Dog Trainer Tim Frazier talks about what is a PTSD service dog and what it is not.

Hey, so coffee at the King's? But it's like in the afternoon nearly, so it's whiskey.

Yes.

Cheers.

Irish coffee.

Irish coffee.

Minus the coffee.

Minus the coffee. So part of what we've been doing is businesses and organizations have got behind our vision to get 10,000 books out to veterans and trauma sufferers by the end of 2019. And they've been just donating money to the cause. And in return, we want to highlight those businesses. So Tim and Robin run Grapevine K9, and Tim is probably just the best dog trainer that, that I've ever, ever met. He's a great friend, probably one of my closest, and a great dog trainer. So we wanted to just to talk about today about service dogs and some of the things that Tim's seen, because there really is a difference between A dog, a pet, a service animal, a service dog. So would you mind taking us through some of that stuff?

Yeah, I'd be happy to. The service dogs are— it's one of those things that the federal law is very specific and very vague at the same time. A service dog is an animal that performs a medically necessary task for a person that they can't do for themselves. A lot of people get confused about service dogs versus emotional support dogs versus therapy pets. And the service dog industry, so to speak, is, is one of the most abused industries there is. You have lots of people just get on the internet, get a vest for their dog that says service dog, and the main reason they do that is so they can force airlines to allow them to take that dog with them anywhere they go.

They're not paying for a crate. Yeah, right.

But, uh, but really, and a lot of the airlines and a lot of hotel managers, uh, have really gotten savvy to, uh, those kind of scams where somebody just paid money and got entered on an online database, you know, that's run by private companies. There is no federal registry for service dogs.

Okay.

Um, all these places where they say they'll enter you in a national database, that national database is really just that company's database that they cover nationwide. But anyway, a service dog has to be— the Americans with Disabilities Act says that a service dog, a service animal, number one, has to be a dog.

Oh, okay.

So you can't have a service pony, a service peacock, you know, a service parrot. It has to— it's defined as a dog, a canine. And it has to perform a medically necessary task.

So what sort of things would be a medically necessary task?

Well, for instance, somebody who has episodes, medical episodes, where they need a specific medication. A lot of times— I trained one service dog that actually can detect pheromones that are released in a patient when she has the— she's beginning to have the onset of a Debilitating migraine headache.

Wow.

And that dog automatically, when he smells that scent, he goes and gets her medicine bag. And she will— she will— if she takes her medication before that migraine actually hits full force, that medication will keep that migraine from hitting. She doesn't know she's fixing to have a migraine, but her body starts producing these pheromones early on, about 30 minutes before one hits. The other thing, for instance, like with your service dog that we trained, Hank, we've trained him to reduce your anxiety in public situations because Hank is trained to basically be eyes in the back of your head.

Yep.

When you tell Hank, Hank, watch my back, Hank goes to the opposite side of you and he sits looking backwards behind you, and he lets you know if somebody's approaching from behind. Which forestalls you having, you know, a public meltdown or panic attack over—

Public meltdown? Only a mate can tell you you have a public bloody meltdown.

Well, and—

Public meltdown works.

Yeah, but that's, that's kind of— that's a medically necessary task. It helps you function better in public if you're having one of those days, you know. As you know, if you've got a condition like PTSD, some people suffer from hypervigilance, which I know is one of your deals. You're You're, you know, a lot of times you start getting stressed in public. You're worried about who's around me, what's going on behind me, and all that.

Yep.

When your dog is being those eyes in the back of your head, that anxiety is reduced. So that's, that's really 2 kind of very different but specific incidents or ways that you can train a dog to be a service dog. Of course, the other thing service dogs have to be very obedient. They've got to be reliable, you know, in public. They've got to be calm and cool, you know, around strangers and crowds and things like that. So it takes a very special dog. And in your case, you know, we kind of ended up with a Goldilocks effect where you and Hank just made the perfect team.

Yeah.

You know, for a service dog handler and service dog. But that's, that's kind of in a nutshell and really brief, the simple explanation of what a service dog is and some of the things that you can— that service dogs— and it can go all the way up to service dogs that cost tens of thousands of dollars for that, have to do multiple very complex tasks, like service dogs for the blind that have to be watching and stopping their handler from crossing a street when there's traffic coming.

Yeah.

Service dogs that pull wheelchairs, service dogs that are trained to go and open the refrigerator and get a food container out, things like that. So it can be very simple tasks all the way up to very, you know, complex tasks that take years of training.

I was just, um, one of the things that I find a challenge when I go out, and I— Tim and I have been talking, Hank, Hank is a phenomenal dog. He really is. He was Yeah. One of those connections with, with a dog. I've never had a dog like Hank. I've never had a dog so intelligent. Um, and I've just noticed recently I've stopped taking Hank out a lot. And a lot of it's to do with my personal level of anxiety of going out and being in a situation where you get all these people just because he's such a good looking dog. One of the challenges I have on And I've found this with the service dog, that it's not— they're not a cure-all. They're not some sort of magic blanket like Linus. It gives me something else to focus on except for what I might be dealing with. So, and I think that because you've got someone else to care for, something else to focus on, and it sort of takes your mind off what might be a stressful situation.

Mm-hmm.

But one of the things I've noticed is I go out there and all these people want to pat Hank, touch Hank, talk to Hank. And it wears me out. So what does someone do? You know, what should be the response from someone if they see that there's a dog and it's working? How does, how does that work?

Well, the number one thing is to always have a vest on your dog, which I know you do when you're out in public, that says no eye contact, no petting, no touching. Service dogs are not walking petting zoos. And when you've got a dog that is that is as gregarious and attractive as Hank, you're going to have that. People come, oh my God. And they're, you know, people forget how to read. You know, when they see a dog, they forget how to read. They don't read the signs. They don't read the signs. They totally, you know, are oblivious to this dog having all these placards all over it that say no eye contact, no touching, no petting, no talking. And they just— and a lot of times people won't even ask. They'll just go up and approach the dog.

