It’s been a long few days. We had a Board/Train pick up appointment on Friday (two dogs from the same household) that lasted most of the day. Then, Saturday and Sunday was another Committed Canine (professionally guided – owner trained Service Dog) course. Even though I was the instructor, the class was, for me, very educational and also very inspiring. Participants included a nine year old child with Asperger’s Syndrome (a condition described as being part of the Autism spectrum), a recently returning veteran from Iraq, a student who attended an earlier Phase One class who joined this class as a refresher before moving onto Phase Two and a woman for whom we trained a Service Dog several years ago, also in attendance to hone skills that had been allowed to slide.
It is amazing to see the transformation in both the dogs and the handlers over the course of the two days. On Saturday morning, a quick assessment of the dogs might have led one to believe it would be hopeless to move the dogs and their handlers to the state they achieved by lunchtime on Sunday, when we traveled to town for a public outing, including shopping in a department store and eating at a restaurant.
We saw all three conditions of anti-social behavior in the dogs on Saturday morning; excessive exuberance, fear-based / retreating behavior as well as dominant type aggressiveness. On Sunday afternoon, these same dogs shared the small space under the table at the restaurant and without one woof or whine or sniffing for crumbs.
Not only did I see a transformation in the dogs’ behavior, but I was also granted the privilege of watching a sort of blossoming of each student’s confidence and capability. I experienced a change in actions, aptitudes and attitudes of both dogs and their people as they moved through the process of training their dogs.
I believe that Service Dogs can enhance the life of a person with a disability. But, even more so, I have come to recognize how much owning the process of training one’s dog plays a therapeutic role, too.