Pets and assistance dogs for the elderly and vulnerable (Proceedings)

Elderly people and others who are vulnerable due to disabilities potentially can benefit the most from canine companionship. However, their compromised health may preclude them caring for a pet without substantial assistance. To address this paradox, the community-based volunteer-staffed program of PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support) in San Francisco is the model for assuring animal companionship for vulnerable people. Often, a companion cat is a more suitable pet that arouses less conflict due to its reduced demands for care.

These vulnerable people may be suffering heightened losses of various kinds, including a shrinking social network, ongoing medical conditions that are incurable, and a short remaining lifespan. Animal companions that are well-selected can enhance the person's quality of life, especially of the care needs of the animals do not pose and unreasonable challenge for the person.

Expanding continuum of companion and assistance dogs

Guide dogs have assisted people with visual disabilities since 1819 in Vienna, and a school was established in the United States in the 1920s. In the 1980s, people with other disabilities were partnered with dogs at Canine Companions for Independence. Since then, assistance dogs for people using wheelchairs, people with hearing disabilities, and a host of other special partnering relationships have been established. At the same time, working roles of dogs for detection of agricultural products, termites, accelerants, and other products have been developed. Partnering with dogs in police work continues to expand and provide significant support for officers. The diversified, specialized roles of dogs present new contexts for veterinary care in which the dog's working role may be essential to the human partner, imposing unusual constraints required for the arrangements for care. Despite the acknowledged potential benefits of assistance dogs, some potential drawbacks exist that should be considered, including financial costs, behavior problems, failures in the placement, access problems, and the psychological consequences of having an assistance dog such as the dog's death (Sachs-Ericsson, Hansen, and Fitzgerald, 2002).

Human disabilities with canine assistance

The notion of disabilities continues to broaden beyond just a few categories, as we become aware of the particular challenges that individual people face. Combinations of disabilities such as blindness and locomotion limitations can be addressed by specially training a dog to meet the person's needs.

Vision. This well-established partnership with dogs is the most familiar to the public. The person's reliance on the dog is life-saving and could be life-threatening with a misstep by the dog. Generally dogs are only placed with adults. A person may have a series of many dogs during their adult life, and must be prepared to adjust to various personalities of the dogs, deal with the aging and reduced capability of a working dog, prepare for the loss of the dog, and be willing to adjust to another. Together, the guide dog-person team forges a new identity and partnership that shapes interactions with the public (Sanders, 2000). The dog comes to be incorporated into the owner's understanding of his or her transformed self.

Locomotion, balance. Training dogs to assist people who use wheelchairs demonstrated that dogs could be trained for a wide array of specialized assisting tasks. Picking up car keys, opening doors, pulling the wheel chair, and providing increased security were some of the significant tasks offered in response to specific commands. Dogs were offered to children when supportive families were available to assist in oversight of care. Initially unexpected, over time it became evident that the socializing role of the dog with the public for the person in the wheelchair was perhaps the more significant contribution of the dog, plus the fulltime companionship and psychological support offered by the dog (Hart, Hart, and Bergin,1987; Mader, Hart, and Bergin, . 1989).

Hearing. For people who are hard-of-hearing, the loss of function can prove almost more disruptive than for those with a lifetime of not hearing. Dogs trained to provide alerts to significant sounds such as bells, phones, baby cries, and alarms also add a feeling of security and companionship that offsets the change in sensory capacity. Hearing dogs enhance communication and socializing of handlers among people within their community (Hart, Zasloff, and Benfatto, 1995).

Seizures. New working partnerships are exemplified by the origination of seizure dogs, a concept that began with Sue Miller who resided in a women's prison, Angie who was a 14 year old having frequent seizures each day, and Sheba, a dog trained to assist Angie to assure her safety while having seizures (Bustad, 1988). Over time with her greater relaxation, Angie's seizures became less frequent, as has been documented subsequently for others (Strong, Brown, Huyton, and Coyle, 2002). Through this one example, it also was discovered and later demonstrated repeatedly, that the dog could provide an advance warning of an oncoming seizure, not as a result of special training, but by the dog's own initiative and behavioral signaling (Brown and Strong, 2001).

