"""1 out of 5 people suffer from anxiety and over 1 in 10 people struggle with depression. In the US, depression is the leading cause of disabilities amongst people 15-44 years old. At Medical Mutts, the demand for Psychiatric service dogs far exceeds any other category of service dog. I’ll discuss some of the benefits and challenges related to training such service dogs, and explore, more generally, how our interactions with animals directly affect our mental health, whether we have a disability or not. Animals provide companionship of course and sometimes even specialized behaviors to help us. What we don’t always measure however, is how our training methods also affect our mental health. Through reinforcement-based training we can expand our social skills and heal our minds. Outline An epidemic of mental disorders Who is most at risk how does it impact someone’s life? Service dogs helping our veterans – a population with high suicide risk How does mental disorder impact our life? How do we select our dogs? From rescue to service dogs How do psychiatric service dogs make a difference? Companionship Managing the symptoms Alerting to the onset of an episode Trained behaviors to help Smelling our emotions The importance of training service dogs with R+ Impact on the quality of the SD Impact on the relationship Impact on the trainer/handler How training affects us The impact of human-animal interactions How service dog training with R+ helps inmates develop better social skills such as: patience, prioritizing another being's needs, learning the importance of clear communication, focusing on the positive, etc. The story of Caleb and Darcy"""

Sponsor:IAABC Foundation
Speaker(s):Jennifer Cattet

Contact:
 Email: courses@iaabcfoundation.org
 Web: https://iaabcfoundation.org/2023-animal-behavior-conference/