Anxiety Service Dog Tasks

Anxiety service dogs are specially trained dogs that help individuals who have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. These dogs complete specific tasks and provide guidance to their owners, allowing them to navigate their daily lives and feel relief from certain symptoms of their anxiety disorders. While every anxiety service dog is different and may be trained differently depending on their owner’s needs, there are several tasks that anxiety service dogs are expected to complete for their owners.

Our article gives you more details on anxiety service dogs and the tasks these companion dogs perform to help their owners.

What Is an Anxiety Service Dog?

An anxiety service dog is a type of psychiatric service dog that is trained to help an individual with an anxiety disorder, such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, or a specific phobia disorder. These dogs perform tasks that help to relieve the symptoms associated with these disorders or those that help an individual cope with their disorder on a daily basis.

Anxiety service dogs are highly trained, and these dogs are typically provided to individuals through a local or national organization specializing in training psychiatric service dogs for those in need.

Anxiety Service Dog Tasks

When you receive a service dog, the very last step in the training process is ensuring that the dog’s specialized skills can benefit your anxiety disorder and the specifics of your condition. This means that not every anxiety service dog will perform exactly the same tasks, though many of these dogs are trained in similar ways.

Examples of anxiety service dog tasks that your companion animal might complete include:

• Deep pressure therapy for grounding and calming. This involves the dog laying their head, paws, or body on their owner’s body
• Guidance into safe or quiet areas in the case of a panic attack
• Crowd control and acting as a buffer between their owner and others in public
• Providing alerts for oncoming panic attacks so their owner can prepare
• Retrieving phones or other items for their owner
• Bringing their owner medication daily or reminding their owner to take medication
• Interrupting disassociation or negative and self-harming behaviors
• Finding exits or searching rooms for their owner

As we mentioned above, this list is not comprehensive. If you need specific tasks completed by your dog for your anxiety disorder, you can discuss this with your dog’s training organization or a personal trainer.

Where Can I Get an Anxiety Service Dog?

Adopting an anxiety service dog can be a lengthy process, as you may need to join a waitlist or find an organization that trains psychiatric service dogs. This process isn’t quick, and a dog will typically need to be trained from birth to ensure they can complete the complex tasks required of an anxiety service dog.

In general, if you are looking to adopt an anxiety service dog, you will need to research local and national organizations. You can also speak to your medical provider for more details about adding a service dog to your treatment plan.

Can I Train My Own Anxiety Service Dog?

It is possible to train your own service dog, and many individuals choose this method to avoid the high costs and long wait times of adopting a fully trained psychiatric service dog. If you are planning to train your own anxiety service dog, you will need to make sure that your dog’s temperament and size are suitable for the tasks you need completed. For instance, you will not want a small dog if you need deep pressure therapy, guidance, and assistance opening or closing doors.

Consistent training and working with a professional trainer for more complex tasks can be helpful when it comes to training your own anxiety service dog.

Obtaining the Anxiety Help You Need

Dealing with an anxiety disorder is something that can impact your daily life, your ability to succeed at work or school, and your ability to enjoy yourself. A psychiatric service dog trained to help with an anxiety disorder is often a great way to relieve many of the symptoms of your condition and reduce your stress on a daily basis.

Speak to your medical provider if you believe an anxiety service dog will be a helpful and necessary addition to your anxiety disability treatment plan.