How to sell service dog
How to Get a Service Dog for Anxiety or Depression And How Much It Costs
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hi there welcome to the top dog tips
youtube channel today we're going to be
talking about how to get a surface dog
for anxiety or depression and how much
it costs before we get into that please
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alright without further ado let's get
into it so a number of recent studies
have proven that assistance animals and
therapy dogs provide a lot of relief for
people with different conditions like
anxiety and depression if you're in this
position here's everything you should
know about getting a service dog or
anxiety or depression including what it
entails how an assistance dog can help
with these mental health conditions and
the costs involved so let's talk about
the right type of service dog is a dog
alleviating anxiety and depression in
people considered a psychiatric service
dog or an emotional support animal if
you're unsure about the difference
between the two we will link a
description of the explanation when it
comes to anxiety depression psychiatric
service dogs and emotional support dogs
can prove beneficial in relieving their
handlers or owners symptoms but they
definitely do have a difference whether
you require an assistance dog and which
category of an assistance dog is
appropriate for you depends on the
degree to which your anxiety or
depression affects your day-to-day life
psychiatric service dogs and emotional
support dogs are the two types of
qualified dogs for people with these
mental conditions so we're going to
explain how either of these types of
assistance animals can help you and
everything else you need to know about
both so the first one the psychiatric
service dog according to the ada which
is the americans with disabilities act a
service animal is a dog that is
individually trained to do work or
perform tasks for a person with a
disability the work or task a dog has
been trained to provide must be directly
related to the person's disability
here's a simple example to illustrate
this individuals suffering from extreme
anxiety or depression may be unable to
leave their homes to do something as
simple as picking up their medication
which helps mediate their anxiety or
depression symptoms in this instance a
psychiatric service dog can assist their
handler in creating a safe personal
space in public serving as a physical
buffer to calm their handler and reduce
feelings of emotional distress in
crowded places this allows their owner
to pick up their medication or perform
other tasks that would be hard without
these types of dogs around so when does
depression or anxiety qualify as a
disability depression and anxiety do not
always qualify which means that not
everyone with these conditions can
officially obtain a psychiatric service
dog to mitigate their symptoms it's
important to understand your situation
and know whether you'll qualify to get a
service dog from anxiety or depression
so when is it considered disabling
there's an official definition for this
the ada defines a disabling illness as
an illness that physically or
psychiatrically limits one or more major
life activities such as walking talking
seeing hearing learning etc if the
illness does not limit one or more life
activities then you do not qualify for a
service animal for example in the
individual we referred to earlier who
cannot leave their home because their
anxiety would qualify as disabled
because their inability to engage in
major life activities however someone
who experiences mild anxiety levels such
as having an increased level of worry
about what other people are thinking
about them while they are out picking up
medications is not considered disabled
the former individual was unable to
leave the home something which greatly
impeded their daily life and then the
other individual with mild anxiety may
be uncomfortable leaving the home to
pick up medication however they're still
capable of doing so it's considered that
their level anxiety is not preventing
them from living a full life that is not
to say a psychiatric service dog would
not provide comfort to the individual
with mind anxiety they probably would
however in such a case a service dog is
not considered to be a necessity how
does a psychiatric service dog aid in
relieving symptoms of anxiety and
depression service dogs used for these
mental conditions are becoming more and
more popular and there are plenty of
success stories out there there are
several ways the psychiatric service dog
can aid in relieving the symptoms
including bringing medication or
bringing water to their person meaning
the dog can go and pick up medication if
the person is unable to go and pick it
up fetching help during a disassociative
episode or a crisis so say someone has a
ptsd experience and is going through it
currently and is unable to perform any
daily duties i guess they basically get
help or the dog goes and notifies and
warns someone of something that's
happening to their owner so laying over
an anxious individual to provide
physical comfort during anxiety attacks
basically so if the person is having a
moment where they're breaking down and
are on the ground or i guess seated uh
the dog can like jump in their lap or i
guess if they're on the ground lay next
to them or i guess on top of them number
four is detecting anxiety attacks before
they show themselves so i guess some
dogs have the ability to sense one
coming on and uh reminding severely
depressed individuals to get out of bed
or take medication so the dog basically
doesn't leave their side until they see
them take medication i guess that can be
trained but that's obviously very
advanced training something that would
take quite some time bringing a phone
call for help or using an adapted phone
device to call for help during a crisis
so if something were to happen to the
owner in a desperate situation the dog
can i guess somehow alert someone or
bringing a phone to call or some form of
adapted phone device to alert emergency
services so how to get a psychiatric
service dog for anxiety depression it
can be attained through two ways through
a service dog organization or an
individual may train their own service
dog themselves however it's important to
note that training your own service dog
can be very difficult much more so than
people initially imagine and far more
complicated than regular dog training so
let's look at both of these options
number one obtaining a service dog
through a service dog program dogs
trained through service dog programs go
through obedience training service
training and socialization before being
matched with a potential owner or
handler in need of this assistance
animal however the training is not over
yet because the dogs then undergo
another set of specialized training to
meet their specific handlers needs
