Annie & DJ Piddles
Obsidian DeLeau, MA – WYGC Child and Family Therapist
Heidi Ackzen, BHT – WYGC DDD Liaison and Case Management
Service Animal Defined by Title II and Title III of the ADA – A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Titles II and III of the ADA makes it clear that service animals are allowed in public facilities and accommodations. A service animal must be allowed to accompany the handler to any place in the building or facility where members of the public, program participants, customers, or clients are allowed. Even if the business or public program has a “no pets” policy, it may not deny entry to a person with a service animal. Service animals are not pets. So, although a “no pets” policy is perfectly legal, it does not allow a business to exclude service animals.
West Yavapai Guidance Clinic has two service animals, Annie and DJ Piddles, who work to provide support to our clients.
DJ Piddles is a service dog specifically trained to support a person living with Autism Spectrum Disorder or an anxiety disorder working with her handler.
She is trained in the following tasks:
- Repetitive Behavior / Stimming Interruption
- Assistance with Meltdowns / Overstimulation
- Deep Pressure Stimulation
- Kinetic Engagement
- Tactile Grounding
- Crowd control/personal space
Many times, DJ Piddles has been asked to support one of our clients when they are having a hard day and often will be called to assist in a crisis assessment to help keep an individual grounded. There is one client specifically, that would work towards his goals to earn time to walk DJ once a week and over a course of 2 years the client was able to stay out of an inpatient setting after many years of needing higher levels of care.
Annie is a service dog whose job is to task for her handler/owner. However, Annie also adds enrichment to the lives of the children in our services. Recently we had a success story that our client would like to share. He wishes to be called Oscar for the sake of this telling. Oscar is a young man who began to experience psychosis that had taken a quick, frightening downturn. He was in our office’s when he started to have a command hallucination directing him to hurt a staff member and to hurt himself.
As a result, he was taken to a local hospital for assessment. At the hospital Oscar was very frightened to go inside, stating that the voice was telling him that “something very bad” was going to happen to him if he were to enter. The hospital staff were kind enough to triage him outside, and to gain permission for Annie and her handler to go into the hospital room with Oscar and his grandmother. While waiting for a room, Oscar continued to hallucinate and Annie would not go far from him, sitting with him and letting him pet her head and ears. He was able to calm himself enough to go into the ED room and have the social worker assess him.
While in the room Annie jumped up on the bed with Oscar and let him hold her. When this happened Oscar’s BP dropped 20 points. He was able to stay calm and the voice subsided without medication intervention. Oscar then had a successful transfer to a psychiatric hospital where his needs were met and he has reintegrated to his home and continues in services with WYGC.
Service animals can only be dogs or miniature horses and are not pets. ONLY service animals have 100% access with their handler. There are a limited number of questions that can be asked regarding the animal’s services to protect one’s privacy and are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Service animals are different from working animals, therapy animals and emotional support animals. Working animals are those we see working with law enforcement, cancer detection, search and rescue, etc.
These working animals do not have full access and are not covered under the ADA. Therapy animals are trained animals that go into situations and provide comfort to others. They are not protected under the ADA and do not have full access. Emotional support animals provide their specific owner with comfort but are not trained to provide a specific task or duty for a disability.
WYGC is fortunate to have these service dogs to help, aid and soothe people in their daily lives — and offer companionship to boot.
