BOB
702-580-3910
702-580-3910
Service Dogs Resolve Issues
with P.T.S.D., Anxiety, and Depression
The reason I have been so highly successful with our PTSD dogs is that unlike others who work from the outside in, using Pharmaceuticals to mask the effects of this disorder, we work from the inside out, using our dogs to attack and eradicate the causes of the disabling disability. Give us four days with our dog, and we’ll give you back your life!
According to the National Alliance for Mental Illness, “Each year suicide claims approximately 30,000 lives in America, which makes it responsible for slightly more than 1 percent of deaths in the United States.”
According to the American Center for Suicide Prevention, in 2011 (the most available data), 39,518 suicides were reported. In 2011, someone died by suicide every 13.3 minutes. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death for Americans.
According to the Veteran’s Administration, each day in America, 11 veterans with P.T.S.D. take their lives.
Claire Morysz, a PhD student in the field of Mental Health at the University College London. Claire holds degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Neuropsychology. She has a broad interest in field of mental health. Claire recently posted her results from a study on suicide in 2013. She ran 42 studies which included analyzing and reporting on people who committed suicide due to Anxiety related mental states of consciousness. She had a total of 309,974 people, roughly 1689 people in each case. She found that, “Up to 75 percent of all people with depression, schizophrenia or other mental illnesses who attempt or complete suicide also are diagnosed with one or more of the Anxiety Disorders.”
Recently the USA Veterans Administration, ignoring that 11 Veterans are taking their lives every day, dropped their P.T.S.D. Service Dog program. Dog Wish has partnered with Operation I.V. to provide Psychiatric Service Dogs for Vets in Southern California.
We consider Anxiety to be a major social concern. 1 out of 20 people are disabled and barely surviving the horrors of their lives. 1 out of 10 people have completely altered their lives and lifestyles trying to compensate for the pain they are in. 1 out of 5 people are so overwhelmed with stress and anxiety. They usually end up taking several different kinds of prescriptions to help them deal with the issues in their lives.
I Offer a Superior Alternative
To these people, a Service Dog can be a necessity because:
Our Service Dogs are trained to counter-balance the manic behaviors produced by the brains hypothalamus. The very presence of one of our dogs can stop the brain from producing one of these unwanted experiences.
Service Dogs become their handler’s personal source of empowerment, giving them much needed strength. The dog gives them confidence, and makes them feel able to deal with their issues.
Because of the way we train and enhance our dogs, sometimes the very presence of our dogs gives them the ability to relax, to stop feeling stressed, anxious, and helps provide them an emotional balance that they have never had before.
Beyond emotional support, our Psychiatric Service Dogs are trained to detect alert, and respond to their needs. The dogs perform specific tasks helping their handlers to rise above their mental and emotional disabilities. Allowing the handler to think more clearly, to act free from stress, anxiety, and their inner pain.
Through our dogs, we help people to let go of mental/emotional dilemmas and to learn to control how their brain’s function. Within a short matter of time, with the empowerment and functioning enabling presence of their Service Dog, my clients are taking their lives back.
A s a result of our methods, a Service Dog program for anxiety and PTSD, has been able to help hundreds of people reclaim their lives.
It Works! The following are stories are of our dogs and their handler’s stories. These stories demonstrate how our program works.
MATT & BOWSER
When we meet Matt, he hadn’t left his home alone in over 12 years. His trips outside the home were become more and more infrequent, and each trip left him more and more traumatized. His PTSD was progressing more each week, feeding on his inability to fight it. He would sleep in late, sit alone frustrated, and depressed blaming himself for not being able to shake the feelings that had and were holding him in bondage for the past 15 years. After several Psychologists, therapists, a host of new medication programs, and every type of therapy known to man, he believed his life hopeless.
A Service Dog was his last and final attempt to save his life.
He arrived at the facility exhausted and scared. After a quick greeting, I walked him out to meet his dog, Bowser.
