I conducted an email interview with Deanna Hall of Wilderwood Service Dogs. I found this interview to be very informative and hope that you do, too. Here are the questions and answers from the interview.
1. What goes into training a service dog to work with an autistic individual?
It generally takes a year to train a service dog. In order to train a dog for a child on the Autism Spectrum, we spend hours reviewing video tape provided by the families, going over medical charts, talking with the child’s therapist and doctors to determine what issues we need the dog to assist with. Some of our children need quiet dogs to help calm them. Some need more energetic dogs to bring them out of their shells. Each dog is trained for the specific needs of each child. No two children on the Autism Spectrum are the same and none of our dogs are trained exactly the same.
2. What are the dogs trained to do for them?
Our dogs interrupt stimming behaviors such as hand flapping. We will teach the dog that every time the child flaps his hands, to nuzzle underneath the child’s hands to redirect the focus from flapping to petting the dog instead. We have had children that have completely eliminated such stimming behaviors as a result of this constant interruption by the dog. We teach our dogs a snuggle command to assist with meltdowns. The dog will literally put his head between the face and shoulder of the child and snuggle in when the child is melting down. This results in an immediate response of the child and they will begin to pet the dog and refocus their attention from the meltdown to the dog. We had one mother write us and tell us her daughter has gone from 20 meltdowns a day to 2 in the last YEAR!!! We have a take-down command that we use that tells the dog to do whatever it takes to get stop that child and protect that child by standing over the child and not letting the child up. This is used in situations where a child may be darting into traffic or running into something dangerous. No matter how hard the child kicks, pulls hair, or attempts to get away, the dog will not let the child up because if he does, the child could be killed. It is a very serious command, but very important for children that are flight risks. For children that wake up and wander the house during the night, we can teach the dog to notify the parents the child is awake and up. If a child is having a meltdown and is laying on the floor and not getting up, we have a “Bring it here” command to tell the dog to bring the child to the parent regardless of what the child is doing, kicking or screaming or whatever…the child comes.
The most fascinating part of what our dogs do for our children doesn’t come from the specific commands we teach them. These families and their children are often seen as “bad parents” or as having children that “need a spanking”. When these children are out in public with their dog, it is now obvious that there is a disability and empathy is extended by those around them. People will now come, lean down and talk face to face with a child that under any other circumstances would have been ignored, at best. Now this child gets the opportunity to learn and practice socialization skills that never would have developed without the introduction of this furry, four-legged friend. This child goes from, oftentimes, being ostracized at school to being the most sought out kid in the school because NOW this child has a dog. We have teachers reporting that the dog has not only benefitted the child, but has strongly impacted the entire classroom. This child who once had no control over anything, including his own body movements, is now deciding who can pet his dog and when. He is now able to command his dog and his dog will sit, lay down, give kisses and many other things from a simple command. This new best friend doesn’t care that his buddy has slurred speech, or can’t talk plainly. He loves his buddy for who he is where he is, unconditionally. How do you measure the impact of what it means to a classroom that a child that could only sit still for 5 minutes, now can sit for hours? How do you measure the impact on a community that now embraces a family rather than shunning them because of their “misbehaving child”? Wilderwood’s slogan is that we are “changing lives one dog at a time”. We aren’t changing one life at a time, we are changing lots of lives, all benefiting from one floppy eared, four-legged, sloppy kisses, friend.
3. How do you match up the right dog with the right individual?
Tiffany Denyer is our founder. She is a trained psychiatric nurse that uses her nursing skills combined with her incredible knowledge of dogs and chooses which dogs go to which family. She has the most uncanny ability to match dogs with the right child! We, as staff, at Wilderwood are always in awe how she makes the perfect match. She knows and understands the needs of the child based on all of her research and background work watching videos, reading over charts and talking with other providers. She knows and understands the ability of the dogs from all of her training and she brings the two together in a way that creates the perfect match for the child and the dog. The dog needs a specific kind of child to work for and the child needs a specific kind of dog and the two become a team.
One of my favorite stories is about a family that graduated. I met the mom and their service dog at an event and mom had brought the dog so I could see him, but didn’t bring the dog’s buddy. The dog was acting all out of sorts and I was very concerned. I leaned over and asked mom at one point “Does he act like this all the time”, worried that we may have a big problem on our hand if this dog was this out of sorts. She looked at me and said, “you won’t believe this, but this is the ONLY time he acts like this! When he is not with his little girl, he cannot get settled! He will only calm down when we get back home and he is back with his buddy!” That is a great example of the bond created between the dog and his child! These dogs LOVE to be working and they love to be with their child and when they aren’t with them, they are not happy!
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