Above: Lennie’s ‘signature’ behavior–he goes to the refrigerator, opens the door, and gets a bottle of water for me upon request. Notice his persistence; the water was in the back of the refrigerator and difficult to get. He just does not give up! At times, the door closes on him, so he pushes the door open and resumes. This is actually the compilation of four difficult ‘tricks’ to which he has added many others. He also gets my insulin from the frig when I ask.LennieDawg.net is a website devoted to supporting the idea of Service Dogs for people with disabilities, trained by the person with a disability, a family member or someone close to you who is willing to do it. Of course, the techniques shown here will apply to nearly all disabilities, and unfortunately, bed-bound people will likely not be able to train a dog themselves. If you are bed-bound or otherwise unable to train a dog, perhaps someone in your environment will do it for you. If you buy a service dog, they have a hefty pricetag–about $50,000.00. That makes sense, since their training takes continual supervision and training for a year or more.
Given that neurological disorders–all 600+ of them–see NINDS— have as a commonality severe, unrelenting fatigue, exercise intolerance and major sleep issues, you still may be able to train your dog slowly over time. Whatever disability you have–Post-Polio Syndrome, Huntington’s disease, Hydrocephalus, Encephalitis, Multiple Sclerosis, Migraine Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Syndrome, Parkinson’s Disease, or another neuro disorder, you suffer from moderate to severe mobility issues as well as a host of other symptoms and signs. The wide variety of disabilities points to a need to tailor various aspects of the dog training to one’s diagnosis. We are therefore devoted to finding the best types of training for every disorder. Dogs are amazingly amenable to training and helping their human; I never cease to be amazed about how much they want to help. Lennie Dawg has been trained for the particular neurological issues in viral encephalitis (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Syndrome), chronic fungal meningitis, FHM (familial hemiplegic migraine) and Diabetes, but he could be easily trained for other disabilities as well.Regardless of the medical support one has, day to day living is extremely difficult for people with disabilities due to the limitations placed on the individual who has a disability, or multiple disabilities. Here, I offer training to the human so the person with the disability can train his or her dog. I hope this website accomplishes just that.Marcie Zinn, Ph.D.
p.s. Dog training tip: you must be direct with your dog. Ignoring him, saying long sentences to explain “why” or “why not” will never work. You must stick with very basic commands and say them the same way every time, using emotion in your voice to convey approval or disapproval.