Matt’s Service Dog was a very peculiar dog that didn’t really enjoy meeting strangers. He would bark at people he felt negative energy from. He was strong, focused, and opinionated. He was exactly what Matt requested and needed.
Matt was somewhat scared about how this unknown dog might react to him. I explained to him, we had been tracking Bowser for the past three months using the scented items Matt had given us. I also told him, Bowser had learned to work with the trainers but Bowser knew they weren’t his owner. I also told him to relax, we had done everything we could do to prepare this dog for him and he loves you.
I opened the kennel door and Bowser, a beautiful black lab mix, walked out and smelled the air. He recognized Matt immediately and went right up to him. Matt sat down in the dirt and started patting Bowser, with tears running down his cheeks.
Over the next week, my staff and I watched Matt and Bowser. It was very evident that all the hard work, all the training had worked. Matt and Bowser were a working service team.
The first time we went to a store, I didn’t know if we were going to make it out. Matt was disoriented, sweating profusely, and almost passed out. He was shaking so badly he could hardly move, and stuttered when someone spoke to him. It took four hours for him to relax. Finally, he told me, “Every time I felt anxiety, my Service Dog pushed himself into my leg, and would lick my hand.”
I nodded with a smile and replied, “That’s what he is supposed to do.”
We went to dinner at a large Mexican restaurant. While at dinner, the waiter and a man at the table next to us, started to play fight. They were right next to Matt. Bowser, fearing for owner, stood up and barked. He scared the bejabbers out of the waiter, who took off, and ran down the aisle. We had to explain to the manager that this particular dog was trained to protect his owner without hurting anyone. The waiter came back and was able to pet the dog, but something changed inside Matt. He was different; you could see it visibly on his face.
“Matt, are you ok?” I asked. Matt looked at me and began to smile, “For the first time in 15 years, I’m great!” He stated with flashing eyes.
Bowser had been trained to help Matt feel safe, to relax, to lose his anxiety, and he had just done that. Matt took him for walks around the hotel at night from then on, and one night the dog stopped a criminal. The man was hiding in bushes waiting to rob someone. Though, Bowser barked at the man, he never tried to hurt him. Bowser stayed right by Matt’s side, ready to do his job.
Four days later we went back to the busy store and walked around. We stayed there for over an hour. We spoke with everyone we encountered and Matt had no reaction at all. He didn’t feel the overwhelming anxiety. He didn’t break out in a cold sweat, or stuttered when someone spoke to him. He felt great. Mission accomplished!
Matt went home, and started calling me daily. His wife, kids, and parents fell in love with Bowser and vice versa. He now drives all over town, goes to the store by himself whenever he wants to, and was ready to go back to work full-time.
Recently Mathew wrote: “thank you so much for my wonderful Service Dog, Bowser. It has been a little over a year since you have blessed my life with his positive changing presence. My health has improved so much that I am in longer need of some medications, and weekly visits by a home health care nurse. We have become a source of information for people wondering about Service Dogs, what they do, how they work, and the laws pertaining to them. He has not only helped me but I know he will help others by being an ambassador service dog for my future clients when I finally become a psychologist.”
This is what you call a real transformation, one of over FIFTY in the last year for Dog Wish.
A good Psychiatric Service Dog can walk into a room, smell the smells, feel the energies, detect the problems, alert, and respond without a single command.
Rick & Sam
Recently, a Service Dog recipient told me after only one week with his dog.
“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 it, but since my dog, it’s like somebody rinsed out my brain. I used to feel a gripping fear, all the time, but not now. When I went to the s tore 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 2 weeks with his dog, he replied to friends on Facebook:
“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 it’s gone. He walks so close to me his shoulder rubs my leg. It’s his way of saying, "I'm here, and it’s 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.
22 months later this family still can’t believe what this Dog Wish Service Dog is doing for them.
