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A Dog Wish Alzheimer’s Service Dog is specifically trained for someone diagnosed (or who displays the specific behaviors characteristic of someone) with Dementia.

  • The dog is trained to perform functions that this person needs help with, and that are necessary for their safety and wellbeing, that they would have trouble, or be incapable of performing without the dog.
  • In most cases, without a Service Dog these people would NOT be capable of functioning, and performing these necessary functions.

This training is very comprehensive, and requires a “super” dog to facilitate it.  Very few people have ever experienced this quality of dog, and do not understand that we look for top quality dogs, only, for this type of work.  The things that a properly trained Dog Wish Dementia Service Dog can do are indispensable for a person disabled with Alzheimer’s Syndrome, and include:

1. Each dog has had their metabolism altered through training, so that they will remain constantly emotionally balanced and controlled, and operate at a slower than normal rate, eliminating hypertensive behaviors.   This has the affect of balancing and stabilizing the handler’s neurological/emotional state of being; counterbalancing them, and stopping them from feeling extreme anxiety, agitation, and frustration.

2. Each dog is trained to search and find articles with their handler’s scent, from early on in training.  We have found that while the dogs learn this, they also pick up far more from the scent that just a handler’s smell.  They actually, through the scented articles, learn details about the handler’s personality that they immediately transfer to the handler when they meet.  It is amazing how the dogs respond to the handler, the moment they meet.  The dogs instantly bond with the handler, and will not leave the handler on their own.

3. Each dog is trained to smell the scent produced by the handler’s body, feel their energies, and respond accordingly.  The dogs, sides being a constant balance for their handler’s, can pre-alert if the handler begins the process that creates a neurological imbalance or disturbance for the handler, before it occurs, giving the care taker(s) time to help them.

4. Because of the way they are trained they will only leave the “home” residence, on command, through the proper door, the proper way.  Some block the doors, other refuse access to them, accept when they know it is correct to do so.

5. The dogs return to the handler’s home, residence, or vehicle, immediately upon    command, or as they detect they need to.   Many times this requires advanced tracking training, which every dog is trained for.

There are many other things that can and are taught to each dog, according to the need and desire of the handler and their care takers.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, up to 10% of the people in the first stage of Alzheimer’s can beat their Dementia.  Those people have learned to use a special strategy to reverse the process in their brain.  At Dog Wish we have used their suggestions to develop a training methodology to do just that, to help our clients as much as possible.

A recent Dog Wish Service Dog recipient after one week told me, “I can’t believe how I am being affected.  I’m sleeping, don’t feel anxiety or irritability, and I feel like my head is clear.  Usually I walk around in a fog I can’t get rid of, but since my dog, it’s like somebody rinsed out my brain.  I use to feel a gripping fear, all the time, but not now.  When I went to the store I would hold onto a grocery cart, and walk right next to my wife.  The further we went, the worse the oppressing anxiety became, until I just could not stand it anymore, and we would leave.  Now, I don’t need the cart, I don’t need her, I can walk all over by myself, and I feel great!  I realize you told me how this was going to work before, but I until I experienced it for myself I couldn’t understand or believe it.  Now I know what you meant.

After two weeks with their dog they replied to friends on Face book:

“Phyllis June (wife), Sam(dog), and I were in a store yesterday. The normal hold on to the cart like I do no longer happens. I have Sam by my side and he does exactly what he is supposed to do, relieve stress and anxiety.  I can’t explain it, only to say its gone. He walks so close to me his shoulder rubs my leg.  Its his way of saying, “I’m here, and its all going to be ok”. The most amazing thing is when we leave, I tell him to find car, there are certain words we use, but the thing is he tracks right to our car, or jeep. Never fails.

Before this, my anxiety started just going to the store, worrying about which door I came in that I went out the right door. Now, not only does he get me out the correct door, he takes me right to our vehicle. It all goes on scent. His scent is 500 times that of a human.

Sam goes for the house. We have been on two walks a day. Each day I go a bit further, and every time I tell him “Home, Sam” and he takes me straight to our house.

He never leaves me out of his sight. For me, Sam is and will be a “God send”.  In the few days we have been together I have yet to have the anxiety or fear I live with day in and day out.

