Dogs or ‘man’s best friend’ are often categorized as compassionate, loving and loyal family members. They provide love to their owners and sometimes even offer support when going through a difficult time. Dogs can unknowingly lift the spirits of their owners, and due to their loving personality traits, they make a great candidate for emotional support.
Emotional support dogs or ESDs, are pets with a license from a mental health professional that states that the specific animal’s purpose is to assist with a mental health struggle. They provide comfort and care to their owner to help better manage symptoms, improve mood and regulate emotions. The difference between emotional support dogs and service dogs is important to note however. Service dogs require training and their main purpose is to work to help their owner with a disability, whereas emotional support dogs do not require any training and their main purpose is helping their owner with emotional support through anxiety, depression, panic attacks and more. In some cases, ESDs are even trained to help during panic attacks, and PTSD episodes by recognizing the signs. Another main difference to note between service dogs and ESDs is where the animals are legally allowed to be with their owner. For instance, service dogs are always with their handler and are legally allowed into certain establishments, like doctor's offices, grocery stores, restaurants and more, whereas ESDs may be prohibited.
Many different kinds of animals can be emotional support pets, but dogs are often the most popular. What makes dogs ideal candidates? Dogs are easily trainable, they can be very affectionate animals, they are rarely unhappy pets, and having constant positivity can subconsciously rub off. It is important to note however that not all pets are eligible to be an ESD.
Luckily for those without an ESD, STAR has our emotional support dog in training, Zeus! Zeus is an American Bulldog and Cane Corse mix! Despite that the American bulldog is not a traditional breed for emotional support, they are extremely intelligent and intuitive, highly adaptable, and they have tons of love to give which can make them into great ESDs. Zeus is an energetic, friendly and people-loving dog, and he loves playing frisbee, eating treats, cuddling and napping. While Zeus is still in training, he is not available for sessions, but fortunately, he does hang out at the office from time to time.
Owning an ESD sounds ideal, but they are not always the solution, merely a benefit. Like most forms of treatment, there is no one-fit-all solution. Simply having a dog is not going to be the answer to healing, but of course, having an emotional support dog doesn’t make things worse. There’s a reason they are called ‘man’s best friend’ and the fact that simply having them around improves someone's mental health seems to prove that.
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