Tiny service dog heals Hampshire Marine

[AbbyK9]

A slightly better PTSD Service Dog article than most. This one actually talks about some of the tasks the dog does.

Tiny service dog heals Hampshire Marine - DailyHerald.com

Chloe’s job is to sense when Sauer is aggravated, angry and stressed then to distract him from those feelings and keep him in check by forcing him to pay attention to her.


For example, Sauer has nightmares every night about combat.


When he’s having a nightmare, Chloe, who usually sleeps with him, will feel his legs twitching and nudge and cuddle with him to wake him up. He’ll pet her, and that will take his mind off the nightmare and help him get back to sleep.


If Sauer feels irritated at any point during the day, all he has to do is order Chloe to “lay,” and she’ll jump up on him and press her body into his while he strokes her, putting him in his happy place. She also protects Sauer’s personal space by standing between him and other people.

However ...

Chloe has been in Sauer’s life for nearly three months and is helping to fully integrate him back into society. He and Chloe still go twice a week for training.

I don't think three months of training is enough for a Service Dog. In my humble opinion.

[KZoppa]

Very sweet story. I think the fact they attend training and Chloe's temperment seems appropriate and she does what he needs her to do to calm him, its a score. Time frame doesnt make a big difference to me because she's doing the job she's supposed to do.

[Lin]

3 months is definitely not enough. It's not possible to train the required advanced obedience, public access,, and service tasks in that time frame. Even with heavy duty training, after only 3 months you couldn't consider everything learned as fully proofed.

I didn't read the article since I'm on my phone though. So I don't know if the 3 months was total, or there was some training before he acquired the dog 3 months ago. I am glad like you to see a psd article address actual tasks!