service dogs trained through service dog
programs may be from a reputable breeder
owned by that service dog program or
from other third party reputable
breeders or in some rare instances from
shelters or rescues to qualify for a
service dog from a psychiatric service
dog training program they will subject
you to certain rules or requirements
these rules or requirements vary
depending on the program you apply to a
good example of some common requirements
can be found on the k9 partners for life
eligibility policy which we'll link in
the description now the cost of getting
a psychiatric service dog through a
professional training program these
costs vary depending on which service
dog organization you contact the average
cost for a psychiatric service dog can
run between twenty to thirty thousand
dollars which is obviously very
expensive the high price reflects the
time effort resources and amount of work
that goes into training an assistance
dog that will be specialized for you
specifically and is essential and custom
tailored for your condition and
lifestyle this may seem like a lot of
money but programs often spend much more
than this to devote 600 plus hours to
training a dog providing boarding for a
dog and providing vet care the second
option training your own service dog
it's possible to save money by training
them yourself however it's challenging
to undertake something that requires an
extreme level of dedication and many of
the criteria required by the
professional training programs it'd be
best if you also kept in mind that
training your own service dog will
require a lot of discipline time and
obviously like i said dedication again
if you are someone who suffers with
depression or anxiety you may not be
able to partake in hundreds of hours of
training a service dog so let's talk
about what type of dog can be a
psychiatric service dog certain
characteristics make them good
candidates while many dogs possess these
characteristics a few breeds tend to
display them more regularly so they
favor service dog work when assessing
the animal suitability for service dog
work is important considering the
following questions are they capable of
carrying out the tasks that are required
of them to help their owner are they
trainable do they have a high
frustration threshold do they have a
desire to please is this dog free from
signs of personality flaws that may
impact their ability to perform their
job are they free from signs of genetic
or physical illness that would impact
their ability to perform their job is
the dog people centered are they
distracted by excessive drive or energy
do they get easily distracted are they
loud reactive or timid when faced with
unfamiliar overwhelming situations are
they in their senior years senior dogs
often experience a physical toll of age
that can influence their ability to
perform tasks in a reputable training
program will not invest the money into
training a dog that will only provide a
service for a short period of time the
cost of training your own psychiatric
service dog can cost from a few thousand
dollars to twenty thousand dollars this
figure depends on the type of dog you
select as well as how much time you
invest in training just like service dog
programs do you'll want to ensure that
you choose a physically healthy and
psychologically sound dog to begin
working with the best place for that is
likely to be a legitimate breeder from
there you'll invest in training
beginning with the basics and work your
way up to teaching specialized skills
that are tailored to your needs now
let's talk about the emotional support
dog they're slightly different from the
previously mentioned psychiatric service
dogs still many things apply to this
category of animals as well esas can be
viewed as a second tier of assistance
dogs for these specific mental health
conditions in some ways for individuals
who do not qualify for a psychiatric
service dog emotional support dogs can
still provide comfort in times of
distress an emotional support dog is a
lesser choice because they cannot
perform the specific functions for their
disabled owner with mental health
conditions rather they are dogs that
provide comfort just by seeing by being
with a person so qualifying for
emotional support dog to officially
adopt a esa and for the dog to be
treated like an assistant's animal you
will need to have a doctor's
prescription in the words of my
assistant's dog incorporated to have an
emotional support animal a person must
have a confirmed diagnosis and be given
a prescription for an emotional support
animal by an overseeing doctor who
believes the pet will be of benefit to
the patient's mental health so getting
an emotional support dog if you're
looking to bring home a dog that can
provide this for you but you do not
require the specific assistance that
psychiatric service dogs can provide
some rescue organizations and breeders
do make a note of dogs within their
programs that would make great emotional
support animals usually you would find
that this is marked on the dog's
adoption profile of other breeders notes
if it isn't try contacting the rescue or
breeder directly and asking if they have
or can help you find a dog that suits
your needs so what makes a good
emotional support animal obviously the
purpose of adopting an emotional support
animal for anxiety or depression is
primarily to provide comfort the animal
in question must be good at providing
said comfort to its handler factors that
make dogs great support animals include
the size of your emotional support
animal may be a concern if you're
limited to in your physical activity if
you live in a tiny home or if you plan
to take your emotional support animal on
flights with you a good temperament is
necessary both towards you and other
people as well as overall health should
be a concern as it may limit your dog's
ability to provide emotional support so
how can emotional support dogs help with
anxiety and depression these dogs are
specifically trained to assist owners
with mental health conditions in many
ways providing comfort to their owners
by simply being with them which can
often be all a person with depression or
anxiety really needs some examples of
how service dogs do that include a
listening ear for anxious individuals
physical closeness for depressed
individuals calming tactile sensation to
detract from anxiety providing a reason
to get out of bed like walking the dog
feeding the dog for severely depressed
individuals now let's talk about some
requirements like psychiatric service
dogs there's no official licensing of
emotional support dogs by individual
organizations however as mentioned
earlier a person requiring an emotional
support dog and using esa's services
should have a prescription an overseeing
doctor that believes the pet will be a
benefit to the patient's mental health
all right that will do it for us here at
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