My dog is more aware of me than I am of myself

Dot at lectures: Katy, please explain.

Dot, a mini foxy red kettle dog cross, goes to university with her owner Katy Brownless, 29. In fact, she goes everywhere Katy goes. Dot, two and a half years old, is a registered mindDog, a psychiatric service dog.

Katy has severe complex post traumatic stress disorder and it was her counsellor who suggested the idea of a therapy dog. Katy had grown up on a farm with dogs and when she was little, she would run off when she was scared and hide in the bush with one of her dogs.

To become a registered mindDog, Dot had to pass the organisation’s strict criteria and assessment. Katy had only one session with a trainer to help her prepare herself and Dot for the assessment and the rest of Dot’s training came naturally.

Katy says Dot is very attuned to Katy’s body language because she reared her since Dot was eight weeks old.

“She can read my mood very well. She knows when I'm anxious, knows the early warning signs when I’m about to have a seizure. I just watch her body language. She becomes very uneasy and then I reflect on myself and take my medication.

“Sometimes when I have my anxiety attack, she will jump on my lap and become very attentive but when I have had other dissociative episodes in the past, she keeps a small distance from me, like she's quite wary. She doesn't recognise me when I'm someone else.”

Describing their relationship, Katy says Dot is everything to her.

“I wrote a poem about how she may not realise that she's the reason I'm still alive, the reason I get out of bed when I just want to curl up and die. Because I know that she needs me. She needs me to look after her, to feed her. I’m her mum. She's my substitute baby. I've looked after her as if she's my real baby.”

Katy says she has a mothering instinct. She wants to nurture Dot and in return, Dot gives her love and affection. 

Which she aptly demonstrates; while Katy is talking, Dot is all over her back. 

It's her way of preening me

“She’s showing she loves me; she’s nibbling my back, making sure I have no fleas,” Katy laughs, adding, “It’s her way of preening me. She’s mothering me, she’s looking after me. She’s giving me a cuddle.

“The main thing for me is if I start to feel funny, and distant from reality, Dot will also become a little distant from me. She will not run away but will look strangely at me. 

“Then I know it’s not just my imagination playing tricks on me. When my baby doesn’t recognise me, it’s like she knows there’s something wrong.

“It’s the same with the early onset of me having a seizure of epilepsy and there are  warning signs. But I didn’t train her to detect those. It’s just an animal’s instinct; that something in the atmosphere has changed, something in my body language or whatever dogs can sense. Something has changed and I take that as a warning sign. Sometimes she's more aware of me than I am aware of myself.”

Katy thinks using dogs in therapy is an awesome idea, such as for young offenders coming out of juvenile justice where they are paired with working dogs that teach them a sense of responsibility and accountability, and the same also for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients. 

“I know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with night terrors and flashback and Dot is my go-to girl; she is a real comfort 24 hours a day,” she says.

Dot is low maintenance, says Katy. Pet insurance costs her a dollar a day and a kilo of chicken wings sets her back three dollars each week; and there’s also dry food, all quite manageable on her budget. She also goes to Pets in the Park which provides free vet care for disadvantaged pet owners. They vaccinated and desexed Dot free of charge.

BYO dog

The mindDogs organisation does not provide dogs and operates strictly on a BYO, bring your own dog, basis.

According to the organisation, anyone wanting a mindDog must have a recognised psychiatric disability and provide documentation from a health practitioner. They choose their own dog and are responsible for training them. 

MindDogs Org will assist people to undergo the process of accreditation through Delta trainers to enable dog and owner to pass the Public Access Test (PAT).

The mind of a mindDog

The organisation says mindDogs are service dogs, not therapy animals or assistance animals. These dogs provide a service to their owners, either by facilitating public access for them, or responding to changes in their owners’ condition. For example, the dog can be trained to respond to panic attacks, or assist in reminding their owners to take their medication, or provide space around their owners by circling round them.

Any dog can become a mindDog, even a chihuahua. It all depends on temperament, need, response to training, rather than breed.

Service dogs are helping many returned war veterans with their PTSD all over the world. Below is an extract of a letter from a US veteran to his dog, Gunner, in Robin Layton’s book, A Letter to My Dog - Notes to Our Best Friends.

“Dear Gunner, you entered into my life at such a trying time. I had just returned from a year in Iraq. The world I had known before, my entire life, no longer existed….I felt my world was falling apart around me and I didn't know why. I didn’t feel safe anywhere. I had recurring nightmares that bothered me long after they had ended. I desperately needed help….And then you arrived and gave me hope. You have my back everywhere and make me safe in places I once avoided. You remind me every day that there is good in this world and that there is love…” Chet Frith, US Navy, Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Florida.