Service Dogs for Children
From Service Dog Training
While I am a firm believer in the benefits that children can receive from owning a pet dog, I am also just as firmly against the current trend in service dogs for children. This article will be specifically talking about service dogs for children with autism or similar disabilities. Certain points will apply to service dogs for children with other disabilities, others will not.
Autism service dogs for children are generally advertised as having several benefits for children. Beyond the obvious benefits of gaining empathy for animals and learning responsibility, these dogs are said to reduce the risk of the child running away from the parent or caregiver, reduce repetitive behaviors, calming the child, preventing escapes from the home, and conducting search and rescue operations if the child should run away. News articles, websites, and organizations that discuss autism service dogs for children spend a lot of time discussing the benefits of having such a dog, but, as with anything, there are risks as well. These risks have largely been overlooked. It is important for the consumer of any medical treatment or device, including service dogs, to be fully aware of both the benefits and the risks of using that method to deal with a particular disability. This article will discuss the risks and problems that can be associated with placing an autism service dog with a young child. Please be an informed consumer.
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Tethering
The first, and generally primary, benefit usually given for an autism service dog for a child is reducing the risk of the child running away from the parent or caregiver and into some sort of danger (traffic, etc). This benefit is supposedly accomplished by attaching the child to the dog and then having the child's caregiver hold the dog's leash. This way, if the child tries to run off, the dog will hold still or lie down and restrain the child near the caregiver. This initially sounds like a good idea, however it poses several risks to the child and the dog. The first is a strictly practical consideration.
A service dog is usually placed at about 2 years of age, with a child who is generally between the ages of 2-12. Let's take an average 6 year old boy as an example. A 6 year old boy weighs about 45 pounds. A 2 year old Labrador Retriever weighs about 70 pounds. At this point (placement), the dog can probably hold the boy in place, though not without a significant amount of strain on the dog. Fast forward 5 years. The dog is now 7 and still 70 pounds. The boy is 11 and anywhere from 85-120 pounds. Assuming the child is in decent physical condition and reasonably determined, there is no way for a 70 pound dog to restrain the boy in a way that is safe for both of them. If we look forward another 3 years, the dog is now 10 and nearing the end of its working life, and the boy is 14, weighing 130-180 pounds. The dog can no longer be expected to restrain the child, safely or otherwise. It should be apparent from this example that a child using a service dog for restraint will likely outgrow the dog's safe working limits well before the dog reaches the end of its working potential.
In addition to the above problem the risk to the dog must be considered. The typical working gear used on an autism service dog has two leashes connected to a body harness. One leash is held by the dog's handler, usually a parent, the other leash is fastened to a belt or harness worn by the child. Assuming the dog is maintaining a proper heel position by the handler, there should be no tension on the first leash. The second leash may have intermittent or consistent tension in any direction depending on the movement of the child. Most harnesses are designed to withstand tension safely in one direction at a time. For instance, a sled dog's harness is designed to be tensioned from the back of the dog, where a sled would be. A sled dog's harness lines up the dog properly so the tension on the harness is aligned in an anatomically correct fashion and minimizes the stress on the dog's joints. This same harness would be terribly dangerous if it received tension from the side of the dog and could cause serious damage to the dog. The harness that is placed on an autism service dog cannot safely be used to control tension that may come from any angle and direction, and where the tension may change abruptly. The study, Observations on Assistance Dog Training and Use[1] looks at the forces applied on service dogs from improperly designed and fitted harnesses. The use of a service dog to restrain a small child that is running around and applying a variety of directional forces on the dog could cause a variety of joint problems that can cause the dog significant pain and shorten the dog's working career. This is particularly true when the service dogs are placed before they reach physical maturity. Asking a dog to perform tasks that stress the bones and joints before they have finished growing can cause substantial, irreversible damage to the dog's physical development.
There are also risks to the child. If the child is fastened to the dog, and bolts away suddenly, hitting the end of the tether could cause a fall resulting in anything from minor scrapes and bruises to head injuries and broken bones. If the dog bolted, which even the best trained dog may on rare occasion, the child could fall or be drug by the dog. If the parent is not tightly holding the leash or has the leash yanked from them, the bolting dog could drag the child into traffic or other dangerous situations. In addition, if the dog should break his training (and it does happen) and go with the child when the child runs off, both the dog and the child could be hurt or killed. A child and dog taking off in unison could also present a risk to the dog's handler who might be knocked over or drug by a large dog and/or an older child.
Search and Rescue
Some autism service dog schools advertise their dogs as being trained in search and rescue, or as being able to track a child who has run away. I find it hard to believe that these schools are providing dogs who are suitably trained in search and rescue because of the high demands associated with SAR training. For instance, to completely train an air-scenting SAR dog, it takes at least a year of consistent, skilled training. Basic tracking skills can be taught in a slightly shorter period of time, but that does not address the additional challenges of tracking over multiple surfaces such as asphalt, concrete, gravel and grass or the difficulty of teaching tracking in high traffic areas such as shopping malls or large outdoor events. In addition, both air-scenting and tracking dogs need frequent ongoing training to maintain their skills.
