Service Dogs for Anxiety: What You Need to Know

Anxiety is our natural reaction in the event or presence of stress. It’s an emotion that triggers our fight or flight mechanism. While anxiety is an evolutionary advantage that ensures our survival as a species, unfortunately, it has also become one of the most common mental illnesses all over the world. The most common symptom of people with anxiety disorders is a panic attack.

The fact is, all of us have our own fears and we react to them differently. Some respond mildly or nothing at all while others do so in an extreme manner. And it’s sad to say that the majority of people who react extremely to their fears experience a panic attack longer and more frequently.

Fortunately, we have discovered employing psychiatric service dogs as a way to help people with anxiety and other forms of mental illnesses live independent lives. According to a 2020 study, psychiatric assistance dogs showed to greatly benefit people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Know more about psychiatric service dogs, their roles as companions for people with anxiety disorders, and the best dog breeds for psychiatric service.

What is a Psychiatric Service Dog?

A psychiatric service dog (PSD) is a sub-category of service animals trained to assist people with learning disabilities or mental illnesses. Instead of guiding the blind go from one place to another, alerting the deaf for auditory cues, or warning about incoming seizures, a PSD calms the person suffering from an episode of their mental disorder.

What Roles Do These Service Dogs Carry Out for People with Anxiety?

Even as a specialized subcategory of service animals, each psychiatric service dog undergoes a training program designed to help their future user based on the person’s psychiatric condition. Here are examples of the roles PSDs need to fulfill:

1. Detect incoming rapid negative mood changes in their users.
2. Interrupt a user’s negative behavior caused by a mental illness episode and encourage petting.
3. Provide relief until the episode has subsided.
4. Retrieve medications and other essential objects a user cannot under an episode.
5. Call for additional human assistance if their user’s episode is severe and life-threatening.
6. Accompany their user at all times.

Service Dog Breeds for Anxiety

Not all dogs can make it to be psychiatric service animals. There are some canine breeds favored for their high trainability, temperament, and the level of affection they can provide to their users. Some examples of these dogs are:

• Great Danes - Despite being large dogs and bred for hunting boars, Great Danes are very calm, making them one of the best choices for an anxiety-PSD. They are best paired with men or bigger and stronger people in general.
• Retriever Dogs - Gold, Labrador, or Brindled, it doesn’t matter what type of retriever there is — they are friendly, cuddly, and highly trainable. 
• Boxers - Appearance isn’t everything and Boxers prove that. Even for a medium-sized dog with an indifferent expression, Boxers are strong, energetic, and tolerant. They can quickly hop to their users’ laps to stop any negative behaviors.
• Standard Poodles - Like Retriever dogs, Poodles are highly intelligent and friendly. What makes them different from the former is that they don’t cause allergies and asthma, making them ideal PSDs for sensitive people.
• Mini Schnauzers - Known for being well-mannered and alert, Mini Schnauzers are the most behaved and focused dog breeds to accompany a user outside their home. They’re also the best at warning other people in the house of a possible panic attack.

Conclusion

PSDs are more than a best friend who’s there to help you and offer comfort when you feel like the world is out to harm you or everything is lost. They are also life-savers. A person having a PSD can live a happy, healthy, and independent life. Do you know someone who needs a psychiatric service dog? Talk them into getting their own today!

Read more about assistance animals here:

• How to Train Your Dog to Become a Therapy Animal
• 6 Rules of Etiquette When Being Around Service Animals
• Why Do Miniature Horses Make Great Service Animals? 5 Reasons Why
• 8 Things You Should Bring While Traveling with Your Service Animal
• Psychiatric Service Animal vs Emotional Support Animal: What’s the Difference?

Do you own an assistance animal? Register your pet today.

The Service Animal Registry of California invites you to have your assistance animal registered in order to designate its status. We also encourage you to take our online classes so you can be fully aware of your rights and gain more knowledge about your support animal.

Finally, we present to you our book entitled, “ASSISTANCE ANIMAL LAWS: LEARN YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING SERVICE ANIMALS, EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS, THERAPY PETS, AND OTHER DOGS, CATS, AND ASSISTANCE ANIMALS” to provide you with a complete education on assistance animals.

Purchase your copy of the book by clicking the image below.