Dogs with Disabilities – Care and Training Tips
Out now in the Summer Issue of the IAABC Journal (Journal of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants).
Excerpt from:
Through Thick and Thin: Caring For and Training Dogs with Disabilities
by Nee Kang, Jeffrey Lee and Nan Arthur
“The relationship between companion dogs and their humans can be a deep and mutually supportive one. Our dogs give us so much: joy with their company, laughter at their antics, comfort by their presence. Yet sometimes we do not have the specialized knowledge and skills to support their needs and challenges as they grow with us, particularly when they face or suffer from disabilities caused by accidents, infections, or aging.
… We hope that the ideas we present in our paper might enable more disabled companion dogs to be provided with a good quality of life—maintaining functional capabilities, enriching their mental state, and overcoming situations that trigger fear—so that the dog-human relationship will not be clouded and dimmed by the disability, but instead reveal a silver lining of renewed and deepened bonding between dog and human for having overcome the challenges together, through thick and thin.
… After all, our dogs spend most, if not their whole lives with us; it is the least we can do to try and make that life as safe, enjoyable and enriched as it can be, for as much time as we have with them.”