Service Dog Information
A service dog is dog individually trained to provide
assistance to an individual with a disability.
Our particular interest
is in service dog for individuals with psychiatric and autism-spectrum
disabilities. Most people with a these conditions are are NOT actually disabled by it - the
impairment must be severe enough to significantly impact their life in legally specified ways,
and only a court of law can, in the end, decide whether or not an individual is actually disabled
or not. A psychiatric service dog is trained to perform tasks which mitigate an individual's
specific disabilities - for example (in the case of psychiatric disabilities), a dog may perform
a 'reality check' to assure the person that they are hallucinating, perform grounding or pressure
tasks to reduce anxiety, or remind a person to take medication at specific times and with more
persistance than can be established using an alarm clock. In this way, they're no different from
the service dogs that most people have heard of, guide or seizure-alert dogs, which help their
owner to manage a daily life task their disability complicates, or warn their partner of impending problems.
Dogstar Academy does not train service dogs for disabled individuals at this time. However, we will help individuals with psychiatric disabilities to find service dog candidates, trainers, and programs to meet their needs, as well as directing them to further SD resources on the web. Additionally, we provide a support group and owner-trainer assistance.