I was afraid of just life if general is the best way to explain it. Sam has elevated all of that. There is a story here, and it has just begun. I will do as I always have, share it with you and others. “

A major part of prolonging the early stages of Alzheimer’s for your loved oneis to help them remain as comfortable, personally and socially oriented, and functional as possible.  Giving them a reason to want to live, to stay connected, and to continue with their life style, as long as possible, while they are safe and capable, is the key to extending their present life.  A Dog Wish Service Dog is trained to do just that.  What is a Dog Wish Service Dog trained to do that others aren’t that makes them better?

Dog Wish Service Dogs detect, understand, alert, and respond to the needs of their handlers.  The first step in this process is detection.  Rather than leave the job of development to mother nature, we amplify our dogs abilities from 4 to 10 times what they would normally be with advanced training at our facility.

Dog Wish Service Dogs are first trained to detect the smells the handler emits, alert, and respond accordingly.

  • We have clients who have never slept through the night without their Service dog waking them when their family member starts a seizure process by breathing irregularly.  If they don’t wake up the dog will pull off their blankets.
  • We have dogs who have learned to “bark” or alert the family by “pointing” or by pacing, when their loved one with a disability is intending to do something wrong.  If they try to be destructive, sneak out a door, turn on the stove, or escape from the back yard, etc., the dog will immediately alert, and tell on them.
  • Our dogs are trained to respond to a verbal command, or a buzz on their collar and return to their home immediately.
  • Our dogs are trained to detect and alert to a abnormal or wrong neurological event in the handler and alert before the handler is affected.

The first part of detection is the ability to smell what is happening with the handler.  The strongest most comprehensive training you can give a dog is to teach it scent detection.  Our dogs can detect (smell and alert to) abnormal neurological activity before the body is affected by it.  We have trained hundreds of dogs, for over 10 years that detect seizures, strokes, low blood sugars, Panic Attacks, and anxiety disorders, before they ever physically affect the handler.

The second part of detection is the dog’s ability to feel the energies the handler is putting out, understand if they are abnormal or wrong, and respond appropriately.   As a species, dogs are up to 100 times as sensitive to electro-magnetic and electro-centric energies in the environment as we are.  The ability to harness and use that ability in a Service Dog makes Dog Wish Dogs that much better.

  • I have created a method for teaching dogs to invert their senses, and to use their sensory abilities to concentrate 95% of their attention on their handlers.
  • I have created exercises I go through with their handlers where I strengthen the emotional bond between the dog and their handler.
  • In so doing I teach my Service Dogs to have an unusually intense and critical focus on their handlers, to “watch out” for them, and to be emotionally close to them.

You don’t have to handle the dog perfectly, or train the way I show you, just to use the dog, to experience the results you want.   The dog is trained to do the rest.

A good example of this is a couple that came to me for training with their dog.  I accepted them as clients and we started training.  After two weeks they came out and sat down with me.  “The training exercises we are going through with our dog have had a remarkable affect on my husband,” the wife told me.  “He has a highly technical job and these exercises are actually healing his mind.”  The man was very happy, and showed me how he was beginning to feel his body, to understand, and be able to relax when he felt stress.  Through his work with his dog he was able to, “unhook” from the stresses around him, and “connect” with the energy within him, that he needed to perform.  He used the training several times a day, every time he felt stress or anxiety.  So I asked them what he did.  He was a computer software program creator, and had created the programs the United States Government now uses to self-pilot its Nuclear Jets.  He was responsible for writing the over 500 programs that enabled these Jets to take off, fly missions, return and land all by themselves, and fight up to 5 other Jets at the same time during the mission.  His software enabled the Jets to change missions, abort, or create new missions as needed.  This genius found his solace through my dog training exercises, and you can too!

I realize that there is a time when an Assisted Living Facility is necessary for the safety and well being of both the individual with an advanced stage of dementia, and their care taker(s).  However, not only are these facilities very expensive, (thousands of dollars a month), but it is also a fact that 75% of the people placed in them die within the first year of incarceration.  It is important to make sure that their normal routines are kept up, and that those things they are use to and happy with don’t change.

Dog Wish Service Dogs are good for the whole family, your friends, and everyone they come in contact with.  They will enhance, and with your help, change your life.

For more information please, contact me, Bob Taylor, at 760-662-3767, or through email at bob@dogwish.org.  We’ll make it happen for you!