Yep.

You have to kind of be firm. Well, you don't have to kind of. You just got to be firm in those situations and say, no, that's my service dog. He's working and he's not a walking petting zoo. Please, you know, don't interact with him and don't distract him because he's working. And the—

Mel's told me that I'm not allowed to tell people to piss off anymore. I've actually got to use words like Tim's saying. I want to get one of those t-shirts that says like, don't look, don't touch the service dog owner. I think that might help me a little more on that.

But, you know, in reference to what I said earlier about hotel owners, hotel managers, and airline folks, they see somebody walk up with a dog that has a service dog vest and they see that person is allowing strangers to come up and pet that dog and say hi and greet it and everything. That's a red flag right there. That's not really a service dog. You just slapped a vest on that dog and you're wanting to force us to allow you to let that dog fly and coach with you. So that's one of the first red flags. And like I said, and sometimes you do need to go to the level where you tell somebody, piss off. You know, you're not listening to me. You're not paying attention. I'm telling you, that's a working dog and you need to leave them alone.

And people get quite persistent. It's like they want to prove a point that they really love dogs or they really want to touch a dog. And what I've found is that if I'm in a situation like that, I'm getting more and more amped because now this, this dog that I care for very much, who is— I'm, I'm out where I am, I'm reliant and dependent upon him, is now being distracted. So I found that my anxiety levels go up, everything goes up. And I've gotten to a stage where, as I said before, I'm just not taking Hank out. And I'm going to have to address those issues. And Tim and I are going to be working on that over the next— 6 to 8 weeks, and we'll be filming some of that and showing you my progress and Hank's progress with that. But I think it's a very real thing that if you don't conquer that—

Yeah, and that's— a lot of people get service dogs, they go out a few times, and they decide it's counterproductive having to worry about dealing with all the public attention. You know, people just lose their minds when they see a dog out in public sometimes.

Yep.

And, and the stress of that becomes counterproductive, and having the service dog actually increases your stress, where the whole intent of having the service dog is to reduce your anxiety. And that's why you've got to learn to, to deal with those situations and figure out, is it real? Because having a service dog, there, there are things that people, you know, don't realize, but you got to carry a bag with you. You got to be able to pick up poop. Uh, your dog is still A dog. Yeah, he's still a dog. He's still got to pee. He's still got to take a crap. You know, all that good stuff you got to have. And every once in a while, just like humans, dogs suffer from, you know, they'll eat something that disagrees with them. And, uh, um, you know, we had an incident when we went to the International Motorcycle Show, uh, a year or so ago where poor Hank ended up with a bad case of, of the Hershey squirts.

And it wasn't Al's or Hank's problem. He just He'd eaten something that was on the floor.

Yeah.

And Hershey Squirts.

Yeah. And you, you've just got to be prepared for those and be, you know, those situations are going to come up. And it's no different than having a toddler, you know, a human toddler or something like that. You got to be prepared for those situations. The more prepared you are, the more confident you feel and the less anxiety you feel, and your dog can actually do his job of reducing your anxiety. The other thing is simply just doing it often enough that you're comfortable. One of the things that you can do if you have a good trainer or, or a friend who, who is willing to do it with you, if you feel anxious or stressed with taking your dog out, have that person— and this is one of the things I talked to you about us doing— we go out, I take Hank, I handle him.

Yeah.

Run the leash and all that. You take the leash whenever you want, but you have the confidence and you know the backup there of knowing you can hand it right back over to me if it starts to feel a little stressed. And that way you ease your way into working with Hank in public, and eventually you get to the point where the two of you are just in complete harmony. And it because as long as you're having to think about the fact that you have a service dog, that you got to pay attention, that you got to be. Protecting him from people and all that good stuff, you're just going to be increasing your anxiety and it's defeating the purpose. So once you get to the point where the two of you are in harmony and it becomes normal, you no longer feel that anxiety, your dog is no longer sensing that anxiety in you, and everything just kind of smooths out and it all gets better and you see the benefits.

Yep.

But that's a process and it takes time. We— none of us get all screwed up Typically in an instant. I mean, there are cases where you have instant trauma, but most of the time people have multiple incidents, multiple, uh, things that happen to them that cause conditions where, where we get all screwed up, and it takes time to recondition ourselves. The same thing with dogs and learning something new, you know, in a situation where you're going out in public with it, with a dog that you can take virtually anywhere and everywhere with you. And that's not always the easiest thing to do because of all the extra stuff now that you've got to worry about.

Yep, Tim is exceptional with what he does, and there's a difference between someone who can, um, you know, little whistle or doggy treats and, and teach your dog to hopefully sit for a moment, and, and someone who's dedicated his life to understanding the canine psychology And equipping those. Tim was a— worked with the police in the canine division before he went into corporate America, got out of corporate America and followed his passion to train dogs and is exceptional at it. And I just want to encourage you that that's the sort of training you need. If you're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, he's the man that you need to be getting hold of. All his information will be on the video. It'll be at the end of it as well. And I just encourage you, if you're looking for a good trainer, Particularly for a service dog, because not everyone will tell you they can do it. But from experience, not everybody can do it. And there's a difference between a you know a big box dog training gym that'll sell you a certificate and events, and someone who will actually say no to you, and he'll tell you no, that dog won't fulfill this task. That dog's incapable of it, or that dog's got to be able to do the following things before I sign off to it. And really, if you're serious about getting a service dog, you need someone like Tim Frazier and, um, Grapevine K9. Cheers, mate. Thanks.

Thank you, John.

That was great, mate.