Service Dog Trainer

Tara DuVal talks about life as a Service Dog trainer.

You can find her services on https://www.pulsek9.com/

Her Facebook business page is https://www.facebook.com/PulseK9

And you can join either of her Facebook groups for tips here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pulsek9tipsandtricks for pets and https://www.facebook.com/groups/479039953069376 for service dog information.

For more information regarding how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) governs service dogs and the laws about them, visit https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm

Transcript:

Adam 00:00:11 Hi, this is Adam. This is Thora, this is Autism On Shift.
Thora 00:00:15 Where we talk to other autistics about what we do for work, where you work homie?
Adam 00:00:21 And we talk about other stuff too, but that’s the base outline. Join us.
Thora 00:00:26 All right. Today we are talking to Tara DuVal and Tara is not just a dog trainer, not any kind of dog trainer. She is a trainer for service dogs. Is that correct? That is
Adam 00:00:40 Sweet. Tell us about that. Cool!
Tara 00:00:43 Cool. So, um, I’m, I’m making the shift right now. So I’ve worked with a couple of service dogs in the past few years, but it’s been mostly pets because that’s what everybody has. Right. But now I’m, I’m making an effort to work more and more with service dogs. Cause there are plenty of people who need them and want them that takes a lot of time. Um, and it’s hard to do both at once because of the time commitments that each thing would need. So pets, pets versus service dogs. So just kind of throwing out some of the pets, looking for more service dogs,
Thora 00:01:19 Like some of us want to do. I mean, no, I love my dog.
Adam 00:01:25 He works with the mailman every day afterwards. Get that training. That’s right. Yeah.
Thora 00:01:34 Okay. So from my understanding, and I am completely not educated in this, but a service dog training is kind of like a 24/7 deal. Is that, is that right?
Tara 00:01:44 So it can be, um, and whoever has the dog, yes. Is doing it 24/7. Um, but the same is kind of true of pet dogs. So there’s a lot of similarities. It’s just how much training the service dog needs in comparison to a pet dog. So like a pet dog, you’ve got whatever is comfortable for your lifestyle and whatever issues you have. We can fix that more often than not. And then you’re good to go service dogs. You need to have all the good behaviors you need to have all of the tasks specifically trained to mitigate your disability. They need to be able to do that in your house. They need to be able to do that outside of your home, around all these different distractions. So it’s, it takes a lot longer to get them there.
Adam 00:02:33 I find if there’s problems, um, since we have a beagle, I just feed him and uh, although he’s fixed it. So it’s amazing.
Tara 00:02:41 That’s actually most of the solutions yes. Using food to fix it.
Adam 00:02:47 I wonder if that works on Thora. It absolutely does! Perfect test would be donuts. Today’s national donut day. They’re glazed donut day glazed donut day. Now, do you prefer Dunkin donuts or uh, Krispy Kreme or do you have another one?
Tara 00:03:04 So I grew up in Kentucky , so Krispy Kreme is kind of my go-to. Um, but I will take whatever donut is available to me. I’m not very picky.
Adam 00:03:14 Once it comes to donuts, it’s a donut people come on. Okay.
Thora: Okay. Back on the track. That’s awesome. Um, okay. So, so a service dog has a job. Does the service dog have like a person with a specific disability assigned to them before their training starts?
Tara 00:03:38 So most of my answer’s going to be that depends. Yeah.
Adam 00:03:43 Um, so it depends on what yeah.
Tara 00:03:45 You go, there’s a couple different ways you can go about getting a service dog. Um, most people, when they think of service dog, they think of the big, um, like guide dogs of America and Needs and things like that. The big 501C3 organizations, most of those guys do it, um, that you’re paired with a service dog and they train the service dog. And then after so many years you get the service dog sent to you. Okay. Um, some of those, uh, large organizations and most of the smaller organizations that aren’t quite as well known, um, we’ll do it kind of on a rolling entry type thing where they’ve got puppies that they’re raising to be service dogs and they’re teaching most of the basics. And once they hit a certain point in their training, they’ll pair it with whoever’s next on their waiting list.
Tara 00:04:36 Um, so, so that helps them move a lot of, uh, people through their waiting lists faster because you’re not waiting. It usually takes about two years to train a service dog from puppy to finished. Um, so if you go to a place that has them, where they pick the puppy at eight weeks old, and then you’re waiting because they’re training that specific dog to you, you’ve got a two year wait. Whereas if they’ve got a bunch of different dogs going through, and once they hit a certain point in training where they teach the tasks, then they pair with the person that’s maybe six months or to a year, depending on how many tasks you need trained and what, how difficult those are. Um, yeah, so a lot quicker. Um, and then there’s what I do, which is I work with people directly. So usually people already have a dog.
Tara 00:05:27 Um, and they’ve started to train them on their own because you can train your own service dog. Um, that’s a perfectly viable, reasonable way to do it. That’s legal and allowed, which a lot of people don’t know. Wow. Um, um, so I’ll hop in and I’ll help them. Um, what I’ve done in the past is I’ve just worked with them individually. Like I would with the pet dog client, they contact me. They’re like, Hey, I’m trying to train this and we’re stuck here. And these things and we’ll work for a couple of weeks to a couple of months then I won’t see him again. Um, when I’m moving more into, as a specific program where I find, you know, people who have like a puppy at least about six months old and we worked through the whole process of finishing up the puppy training, the basic obedience, the task work, all that stuff. And they’ll stick with me for about a year.
Adam 00:06:16 Okay. Now, do you have, like, do you have like some kind of special training or did you do, uh, do you have like a background in this and before like you started getting into it or, I mean, other pets, maybe
Tara 00:06:31 Dog training is an unregulated industry. So there are, there are some certifications for like trainers out there, but they’re all made up by other dog trainers. So they’re all vastly different from each one. So you can have a dog trainer certified by X group and a dog trainer certified by Y group. And they’re two completely different certificates. Um, so I got into it because I had a problem dog. Um, that’s how I got into training in the first place. Um, my, my husband named the dog Havoc on the car ride home from the shelter and, uh, jinxed him. So, um, uh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Aside from the intention it puts on the dog. It isn’t, it’s a good one. It fits him even now that he’s much, much better about everything. It still fits him. Um, but yeah, so I, you know, I’ve known about them and I was interested in them before.
Tara 00:07:34 Um, my, most of my family is some in some way shape or form attached to the medical field. So like my dad’s a doctor, my brother’s an EMT. My mom was a, um, occupational therapist before she had us kids. And, you know, so I’ve, I’m familiar with the medical field, um, tangentially. Um, so it’s always interested me too. Um, and then it’s just, it’s just dog training and trick training on steroids. Like that’s really all it is. You gotta be very precise and you gotta be able to be able to stick with it and be consistent for a long time to get them where they need to be. But, um, yeah, so it’s just kind of evolved.