If a family needed a dog to reliably locate their child for them, they would need to practice 2-3 times a week without fail to maintain the high level of training that is needed for a life-or-death situation like a missing child. Another concern is the parent or guardian's ability to use a SAR dog and to maintain this training. Most autism service dog schools spend 7-14 days working with families on all the skills the dog has been taught and working on public access situations. This means there is a very limited amount of time available to thoroughly train the parent or guardian in the intricacies of air-scenting or tracking methods and to teach the handler to work smoothly with the dog and maintain the dog's training.
In short, a family with a missing child would have a much better chance of success by calling in a professional search dog team instead of wasting extremely valuable time attempting to track the child with a dog whose search and rescue training is most likely not sufficient to search or track in anything but the most basic of environments.
Preventing Escapes
Another common task proposed for autism service dogs for children is preventing the child from leaving the home when not being directly supervised, usually at night. Many parents have found that their child is able to master complex series of locks and run off during the night. Three general uses for the dog in this situation are usually given. Either the dog will physically block the child from going through the door, the dog will bark to alert caregivers that the child is leaving, or the dog will go with the child to keep him safe. Each of these has critical flaws.
A child that has the creativity and initiative to get around door locks and alarms will certainly figure out how to get around a dog attempting to block their exit. The child will learn quickly to throw the dog a treat, tie the dog to a chair, or lock the dog in a closet. There is also the risk that a child that very deeply wants to exit the house may hit or kick the dog to make them move.
Asking a dog to bark to indicate the child is leaving is probably the best of the three possibilities, but it also has many problems. As with the dog physically blocking the door, the child may learn ways to keep the dog from barking by feeding it or shutting the dog up somewhere where the barks are less likely to be heard. The child may also learn to sneak past the sleeping dog to get out of the house unnoticed.
The third method, having the dog go with the child to protect him, has absolutely no benefit. Autism service dogs are not guide dogs, and children are not trained to work with the dogs as a guide dog handler would work with a dog. An autism service dog alone with the child is unlikely to keep the child out of streets, swimming pools or other hazardous areas as programs indicate the dog will. The majority of autism service dog work is based on the presence of an adult handler to direct and instruct the dog. Without that adult present, the dog receives little or no direction and cannot be expected to perform as a working dog. This method is no better than the child running off with an untrained pet.
Finally, all three of these methods to prevent or mitigate the effects of escapes from the home have one flaw in common. This can be boiled down to the statement "dogs are dogs." The average dog has the mental development of a toddler. Expecting a dog to work in a situation like that means the dog has to choose the reward of work over the reward of whatever else he is doing. If the dog is eating, sleeping, playing, or chewing a bone, it may simply choose to continue doing those things if it perceives the benefit to be greater than working. Now, a well trained dog that enjoys his work will not do this often, however, in a situation where lives are at stake, the dog only has to choose pleasure over work once to have disastrous consequences. In short, if you would not leave a 3 year old to babysit your child, don't leave a dog to do it either.
Facilitating Social Interaction
Anyone who has used a service dog for more than a few weeks can tell you that a service dog increases the amount of attention they get in public places. It is safe to say that giving a child a service dog will increase the public attention they receive. However, this is not inherently positive attention. The vast majority of interaction a service dog user has with the general public ranges from superficial to offensive.
Service dog use makes disabilities that would normally be invisible to the general public highly visible. One consequence of this is that people are more likely to approach the person that appears the most "normal" to ask questions and make comments. This will usually be the parent or handler of the dog. Even when directed to speak to the person with the disability, many people will not and continue to speak to the parent. This is dehumanizing to the child and does nothing to encourage the development of social skills. When someone does speak to the person using the dog, the dog user is often addressed as a small child regardless of age. The conversations follow an unwavering script. "What's your dog's name?" "What breed is he?" "Boy or girl?" "Why do you have a dog?" "What's wrong with you?"
On the other end of the spectrum from the superficial conversations are the hostile ones. Dog teams find themselves approached with comments like "I don't want that dog around me." or screams of "you can't have that dog in here!" To a new dog user, and especially to a child, these situations can range from embarrassing to deeply disturbing. Situations like these can actually cost a child a potential friend. Even adults are uncomfortable with confrontational situations like these, so a child or teen using a dog and out with a new friend may find the friend no longer wishes to be around them and subject themselves to the embarrassment that is part of service dog use.
The other public group that will approach the service dog team are the touchy-feely types. These people will march right into the dog user's personal space and grab the dog, person or both. It is not uncommon to be approached by people like this in crowds. If a child with autism is uncomfortable having strangers in his or her personal space, or does not like to be touched without warning, these encounters with the public can be extremely stressful. These people will also unthinkingly block an overwhelmed person who is trying to get out of a situation, just so they can have a chance of petting the dog. They may not speak to the child or the handler, but they will often speak directly to the dog. This does not improve the social skills of the child but can instead make the child more stressed about being approached in public in the fear that they or their dog will be grabbed or touched without warning.