I have encountered several people who are “plagued” with anxiety caused by their attempts to live in environments that actively abuse them. Sensitive people can become victims to energies that are attracted to them. Environments that can stimulate their minds to produce feelings that cause them fear, frustration, and anger. All of which are dangerous and debilitating to them. 1 out of 4 people in our world are fighting for control of their brains, and need help.
Sima and Bubby
S ima is a charming, beautiful young woman, who flew to us in a last ditch effort to get help with her devastating PTSD. She had been through 3 different professional Institutions where the professionals tried to help her with little to no success. She had seen numerous Psychiatrists and Therapists, been through all the procedures, tried desperately to do everything possible to deal with her problems, but nothing worked. She was paralyzed with nightmare experiences every single night, leaving her “scared to death”, curled up in the corner of her bedroom, crying. She felt such pain that she had tried overdosing. Nobody could help her, and her life was a living HELL.
She flew out to us, out of her mind in terror and pain. She sat huddled, not speaking, and she won’t look at anyone. She just stared into space. I watched her for a couple of minutes before I asked a staff member to bring in Buddy, a 16 month old male, red and black medium sized German Shepherd. We had finished training him but we hadn’t found the right home for him yet.
We work with synergistic energies, and as Buddy approached, his energy and Sima’s energy matched, exactly. Sima looked up as Buddy came into the room and without a word he laid his head in her lap. He licked her face, and climbed up into her lap. After a few minutes, I gave her the leash and told her to take him for a walk. She did.
Sima stayed at my house during her training, because I wanted to make sure she would be okay. In fact, since Buddy, she hasn’t had another traumatic episode of nightmarish horror. Sima trained with us, like Mathew did, and went home. Two days later she went to a wedding, then to a graduation, and then a family reunion. That was eight months ago, and Sima has not regressed. Her doctors have cut her meds to their lowest levels. Sima is reclaiming her life. Buddy has made all the difference in her world.
Sima tells her story.
“Before Buddy every single day was a struggle. Every morning I would fight with myself over whether it was worth it to get out of bed, and even the days I did get up were spent counting down the hours until I could crawl back in. My PTSD had complete control of my life. I would dread sleep because sleep meant nightmares and nightmares meant ripped sheets, waking up with scratches and bruises, and an approximate average of 3 hours of sleep a night. Leaving the house never felt safe so I slowly isolated myself from everyone and everything. I jumped at loud noises or a simple tap on the shoulder from behind. I became agoraphobic and stopped going to the most basic places because my anxiety would debilitate me. Even the simplest tasks required all the energy I had.
I was prescribed more medications than I can count and tried almost every different kind of therapy recommended for PTSD. Some helped minutely, some helped temporarily, and some just made the urge to be curled up in a ball in my apartment intensify.
Then I called Bob about getting a service dog. Bob listened to everything I had to say. He listened to my symptoms, the therapies I had already tried, and about my hope for many years for a “magic fix”. Bob sent me lots of information about service dogs, especially service dogs for PTSD. He told me he was going to help me in any way he could, and he really did follow through with everything. He didn’t make me wait weeks or months to come out to Dog Wish, he just simply said “come on out”, so I went.
I was terrified flying out to California. Even though I trusted Bob I was afraid this was just going to be another failed attempt to “fix” my PTSD. I was scared I wouldn’t find a dog, or that they would all be able to tell that having a dog come everywhere with me for the next substantial portion of my life wasn’t exactly something I was thrilled about. I wanted my life back so badly but the thought of something else failing was horrifying. I got to Dog Wish and I was shaking stepping out of the rental car but was very quickly enveloped in a huge hug from Bob who could so easily see how nervous/anxious/terrified I was. And then he started bringing out dogs to meet me. I had requested a female so first he brought out a female shepherd; she was beautiful but had zero interest in me. Then Bob asked if I was willing to try a male because he had an idea for a dog for me. I agreed and out came Buddy. He sniffed at me for about 3 seconds before resting his head on my lap and looking up at me with his beautiful golden eyes. And it was magic. I was hesitant to say that Buddy was the dog I was going to take home without working with him, but I knew it, and Bob knew it, and Buddy knew it too.
