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\nWe already know that having dogs in our lives makes us feel better. Studies and surveys back this up. Pets are good for <\/span>your heart<\/span><\/a>, your mind and your general well-being. They even <\/span>help you make friends<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
But my dog has saved my life. <\/span><\/p>\n I struggle with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. My life has been very hard sometimes.<\/p>\n My dogs would come to me when I had bad days, would snuggle with me, would give me attention. Their unconditional love comforted me and got me through.<\/p>\n Having\u00a0ESA’s (emotional support animals)\u00a0was beyond helpful for my anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n There was more they could do for me, though.<\/p>\n I had been a dog trainer for 12 years, but when I began to struggle with mental health, I stopped training. I was too tired, too busy, too sad.<\/p>\n But one day I heard about psychiatric service dogs. I began to feel hopeful. What if a service dog could help me?<\/p>\n I started training again.<\/p>\n And I learned something\u00a0from doing that – before I ever trained my dog to do anything for me<\/p>\n I learned that just training, just having a goal to train each day, (even for 5 minutes) made me feel better.<\/p>\n Having a small routine with a small goal linked to it helped me feel less lonely, less of a failure and more hopeful.<\/p>\n I view my dogs as family members. They rely on me, I rely on them. I love them and I appreciate them.<\/p>\n Studies on dog\u2019s brains and behavior shows that they are really similar to us in a lot of ways. They see us as family members, they can read our body language and understand our tone of voice. Like us, they work best with positive reinforcement.<\/span><\/p>\n We are also connected – our brains both light up in the reward centers when we interact.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve found that training my dog reinforces this bond, this connection.<\/p>\n When I train my dogs and watch them learn something new, I feel like I helped them. I feel like we had fun together. I also feel good about myself, for accomplishing something. This leads to feeling less annoyed with my dogs, because we worked together.<\/p>\n The other wonderful thing about training is that it makes your bond with your dog stronger\u00a0as\u00a0 they begin to behave better. You have a lot more happy thoughts about a well-behaved dog.<\/p>\n A dog that\u2019s getting trained every day is a happy dog. A person who trains every day is happy because their dog behaves well and they\u2019re spending time with someone they love, doing something fun.<\/p>\n The time spent training together can be a very special and happy space, as long as it\u2019s approached positively and isn\u2019t allowed to get to frustration.<\/p>\n When I learned what tasks were, things shifted even more.\u00a0<\/span>(Tasks are work that a dog does to help make\u00a0a disability\u00a0easier to deal with.)<\/p>\n The lightbulb didn\u2019t really go off until later. You don\u2019t have to have a fully trained service dog to have a dog do tasks for you. An ESA or family dog or service-dog-in-training can do tasks at home!<\/p>\n You don’t even have to have a disability to train your dog to help you with anxiety (or other mental health issues.)<\/p>\n Can I tell you how very, very helpful this was? Training my client’s dogs to do tasks first is a no brainer now.<\/p>\nTraining my Dogs Gave Me Purpose<\/h2>\n
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\nTraining My Dog Made Me Feel Connected<\/h2>\n![\"Task](\"http:\/\/servicedogs.comehereboy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/adorable-animal-canine-1097551-195x300.jpg\")
Training My Dog to Do\u00a0Tasks Helped Most of All<\/h2>\n