Should aspies have service dogs?

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Yes, if they need one! I'm super excited because, if all goes according to plan, I will be getting mine next summer:D

Last edited by Tamsin on 24 Nov 2011, 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, I understand that, but my point was that it's purely psychological. Yes, it influences brain chemistry, but so do self calming techniques. It's in the mind itself, not in the body. If the person doesn't know the dog is there, they won't have the effect. If someone has a sedative or antianxiety med slipped to them without them knowing it, they will still get the physiological effects. If someone has the dog behind them without them knowing it, or next to them and are blindfolded, they won't still get the psychological effects.

I think what I was meaning to say is why not just go ahead and teach other ways to self calm which are less trouble and much less expensive upkeep than a dog? Having the dog around at first can teach a person that it's possible to have the psychological effect calm them, then teach them how to use other methods to calm themselves so that they don't have to have the dog.

Frances

Why not a pet lizard instead of, say, deep breathing vs. a Xanax? Well, wouldn't it depend partly on if you want to keep your disability information secret with a pill tucked inside your purse or by deep breathing quietly so you don't stick out too much vs. petting an engaging animal to help make an invisible disability become visible to others in a socially appealing way?

There are also other factors that are involved besides trying to hide any problems you have. Animals require upkeep, and thats time and money. It's much cheaper to learn another self calming technique. Some people do not like having animals in the house, so that could limit social visits to people who do. I know that even though we have a snake, I wouldn't want a lizard in my house that wasn't in a cage of some sort, even if it were trained not to go anywhere and get lost. I also have dogs of my own, and other pets, and my dogs would react very aggresively toward another dog who came into the house, even if it were a service dog.

As for making a problem visable, that would be up to each person to decide. Why is it a bad thing to not put everything out there for others to know about? Or did you mean that it was? I don't tell people that I have AS, it's not their business, and I'm perfectly content with them thinking I'm just wierd.

I suppose what I'm saying also is that something permenant, like a service dog, wouldn't help the person in overcoming their anxiety, it would only help them deal with it on an instance by instance basis. I could see having one for anxiety in the beginning, if theirs was so bad that they couldn't leave home, etc, and then "graduating" and using something easier, and then keep stepping down until the anxiety is rare, and when it occurs, they have ways to deal with it. It seems like a patch, rather than a fix.

Frances

aspies should have a pet, dog, cat, rabbit, parrot, horse, doesn't matter what kind, that should depend on the what this particular aspie likes. me, i love all animals. a regular dog is one thing, but a service dog is one trained such as a sight dog. autistic kids/grownups should be given a pet, but not a trained one, because every animal will do, so we might just buy it ourselves.
a dog can't teach me how to act in awkward social situations or how to read eyes or remember faces. he can't help me with this, so he'll not be a service dog but just a friend.

Not every aspie wants a pet. We have our pets because my kids and husband brought them home and whined until I said OK, or we bought a particular pet as a gift like the Giant Flemish Rabbit for my younger daughters birthday, and the Dwarf Hamster for my older daughter as a distraction the day she had all four wisdom teeth cut out at once. If I lived alone, I would be perfectly happy without ever having a pet.

Frances

I would absolutely love a service dog. It would help a lot with the loneliness and anxiety when going out alone

Yes, Olive Oil. Different strokes for different folks. One man's burdensome chore is another man's pleasure etc.

I suppose if everybody who wanted a helper animal had one, it would be good public relations for the quirky--by carrying the subtext, "We're here, we're quirky, we are many, get used to us."

Perhaps you could support this assertion in some way?

It seems a lot of people have this attitude that AS is always a mild diagnosis with at best mild consequences for the person who has it.

I have rabbits whom I adore, but you can't take them everywhere, they would get scared.
I took them to my psychiatrists once, though.
But yeah, I think that if a service animal helps then Aspies should be able to get one.

One of the ASD-related reasons for service dogs that I've heard of is crossing the street: some ASD folk have enough sensory stuff going on that they can't reliably judge distance, estimate speed, or even find the crossing signal (due to visual clutter/overload). Also, some get 'locked' (or overloaded) into what's 3 feet in front of them and walk into traffic without looking up (and might not even be able to make sense of what they saw if they did). So, a dog can notice the traffic and stop the person when it's not safe to cross.

And others are what "social signal dogs" do (service dogs specifically for autistics). I'm not big on the anti-stimming part, but that could be optional:

http://www.smcm.edu/tothepoint/policies ... imals.html

Yet a service dog can lead an aspie out of an overwhelming situation, react in ways that help calm meltdowns, alert to self injuring behaviors (as shown earlier in this thread), help with object detection/distance detection and more. There is more to being autistic, including being an aspie, than not knowing how to react eyes and such.

Service dogs can be trained to help with autism.

I think that having a dog can be really useful for aspies. I'm not sure whether aspies would generally benefit more from having a service dog or an emotional support dog though. I'm not sure exactly how the definitions and rules vary.

Dogs can be very soothing for aspies and they can help the person calm down and feel less stressed, they can prevent meltdowns or help the person feel better faster after a meltdown and do many other things that can help us function, depending on each person's needs.

I know that I would really benefit from having a service dog/emotional support dog, which could go with me everywhere and help me cope.

2 free dogs today

Sam is good with children, he is free too

heres another free Labrador, 'Dude' looks kinda staunch, probably good security