mod edit]The dog is just beautiful! I hope it helps you a lot. I heard about service animals for emotional support or mental illnesses when I worked for an airline, I didn't know they existed, at least where I live the assistance dogs are only for physical disabilities. I bet he's gonna be of great help. One question, can you go with him anywhere just like any other assistance dogs, for instance can you go to stores, the cinema a concert, etc? It sounds like a great idea. I have 4 cats now and sometimes I wish I could carry one with me but I don't think they'll be of much help haha! But it's great coming home and pet and hug and play with your pets, they can become your best friends.

Good luck with Brody!

Haw. Not black lab. (Yes, yes, slow to notice a link. ==")

pinkfloydfan810 wrote:--My aunts dog is a lab and they are very easily trained smart dogs as I'm sure you already know. --

If the lab we had for ~13 years wasn't 'special' compared to the breed in general; they are also amazingly patient and caring of their family, looking after kids and sick. It's just uncanny how pets can tell if their owner(s) isn't well.. Ours didn't do much of the retrieving part, more of just herding the family. :p

Lanka wrote:Haw. Not black lab. (Yes, yes, slow to notice a link. ==")

pinkfloydfan810 wrote:--My aunts dog is a lab and they are very easily trained smart dogs as I'm sure you already know. --

If the lab we had for ~13 years wasn't 'special' compared to the breed in general; they are also amazingly patient and caring of their family, looking after kids and sick. It's just uncanny how pets can tell if their owner(s) isn't well.. Ours didn't do much of the retrieving part, more of just herding the family. :p

I didn't mean to insult you or anyone on the forum, I was just saying they were smart dogs and easy to work with and train very fast. My aunt's dog is a family pet also and was a companion/watch dog for my cousin when she was a little girl and still does his job at 9 years old as an old friend.

Oh my goodness congratulations! Absolutely beautiful dog! Dogs help so much; I have two. I will certainly like your page and follow all of what's going on!

pinkfloydfan810 wrote:I didn't mean to insult you or anyone on the forum, I was just saying they were smart dogs and easy to work with and train very fast. My aunt's dog is a family pet also and was a companion/watch dog for my cousin when she was a little girl and still does his job at 9 years old as an old friend.

I see no insult in your earlier message? I only wanted to add the bit about them being very loyal for watching over their family, not only retrieving things as the breed's name would suggest. :p

Saddly our dog became.. angrier the older she got. Could in some sense call it paranoid, I suppose. :/