Psychiatric disabilities. Perhaps the newest development is the self-help use of assisting companion dogs by people with psychiatric conditions. Described as a grassroots consumer movement founded in 1997, the Psychiatric Service Dog Society operates primarily as a listserv (http://www.PSYCHDOG.org) for all types of mental health disabilities, including major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, panic disorder, anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. This organization advocates for people to work with a professional dog trainer to train their own dog. They have specified some particular tasks that psychiatric service dogs can be trained to perform, including turning on lights, searching for an intruder, warming the handler's body during a panic attack, interrupting repetitive behaviors, and alerting to mania or panic attacks.

Selection, training and breeding

As in any relationship with an animal, keeping in mind the person's background and goals for the relationship when selecting the animal can increase the likelihood of a successful match (Hart, 2006). Methods of acquiring dogs and then training them sharply differ across programs, both among assistance dogs for people with disabilities and among dogs used in law enforcement or inspection.

Purpose bred, extended training of 1+ years. In the most extensive process, dogs may be specially bred, as is typical for many programs that train guide or service dogs or police canines. Prospective guide or service dog handlers come to the facility for a few weeks to be assigned a dog and build the relationship.

Random bred shelter sourced, training of a few months. Hearing dogs typically are acquired selectively at animal shelters, and trained for just a few months. Prospective handlers spend a couple weeks preparing to establish the relationship.

Companion dog trained by handler. Psychiatric dogs generally begin as companion dogs and subsequently are specially trained, often by working with a professional trainer, to more specifically fill the role as a psychiatric service dog. A small number of service dogs are trained in this manner.

Nature of companionship

Assistance dogs fill the role of a conventional companion dog, as well as being a working dog that can perform specific assigned tasks on command or when a particular stimulus occurs, as with a hearing dog. However, in police and detection work, the dog may or may not also be a companion dog. Whenever companionship is included in the relationship, taking appropriate steps toward assuring a harmonious match is important (Hart, Hart, and Bain, 2006).

Kenneled at central facility. In the United States, dogs used for detecting accelerants/bombs are likely to be kenneled at a central facility and may work with more than one handler. In many other countries, for example, Japan, police canines are kenneled at a central facility and work with a handler, not a police officer.

Companion animal at home. Police canines in the United States conventionally live with the officer as though a companion dog. Officers often are self-selected, entering canine work at their own initiative and sometimes even contributing to the purchase price of the dog (Hart, Zasloff, Bryson, and Christensen, 2000).

Conclusion

The range of working roles of dogs continues to rapidly expand, and is a topic of seemingly endless interest of the public worldwide. The contribution of dogs to assisting people with their infinite range of needs, even while the dogs benefit from the relationships, continues to amaze people. Some resources and search templates that can aid in locating research literature on this topic are available through the UC Davis Program for Companion Animal Behavior: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/CCAB/main.htm

References

Brown, S. W., and Strong, V. 2001. The use of seizure-alert dogs. Seizure 10, 39-41.

Bustad, L. K. 1988. Living together: People, animals, environment—A personal historical perspective. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 31, 171-184.

Hart, B. L., Hart, L. A., and Bain, M. J. 2006. Canine and Feline Behavior Therapy, 2nd ed. Ames, Iowa: Blackwell Publishing.

Hart, L. A. 2006. Community context and psychosocial benefits of animal companionship. In: Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy: Theoretical Foundations and Guidelines for Practice, 2nd ed. (A. Fine, ed.), pp. 73-94. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Hart, L. A., Hart, B. L., and Bergin, B. 1987. Socializing effects of service dogs for people with disabilities. Anthrozoos 1, 41-44.

Hart, L.A., Zasloff, R. L., and Benfatto, A.-M. 1995. The pleasures and problems of hearing dog ownership. Psychological Reports 77, 969970.

Hart, L.A., Zasloff, R. L., Bryson, S., and Christensen, S. L. 2000. The role of police dogs as companions and working partners. Psychological Reports 86, 190202.

Mader, B., Hart, L. A., and Bergin, B. 1989. Social acknowledgments for children with disabilities: Effects of service dogs. Child Development 60, 1529-1534.

Sachs-Ericsson, N., Hansen, N. K., and Fitzgerald, S. 2002. Benefits of assistance dogs: A review. Rehabilitation Psychology 47, 251-277.

Sanders, C. R. 2000. The impact of guide dogs on the identity of people with visual impairments. Anthrozoos 13, 131-139.

Strong, V., Brown, S., Huyton, M., and Coyle, H. 2002. Effect of trained Seizure Alert Dogs on frequency of tonic-clonic seizures. Seizure 11, 402-205.