Pets and DID

Dwelt wrote:[quoteYes, she's basically a dog :lol

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

Surprisingly, we looked into getting a Norwegian Forest Cat. Still rare in U.S. Actually at 18 lbs the cat would be 1 or 2 lbs heavier than my Cavalier will be!

Nobody knows we are DID & I've known the tester as a fellow competitor, instructor & student for years. So don't want to tell her. But sounds like some of the PTSD will be helpful. Didn't find much on dissociation, tho. Most PTSD in U.S. is military related. Emotional support is not a legal thing in US. Only service dogs get environmental neutral training.

The spinning ring it a great idea. Do some clicker training for distance only as the problem is don't always have the clicker. Could wear the ring all the time! May I steal your idea?!

Thankfully we haven't had a severe panic attack in awhile. But should plan for it. As we became more co-con we were able to intervene. But can't rule one out. Another tool.

Thanks for doing your work with school kids. Know it's more beneficial than you know.

I actually train cats to walk on leashes! Mostly for older people. Most said they weren't walking cuz they no longer had a dog. That's what set me checking out Norwegians. Never thought of them as service animals.
Thanks for the ideas.

-- Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:07 pm --

Dwelt wrote:[quoteYes, she's basically a dog :lol

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

Surprisingly, we looked into getting a Norwegian Forest Cat. Still rare in U.S. Actually at 18 lbs the cat would be 1 or 2 lbs heavier than my Cavalier will be!

Nobody knows we are DID & I've known the tester as a fellow competitor, instructor & student for years. So don't want to tell her. But sounds like some of the PTSD will be helpful. Didn't find much on dissociation, tho. Most PTSD in U.S. is military related. Emotional support is not a legal thing in US. Only service dogs get environmental neutral training.

The spinning ring it a great idea. Do some clicker training for distance only as the problem is don't always have the clicker. Could wear the ring all the time! May I steal your idea?!

Thankfully we haven't had a severe panic attack in awhile. But should plan for it. As we became more co-con we were able to intervene. But can't rule one out. Another tool.

Thanks for doing your work with school kids. Know it's more beneficial than you know.

I actually train cats to walk on leashes! Mostly for older people. Most said they weren't walking cuz they no longer had a dog. That's what set me checking out Norwegians. Never thought of them as service animals.
Thanks for the ideas.

Worth noting, our two dogs don't seem to notice or act differently when we switch from what I'm told by others... BUT both of them have been around only since after we've known, and those we had before we knew... well, they were puppies when we got most of them, and the one that wasn't was already in the house and learning to get to know me/us... so they all have seen this at some point pretty much as "normal" actions/behavior for us... So IDK it would be anything they'd act on b/c none are trained as service (or even support) dogs, and it's nothing unusual to them to see us change our behavior or something...

I was thinking about pets and DID and right know I don't think that my cat does recognize the different alters as unique individuals. But she does react differently to some of us, because we behave different.
If an anxious alter is out, she senses the tension and might react nervous herself or keep distance. Or if if a playful child-alter is out, she will be glad and play with them.
That would be probably the same, if I was a singleton with just "different moods"

-Kiran

Thanks for the replies. Think that if they recognize the playful one that indicates they recognize the difference. Just don't have a trained response.

Thanks for the input.

You could train a response if you're wanting one. It'd take alot of training. Dogs need consistency in training so if you have alters who are different and less disciplined with the dog then you would need a sequence of training for each alter so the dog knows a start and stop signal and whatever you want to put in-between.

When I rescued a dog everyone treated the same. A dog will get out of hand if you don't have consistency. Also it was a strong dog. Luckily it'd been trained incredibly well by its drug dealer owner. The dog got taken because he owed money. I wanted to return him the dog because whatever he did he loved that dog that was clear. But the guy was too frightened to take the dog back so I had to re-home it because it tried to eat the cat (it was trained to catch cats and birds) but in the dogs defence it didn't actually try to kill the cat and did eventually drop it.

Anyway dogs need consistency and very good training I see too many dogs out there with bad training and they will bite someone. Dogs are pack animals so if they don't know the hierarchy or are allowed too much leeway they will think they're boss and they will bite someone.