Why don't they walk those dogs themselves?

 

"Why don't they walk those dogs themselves?"

It's a great question. You'd think that a teenager would be able to walk their dog by themselves. However when said teenager enters into emotional or sensory overload and need their Assistance Dog to redirect behaviour and assist in emotional regulation, said teenager, at that moment in time, cannot keep themselves safe yet alone an Assistance Dog.

There is absolutely nothing in either the Queensland Guide Hearing Assistance Dog Act or the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act, that states the minimum age of an Assistance Dog handler. 

But it's morally unethical to expect a teenager (or a child,) to be the handler for their Assistance Dog and keep themselves both safe when in emotional or sensory overload.

Both L and O are the primary handlers for Henry and Alaska and they are both very capable as handlers. But for the moment both Mum and Dad are the additional handlers.

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You'd think that common sense would exist when it comes to Assistance Dogs, but apparently not! Most of the time, people are respectful and ask the most amazing questions. But sometimes, people's are not respectful or polite.

So here are some stoopid things people say to our family....

"Oh I didn't see the coat!" Ummms I is a black Labrador with a red coat, my sister is black and white with an orange coat. Do you need to go to Specsavers? Twice this person came over with their dog to check that I had a coat on! What the fluffs man. Twice! Mums got cranky the second time.

"You don't look blind." I is an Autism Assistance Dog, not a guide dog. Mums even had a man say to her "it's okay, I'm just going to pat the dog." Mums was sitting down with sunglasses on and the man sat down next to her to pat me! I blocked without a command! Mum even had a lady verbally abuse her that Mum should give me to a sight impaired person who actually needs a guide dog.

"Do you really have to bring the dog in?" Yes because we help our children in many ways. And our public access rights are protected.

"They don't look disabled enough to need an Assistance Dog." My Dad says "and you don't look ignorant yet here we are." He has some good come backs!

So please don't be like these people. Please be respectful. 

Having an invisible disability is difficult enough, add in the unwanted rude comments, and life is much more difficult to navigate.

2023 Christmas Countdown

Christmas Countdown with Alaska and Henry!

In the lead up to Christmas, we participated in the daily prompts that In Paws We Trust were posting.

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Team Alaska

 

Excuse the dodgy photos! This may not look like much, but this is Alaska alerting me that something is amiss. She was jumping up next to me, having a good sniff, and then tapping my arms. If I ignored her, she'd get up into my face, and would push my arm away until she was sitting on it.

What is she alerting for? Not sure, my anxiety and heart rate were a little high, but she was making sure to let me know that I needed to take a break. 

Alaska has been doing this alerting behaviour since a few weeks after we brought her home. Back then, she wasn't sure what to do, other than tap to alert that something was amiss. 

Alaska picks on changes in O's, and in this instance, mine, volatile organic compounds. This is a natural behaviour in all dogs, but usually a dog jumping up is not a desired behaviour in a pet dog so this behaviour is deterred. For an assistance dog, it is a desired behaviour for alerting tasks.

Now, Alaska alerts O on a daily basis and will lay over O's lap (or like today, on my arms,) or will nudge O's arms and hands away from her body.

The tasking we've trained Alaska to do, the alerts Alaska is doing naturally 🥰

Assistance Dogs 101: Intelligent Disobedience

Now you've probably read the title of this post and thought, what on earth is that? How can an assistance dog be disobedient and intelligent at the same time????

Well, it's quite an amazing skill for an assistance dog to develop. At times, while an assistance dog is work mode, there are some skills, commands or tasks that we may not want the dog to obey. A really great example is a Guide Dog - they are trained in intelligent disobedience during their intense training before being placed. If the dog is given an unsafe command from their handler, for example to walk out onto a busy road, they are taught to disobey the command.

When a dog is taught intelligent disobedience they are taught to use their own judgement and not respond to the command or cue given by their handler if it is not safe to do so, ie: walking out into oncoming traffic.

In terms of cognitive thinking, an assistance dog who is taught an intelligent disobedient skill is using their cognitive behaviour and/or as they are thinking from their handlers perspective. An assistance dog, such as a guide dog, could easily obey the command and walk into oncoming traffic, but from the handlers perspective this is quite dangerous. The dog is able to understand this and interpret the environment around it at that given time.

During Henry's training he was taught an intelligent disobedient skill in that he was taught to ground himself when sitting at the edge of a road. As L holds his own leash that is attached to Henry, if L went to walk off without Henry being given the command to move forward, Henry will ground himself  to keep L safe.

We've witnessed this skill a number of times since Henry was placed with us back in 2021. The most impressive time was when we were on a family outing on the Sunshine Coast. We had just got out of our car and began to explore when L started walking towards the road. Henry pulled myself towards L, then got between L and the road and gently began nudging L back onto the grassed area. All without being given a command.

More recently we have seen both Henry and Alaska display intelligent disobedient skills, both without being taught.

Late last year we were up at a very large shopping centre with Alaska - it was Henry's day off as he'd had a busy week. Both L and Daddy Superhero were off having haircuts and I was doing some public access training with Alaksa.

Unbeknownst to me, my anxiety levels were rising and Alaska was picking up on the levels. I initially thought that Alaska was misbehaving as as we were walking, she would walk around the front of my body and stop in our path. What Alaska was in fact doing was showing her intelligent disobedience skills be alerting me that I needed to stop and take a break. I found a place to sit and Alaksa immediately lay over my lap to give deep pressure therapy. At the time I didn't realise just how amazing that skill was for Alaska. Now? Wow!

Henry has also shown us his intelligent disobedience skills late last year, While Daddy Superhero was in hospital recovering from his open heart surgery, Henry would regularly push myself, or one of the little superheroes to our couch at home and as soon as we'd sit down. Henry would lay on our laps providing deep pressure therapy.

The first occasion that Henry did this to me, I was attempting to give him the command of place, to redirect him to a mat in our lounge room. He was definitely disobeying that command as he recognised that I needed to sit.

And if witnessing an assistance dog showing it's intelligent disobedient skills isn't amazing in itself, the intelligent disobedient skills have no effect whatsoever on the dogs willingness to obey commands.

Henry, and Alaska, as well as other assistance dogs seem to readily understand that the refusal response to a command is expected and accepted of them when there is a potential hazard or obstacle in the path. For a dog, that is some really impressive cognitive thinking!

Team Alaska!

☆☆☆ ALASKA IS ONE ☆☆☆ 

This little pupper turns one today. She's a floofball of energy who loves to play but also loves to work.

While Henry has been the most amazing Assistance Dog role model and big brother to Alaska, Alaska has taught Henry how to be a puppy!!

She's cheeky when out of coat, but super serious in coat.

Alaska has already made a huge difference to O. Alaska also regularly alerts myself and Scott Petrey when we need to take breaks. She's also showing her intelligent disobedience skills, by stopping O (and us) when she detects changes in our VOC!!

And her public access skills are spot on, so the next phase is to make her bomb proof when we're out and about ❤️

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