Bob Taylor’s DOG WISH DEMENTIA SERVICE DOGS

Tags

A.D.H.D., ALL neurological Disorders and Disabilities, Alzheimer’s Service Dogs, anxiety service dogs, Dementia Service Dogs, Dog Psychology, EPILEPSY Service Dogs, Psychiatric Service Dogs, Service Dogs, sleep Apnea, Tethering, Tethering Service Dogs

A Dog Wish Alzheimer’s Service Dog is trained to perform functions that are necessary for the safety, wellbeing, and ability to function, of a person suffering with Dementia.

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 incorporated their suggestions to develop a training methodology and strategy for the performance of our dogs to do just that.

Care-taking for someone with dementia is a critical, serious concern, and there are times when that care needs to be done by trained professionals in a protected environment, for the sake of all concerned.   However, for those in earlier stages of Dementia, our concern is to:

1. Help keep the person with Dementia in their own environment as long as possible.
2. Help the caregiver(s) working with that person to be more effective, and feel less stress.
3. Help the individual to:

• function more effectively.
• live with less anxiety, frustration, confusion, and pain.
• Feel more connected and loved.
• Be protected from the many potentially dangerous possibilities they encounter constantly.
• Detect, alert, and respond to often unspoken needs and concerns.

A major part of prolonging the early stages of Alzheimer’s for your loved oneis to help them remain as comfortable, personally and socially connected, and functional as possible.  That environment can even be enhanced by the companionship, and loving bond they can share with someone specifically trained to understand work with them on their level, according to their needs, that they feel happy and secure to be around.   Often, the affected person cannot express their emotional needs, and they live feeling isolated, abandoned, cut off from others, alone, in their own world.   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, can be the key to extending their present stage of dementia.  A Dog Wish Service Dog is trained to do just that.   The cost to purchase a Dog Wish Service Dog and the years of service and performance it will provide is equal to a few months payment for an Assisted Living Facility.

FOR EXAMPLE:  We had a delightful family drive out to see the Service Dog that Dog Wish had been training for them.  I had their time with us organized, structured for their best use.

However, as they met their dog, everything changed.  Every client is different, and the things you would do with one client should not automatically be done with another client.  One of the biggest problems I have with my clients is that each one of them comes to me for personal, critical concerns.  How do you share personal, intimate details about yourself with a stranger?  The clients have to get to know me when they come, and often it is I who observe, and sense the specific intimate details about them that are important for our work.  In this case the client was suffering with frontal lobe dementia, and was much further along than I had been told.  The dementia was affecting her in many ways that became obvious to me as we worked together.  Therefore, I had to make many changes to accommodate my client, “on the spot”.

The particular set of processes she was experiencing were extremely emotional, and produced critical anxiety for her.   We pre-train our dogs for each client using their scent.  The dogs learn to detect and respond to their scent before they ever meet, so that when they do, their dog already knows them.   Through this process we have found that our dogs also pick up on the personalities of that person, and many specific factors about them, from their scent.  In this case, the dog began to alert and respond her disability problems almost immediately, which helped me understand what was going on faster and more accurately. This woman was feeling detached, insecure, and closed off from those around her, and was unable to communicate it.  Her dog instantly filled in the needed spaces for her, and immediately bonded with her.

Therefore, from the moment she made a connection with her dog it became obvious that the dog could not be separated from her for any significant period of time.  The dog tuned into the recipient, because of the training we put it through, and instantly understood and started working with her.  Within three hours they were working, even without a leash, or any help or instruction.   By the end of the first day the dog was alerting to her panic attacks, and her anxieties, on a level that was higher and faster than anyone else.  The dog was actually telling us when she started having problems, and she in turn related to, listened to, and responded to the dog, better than she did to us.  Although you may have never experienced anything like this unusual process, it is also very correct, and to us is very normal.  A lot of our clients do connect with the world around them through their dog.

The training to create a Dog Wish Service Dog is very comprehensive, very intense, and requires a “super” dog to facilitate it.  Most Service dogs are styled after “guide” dogs.  At Dog Wish, our dogs are styled after the behavior of “Police K9s”.  Our dogs are taught to perform, not to take commands, but to detect and understand what behavior is needed, and respond appropriately.  It is often necessary for a Dog Wish Dementia Service Dog to detect that a certain behavior, circumstance, person, etc., may be dangerous for their handler, and do what is necessary lead them to, or keep them safe.  What’s what we call doing the job.

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 in the dog 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, first, have had their mentality altered. 

• We have changed the energy output or metabolic rate in each dog, teaching them “on command” or as needed, to slow down or stop, relax, and feel comfortable just to be there quietly and passive.
• People who are neurologically disabled need a dog that is slower, and not hypertensive.
• We have “inverted” the sensory process in our dogs, so that they can focus on their handler completely as a normal behavior.  Our dogs view distractions from other people and animals as unwanted, and are neutral towards them.
• We train our dogs to be “insensitive” to petting from others, outside their dog/handler relationship.

Dog Wish Service Dogs are secondly, trained to detect the smells the handler emits, alert to their energies, 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 that 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 as needed, and return their handler to their home, car, or family, 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.  As a multi-National, Master Tracking Dog Champion:

• 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, smelling and feeling their body changes and mental energies.

A DOG WISH Service dog is a 24 Hour Companion.  (The K9 can stop the person from leaving the home and alert the caregiver.)

•          In the first two stages of the disease the K9 can be trained to accompany the handler to safely go for a walk, and return them home.

•          They can discourage aggressive advances of others and can intelligently and progressively, passively protect their handlers, according to the letter of the law.

•          The K9 is always there as a primary connection for the handler, and can help with the emotional aspects of their disability.  The K9 is a constant friend who is focused on the handler 24/7.

A DOG WISH Service dog IMPROVES the Handler’s Function Ability                                                                                                                  

•          The K9 develops a strong connection with the disabled individual, improves self-confidence, resolves fear issues, and can reduce codependence.

•          The dog can detect and Intervene when the affected person is depressed, or fearful, and improving the handler‘s state of mind. The K9 WILL sense this state and reduce the sense of loneliness and isolation.

•          The alert concerned presence of a trained Dog Wish dog can help by detecting & alerting everyone to a potentially dangerous situation, caused by delusionary, hysterical, or forgetful behaviors that could cause the handler harm.

A DOG WISH Service dog CAN Delay Deterioration of the Handler.

•          The dog will improve physical health by walks with the handler and other activities.

•          Physical activity slows down the impact of aging and degeneration of muscle tissue and bone mass.

•          It will provide a positive connecting relationship outside of their own mental state of being that motivates, encourages, and uplifts them.  Interacting with the K9 stimulates their brain.

•          According to the Alzheimer’s Association it is possible in up to 10% of all cases, to reverse the trends of dementia in rare individuals.

The DOG WISH Service dog WILL Assist the Handler, Family, and Caregivers.

•          Helps reduce the 24 hours a day stress on the family.  Your K9 will watch and attend to their handler.

•          Greatly improves the home atmosphere by softening stress situations and    improving emotional vitality.

• Reduces the emotional stress on the household members.

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, President

Dog Wish Incorporated

760-662-3767

bob@dogwish.org.

We’ll make it happen for you!!