I worked with Bob, the other handlers, and the veterinarian on staff. Everybody was patient and kind and never rushed me. It was overwhelming but at the same time all I wanted to do was learn more, train more, and spend more time with Buddy. Bob took the pair of us everywhere. We went to Costco, the supermarket, the bank, restaurants; places I had been avoiding for years. Buddy could sense my anxiety and walked right alongside me, brushing my leg with his body, telling me I didn’t have to be afraid, he was right there. I slept through the night for the first time in many months. Buddy slept next to me, waking me by licking my hand or face when I started getting anxious. I was nightmare free for the first time in years. It had been so long that I had forgotten what a good night’s rest can do for a person. It was a wonderful few days, learning, training, and stepping way out of what had become my very small comfort zone.
A few days later it was time to bring Buddy home. Again I was nervous. What if Buddy only cooperated when the other handlers were around? What if he didn’t behave for me in the airport? What if the airline gave me issues about bringing Buddy home on the plane? Bob reassured me endlessly that we’d have no problem and he was absolutely right. Buddy was excellent in the airport and on both connecting flights back to New York. We got home and Buddy continued to be everything I had hoped he would be.
We started slow but it didn’t take long before I enjoyed leaving the house again. I started working more hours from the office and less from home. I started going out with my friends again. My therapist was amazed at how Buddy had truly given me my life back. My father apologized to me that he hadn’t known about service dogs for PTSD earlier because all of the sudden I was myself again. Not the girl who was terrified to leave her apartment but the old me who wanted to live life, do the things I love, and be happy.
Life with Buddy was a big adjustment from my life before but every part of it was worth it. Pretty soon I had moved out of my old apartment in a neighborhood I didn’t want to be in and had moved down to the beach to an apartment with a backyard for Buddy and just steps away from the beach (which I thought was for me until I found out how much Buddy loved it too). Now it’s our daily ritual to either walk on the beach or boardwalk before heading to work.
Pretty soon the anxiety that used to be constantly building was simply gone. The supermarket wasn’t scary anymore because I knew Buddy was always going to be coming with me. Running errands became easy. We spend time with my family, we spend time with my friends, and everybody just loves him. I’ve taken him to work, the gym, restaurants, bars, family celebrations. We’ve gone hiking, to concerts, to movies, to museums. Endless lists of places I wouldn’t have gone without him and now get to experience again without triggering a panic attack.
I may still have PTSD, and I may still have occasional bad days, but every day with Buddy is another adventure. We have hiccups every now and again but for the most part I just keep learning more and more from him. I will never be able to thank anyone properly for the wonderful ways Buddy has changed my life; Bob and everyone at Dog Wish for training Buddy to be MY dog, my parents for the greatest gift I will ever get in my entire life, my siblings and extended family for accepting Buddy into their lives as well, my friends for not only not caring about Buddy tagging along but truly being enthusiastic about it, the new neighbors who reached out and ran down to check if I was okay when Buddy started barking at a cat outside (“I thought something was wrong because he NEVER barks!!”).
Buddy is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. He was and is my “magic fix”. Buddy gave me my life back. He rescues me from the thoughts and flashbacks in my head. He saves me from the anxious trains of thoughts that used to be endlessly racing through my mind. He protects me when I feel vulnerable; he stays by my side when I feel strong. I couldn’t have asked for more, I’ve already gotten more than I imagined was possible.
Buddy has given me back the life I love. Going to Dog Wish was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that people suffering from anxiety and PTSD, can learn to control and refocus their brains with a Service Dog. By working with the dog they can control the behaviors that cause them anxiety. They can learn rejoin the world around them.
I WOULD LIKE TO HELP YOU.
If you have comments, questions, and personal concerns, call:
Bob Taylor, at 808-213-5848, or write me at bobtheman.me@gmail.com
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