Aussie Studies Dogs

From MSN:
"Dogs to be trained to support war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder"

For Australian war veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the loyalty and friendship of assistance dogs can help them on the path to recovery. Now evidence of the special relationship between dogs and veterans will be scientifically examined for the first time in Australia.  La Trobe University in Bendigo, Victoria, is training 20 PTSD assistance dogs to help support veterans. The Department of Veterans' Affairs has put almost $2 million in funding towards the project. Associate Professor Pauleen Bennett, from La Trobe's School of Psychological Science, is the head of the university's 'dog lab', Australia's first laboratory dedicated to monitoring interaction between humans and dogs. Dr Bennett said dogs shared a connection with humans dating back about 50,000 years.  "They can almost tell what we're thinking, and we can read them very well. It's almost like a symbiotic relationship," he said.  Integral to the project are students and staff, carefully selected from the university's many campuses, who will raise the puppies before pairing them with a suitable veteran.  While projects in Canada and the United States have paired up dogs and veterans with PTSD, Dr Bennett said there was a need for an evidence-based program in Australia. "We can take what's been done in other countries and not replicate that, but build on that and do something a bit different," Dr Bennett said. Lead researcher Tiffani Howell said the study was unique because it was looking at the early stage of the relationship between the veteran and the assistance dog. "[We will] consult [veterans] on their needs and provide them with individualised training with existing therapy dogs while their assistance dog is being trained," Dr Howell said. Working alongside the university are staff from the Centre for Service and Therapy Dogs Australia (CSTDA), who identified breeders throughout the country to develop lines of dogs particularly suited to veterans with PTSD. The preferred breeds were Labradors and the Lagotto, an Italian water dog known for being placid and liking people, as well as the standard poodle and smooth-coated collies.  "Of course, it has to be the right Lagotto and the right Labrador, depending on what suits the person," Dr Bennett said.  The four-year pilot program will begin at the breeders' properties with an eight-week socialisation period for the puppy. Twelve months of preparation will follow, during which university staff and students will bring the puppies to their campuses. "While they're at work every day, they will be doing the socialisation training with the puppies," Dr Bennett said. PhD psychology student Dac Loc Mai is involved in the project and is a foster parent of four-month-old Abbie the Labrador. He said there were strict guidelines to be followed each week. "There's a list of dos and don'ts. It's not like raising normal pets," he said. Crucial to the dogs' training is a three-month bonding period for the dog and the veteran.   "After that, if all goes well, they get to keep their dog. So we're not going to take dogs off people," Dr Bennett said.  Dr Bennett said dogs were unique in their social intelligence and incomparable with any other animal. She said dogs were particularly good at social cognition, or in other words, "they get us". "They can look at a person and tell what that person's feeling," she said. "Just through our body language, they can pick up whether we're unhappy or happy. Dogs are amazing." The PTSD assistance dogs will receive specialist training to handle a range of scenarios.  "These are dogs that have to cope with people having meltdowns; they have to cope with loud noises," Dr Bennett said. "For our veterans, we think it [the assistance dogs] will be mostly about getting them out into the community, so being able to act as a security blanket." Over the next six months, the university will find suitable veterans from across the country to take part in the project. Dr Bennett said it would require a lot of work from the veterans, who would have to learn how to train and maintain the dog, and report back for research purposes. "It's not something that will suit everybody. We're talking about a really serious commitment in terms of time, energy and activities," she said.

^ Australia has been fighting terrorism around the world for a long time now and their soldiers returning from active duty in warzones get PTSD just like the soldiers from the UK, Canada, the US, etc. Hopefully, this study will help the veterans and the service dogs. ^

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/health/medical/dogs-to-be-trained-to-support-war-veterans-with-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/ar-AAy9hnl