Inconsistent Handling
This is a problem when three person, "tripod," or "facilitated," teams are used. The idea behind such a team is that the parent or guardian will direct the dog to do things on behalf of the child, such as restraining him from running into the street. However, the child is also encouraged to give commands to the dog as part of their daily routine. This can present as the dog does not have consistent leadership. The dog is expected to sometimes listen to and obey the child, but other times to obey the directions of the parent and ignore the directions and commands of the child. Not only can this frustrate the dog and cause all of the problems related to high levels of stress in a dog (disobedience, nervous or obsessive behaviors, or aggression) it can cause the dog to fail at a task at a critical moment. If the child chooses to bolt in a dangerous situation, and the parent says stay but the child says heel, the dog has at least a reasonable chance of taking the path of lesser resistance and going with the child as he is being both commanded and physically pulled in that direction.
Autism Service Dogs at School
An issue of much contention lately has been the use of autism service dogs by school-aged children in the classroom. On one side of the issue, the parents of the children using the dogs insist the dog should be in the classroom to improve their child's focus, prevent behavioral issues, and keep the child safe. On the other side of the argument are school officials who point to the difficulty of managing a dog in a grade school classroom and concerns about the safety of other children. While I generally support the use of service dogs in the public school environment for students who are able to independently control the dog, I believe the risks and difficulties of a young child with autism using a service dog at school outweigh any potential benefits the dog may have.
No dog is perfect, therefore, someone must always be responsible for the care and behavior of the dog. A young child is not capable of responding to the variety of situations that can arise with a dog in school, which means a responsible adult must be available to take care of the dog, both normal care requirements such as watering, toileting and moving from place to place, and in extraordinary situations, such as the illness or injury of the dog, emergency evacuations, or the dog's misbehavior. The classroom teacher or class aide cannot be responsible for this care, as they have other duties that would not permit them to care for their class and the dog in certain circumstances. For instance, if a class of 10 special education students and one service dog had one primary teacher and two aides, and the class had to evacuate the building for a fire alarm, the teacher and aides' first priority must be to get the children out of the building and not to manage a dog.
In addition, according to the ADA, the school cannot be required to provide care for the service dog. This has resulted in cases where parents wish to attend school with their child and the service dog. This poses several difficulties. If the parent is the person responsible for handling the dog, and the parent is sick, does the child miss school? This would mean that over the course of the school year, the child will miss school every time the child is sick, every time the parent is sick, and any time the dog might be sick. If the parent was unable to handle the dog for a long period of time due to a significant illness, the child might miss a large amount of school.
Also, one of the purported benefits of a child having an autism service dog is that the presence of the dog normalizes social interaction. As a former elementary school teacher, I have observed how the presence of a parent changes the dynamics of social interaction between young children. If the parent is with the child 24/7, the lack of developmentally normal peer interaction caused by the presence of the parent would far outweigh any potential social normalization facilitated by the presence of the dog. In fact, having a parent present at all times is likely to make the child a more compelling target for teasing any time the parent might be gone for some reason.
The other danger is the one inherent in having a large dog around a number of children without having a consistent, responsible handler monitoring the behavior of the dog and the children. Any dog will bite if annoyed or threatened sufficiently, and children are capable of much unintentionally cruel behavior. Presented with a passive dog, a child may try to climb onto a dog, poke pencils up the dog's nose (true story), pull the dog's fur, tail and ears, poke him in the eye, or throw things at him. Enough of this sort of behavior over time can provoke an aggressive response from a dog. A small child cannot protect themselves from such a response, and may be seriously injured. The presence of a service dog in the classroom would require watching every move of every child and the dog to insure the dog was never harassed, hurt, or taunted by any student, including the child the dog is supposed to be assisting. This is a level of micromanagement that is simply not possible in most classrooms.
Miscellaneous Concerns
The tasks attributed to autism service dogs for children continue to grow. In this section I'll briefly look at some recent additions to the task list for these dogs.
- The dog alerts and summons a caregiver when the child is approached by a stranger. This would require the dog to bark when approached by a stranger. A dog cannot tell if a stranger is a good stranger or a bad stranger. This could result in an autism service dog barking at emergency services personnel and getting shot as a dangerous dog, or barking at a substitute teacher. A dog taught to bark at strangers may also bark at potential new friends for the child, further restricting the child's social interaction.
- Keeping a child from eating inappropriate objects. A dog cannot determine what is and is not acceptable food for a child to eat. A dog that is trained to keep a child from eating rocks may also try to keep the child from eating hard candy or any food that could remotely resemble a rock from the dog's point of view.
- Several service dog organizations advertise that their dogs can chase down and either retrieve or pin down a fleeing child. This is extremely dangerous! For a service dog to retrieve a running child, the dog would either have to get in front of the dog and physically knock the child down, or grab the child with his mouth. If the child runs into the street and the dog follows the child, not only the child but also the dog is at risk of being hit by a car. If the dog knocks down the child on a hard surface, the child could hit their head and become seriously injured.
- One service dog organization, the Dogwish Foundation, claims their dogs are able to perceive the brainwaves of the child with autism and intervene in those brainwaves to prevent the symptoms of the autism spectrum disorder.
- ↑ Coppinger, Coppinger, and Skillings, Journal of Applied Welfare Science, 1(2), 1998, 133-144
