Mother to Mother

Mother to Mother July 4, 2016 

San Diego, California.

Mavis H. MacDowell

Sources for this article are;  Scientific American Mind May/ June  2015 ‘Why we love pets and why they love us, the science behind the bond.’  Neurology Now; February/ March 2016  ‘Healing Tails’  Scientific American  2016 ‘ Cross Species Bonding’ and ‘How Dogs Think’ by Immanuel Birmelin   plus articles from  the Las Vegas Review Journal.

                Some things I have learned while trying to train  a puppy for  my son with TBI include  how unique  this relationship is between an uncomplicated brain and one that injuries have given limitations to. It’s difficult to detect the nuances of emotion a human face tries to hide for someone who has been injured. Having a relationship the veteran can understand and rely on can make all the difference.

                The trainer may need to emphasize how the dog shows, fear, aggressiveness, hunger, thirst, excitement, jealousy and bonding. Also the dogs partner will have  to  be taught  all the things he needs to do for  his/her dog.  Proper nutrition and grooming are only part of it. We have 1 dog afraid of storms and fireworks. She has to be wrapped in a ‘thunder coat’ and held inside. The  other dog happily runs around in the noise and flashes.

                The Review Journal had an article recently about a vet who had been deployed  to Afganistan 12 times and had multiple TBIs. He had a dog but couldn’t  pull his life together until he trained a dog for another veteran. Another article by Steve Dale talked about rescue dogs being paired with veterans with PTSD. According to the VA 22 veterans a day commit suicide. Veterans with  a  service dog having much lower suicide rates.  Tracy Libby is  the author of; Reporting for Duty: True  Stories of Wounded Veterans and their Service  Dogs .   Another RJ article featured therapy dogs  brought into the VA hospital in Las Vegas. And the positive effect on the chronically stressed staff as well as the veterans.

                I wish to differ with the trainers who want you to start  taking  your puppy to classes at 6 to 8 weeks old.  For my Doberman puppies and I it was a waste of time to start  too early. The trainers made money but the puppies were confused and I was frustrated. Socialize the puppies early but don’t start formal classes for anything until there are about six months old. Walk them, love them, take them for a rides, play with them teach them what you can at home.

Our puppy is now a year and a half, for treats she will sit, Leave it, speak, fetch, give it, stay, go to bed,  lay down, and shake. She instinctively watches and knows when one of us needs a hug. She doesn’t walk perfectly with us. She is not a barker or  aggressive and she only pointed to the snake that  came to my back door. So I’m pretty happy with her behaviors that were mostly  taught from an old woman who didn’t know what she was doing only that she wanted a service dog for her son.