We've been incredibly blessed to work with dogs in a therapy, emotional support and service dog setting. We have learned a great deal about dog communication through the dog's themselves... they are the best teachers. But, we have learned the most from Ricochet. She is very obvious in her communication. And, even though most dogs are more subtle, like the raise of an eyebrow or the flick of an ear, the more observant you are, the more you will see. Each dog may have an individualized way of canine communication. Some may sniff or lick a person. Some may lay their head on your lap, or become antsy. But, when you listen to your companion animals, you gain a greater sense of their healing abilities. |
A good example of perceived misbehavior, is our pup, Cori. In this video, it appears she is trying to bite the inflatable swim ring around the child's neck. We could think its bad behavior because she would pop it.
Then, Cori tries pulling the child out of the pool by the flipper. Again, we could interpret her behavior as bad. But, what if Cori is actually trying to tell us something? When we look at the behavior, we see a dog who is trying to get the child out of the pool. What's really happening here is... this particular child had a seizure during one of her lessons with Cori. Now it appears Cori is trying to keep her safe. And/or, she could have been alerting to an oncoming seizure. We were all on high alert. |
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In this video, Cori's behavior could be interpreted as bad. A barking dog.
When she sees the child go down the slide, she jumps in the pool to make sure he's ok. Then she stands on the deck watching the other child in the pool. Her eyes keep darting from one child to the other. Her facial expressions and body language show concern. It's like she thinks it's not safe for the kids to be playing around like this. Her anxiety escalates, and she starts barking. Since she was getting stressed herself, I removed her from the situation. She's still a young pup, learning how to communicate without getting anxious herself, so I'm still monitoring her responses. |
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Because dogs are naturally hypervigilant, service members don't need to be. Which takes a lot of stress off them. Dogs are aware of way more than the service members anyway. More aware than any of us! We just have to allow dogs to do their thing and stop trying to tell them what to do. They already know! Ricochet is a certified goal-directed therapy dog with Paws'itive Teams and Naval Medical Center San Diego's canine therapy program. Over a six week period, active duty service members with PTSD handle therapy dogs while re-entering the community for two hours at a time. The locations are dog friendly, or special permission is given by business owners. |
Hypervigilant service members don't typically sit with their back to the door. They want to be in a position where they can see everything that is going on.
This service member is sitting with his back to the door because he has Ricochet with him. She chose to lay behind him to see what he can't see. Although she's lying down, she is aware of everything around them. She continuously touches his hand to let him know she's there, and "has his back". This behavior reduces the service member's anxiety. If something were to change in the environment, her behavior would change to let him know, such as standing up. |
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Kids with autism are masters of listening and communicating with dogs... and they don't need words.
8 year old West was terrified of boating so his mom asked if Ricochet might be able to help. As soon as we walked out the back door toward the boat, Ricochet stopped and planted. I could tell by her body language that she was mirroring West’s fears and anxiety. I coaxed West to take one step at a time as he held Ricochet's leash. After many times of taking one step forward and five steps back, he finally got into the boat. West continued to be anxious, but after a while, Ricochet’s presence calmed West down. Then West lay back against Lauren’s chest and closed his eyes. He asked us all to be quiet so he could sleep. For many kids with autism, excessive noise makes for too much stimulation, and sometimes it’s overwhelming when too many people are talking at once. By quieting our voices, West could feel the sense of calm emanating from Ricochet. I think West knew on a subconscious level that he needed to concentrate on feeling Ricochet’s energy. As we all sat quietly, it was like a switch had flipped in West. Lauren’s dad unexpectedly untied the ropes of the boat from the dock, and West didn’t flinch. Fortunately, the boat is electric, so Lauren’s dad turned it on quietly, and again, no response from West. He just lay against Lauren. Normally even putting the key in the ignition would cause West to become frantic, triggering a full-blown meltdown. Before we knew it, we were pulling away from the dock. Some kind of incredible communication was happening between Ricochet and West on a heart level. With grins on our faces, we all remained quiet and shared looks of amazement with one another. |