Thora 00:08:25 That’s why he is the way he is because I’ve been Oh, feeding him every day. Adam: That, okay, good job, dude.
Thora 00:08:32 No, it is true. Although what’s funny is he, has, he, has, he did the whole puppy kindergarten thing, right? Like, you know, little socialization learning, basic manners, you know, uh, completely failed. He did, he does not socialize at all. He hates other dogs.
Adam 00:08:49 To be fair. We, we got him from like, somebody is from somebody’s backyard who was kind of separated from all, every, all the other dogs. So his, his, his, uh, puppy hood, if you will, uh, was it just, it was separated from his mother. And so he started out.
Tara 00:09:10 Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. That’s not good. Not ideal,
Adam 00:09:16 But we love him.
Thora 00:09:17 Yeah. He’s awesome. Mailman doesn’t think so, but yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, um, so, okay. So let me ask you, you said there are, you know, uh, group X trains, these people, or gives them a certificate that says such and such and group Y says something else or does something else, how do you choose one? How do you know who to pick if you were looking for a dog trainer?
Tara: Yeah. Uh, so there, my, my best advice for somebody looking for a dog trainer, uh, whether it’s for pets or service dogs is to go and see how much you can learn about them and see if you jive with them as a person. Um, there’s a lot of different ways to train a dog. So if you, if you dive too deep into the pet, into the dog industry, you’ll find all sorts of different factions of like, you can’t do this with a dog because it’s terrible, or you can’t do that with a dog because it’s terrible.
Tara 00:10:15 And, you know, various levels of, yeah, I can agree with that or not. Um, um, um, but the biggest thing, cause why most dogs fail is not because they’re not smart enough. It’s because people don’t understand what to do. So if you can’t learn from the person that’s teaching the dog, or if they have no intention of teaching you and they just want to teach the dog and hand handed off to you, and you’re good with that, and you never have to learn anything, it’s not going to stick. Nothing’s going to change, um, for service dogs in particular though, um, one of the better organizations that’ll give you a good, starting off point is called Assistance Dogs International. They certify a lot of people, um, and a lot of organizations and they’re a good starting point in order to be certified by them. You have to follow their rules and you have to have already trained. I think it’s like five or six service dogs that have been working for three to five years. So you got the catch 22 of you have to have already done the job to be able to be certified for the job to get the certification. Um, but they have a really high standard and they are international. So they’re a really good starting point. Very cool.
Adam 00:11:38 Awesome. This might be a dumb question, but does the dog is like a cert a certificate that goes along with the dog? So, you know, I mean, I mean, it’s, I don’t know. You’d have to bring them some places sometimes, you know, is it yeah. Do you ever have to like walk in and show
Thora 00:11:54 Them, Hey, my dog is allowed here because of this piece of paper here or what?
Tara 00:11:58 So no, that is a very hot button topic.
Adam 00:12:04 Um, that’s what I’m good at.
Tara 00:12:06 I mean, in the U S and it’s different for every country in the US uh, your right to have a service dog is protected by the Americans with disabilities act, right? So that’s actually probably, if you’re looking for what you can and can’t do with your service dog, the first place you want to start, um, they’ve got a pretty clear FAQ section on their website of what is, and is not legal. Um, but the issue with the certifications is if you go and you Google service dog, the first thing that pops up is like 10 different websites for certified. This certified, that certified the other thing for various levels of $0, I’ve seen upwards of $250 for the certifications. And it’s just a piece of paper that they send you in the mail. They’re scams, all scams,
Tara 00:12:53 Know, they are all scams. Um, some of the ones that are free are like a voluntary registration, and you’ve got one or two sites that are trying to do something helpful and good. Um, but the issue with that is you’re not legally obligated to have a certification at all. So no certification for the dog, no certification of anything else. Um, in the, the ADA lays it out, what qualifies them as a dog, what doesn’t qualify them as a dog. And you’re not like businesses, legally, aren’t even allowed to ask you to show anything like that, because it’s not, it’s not a thing. It’s not something that’s there.
Adam 00:13:31 So if other countries, do they have different rules as is, is it potentially as a possible that these places are trying to, uh, do they, do you know, some of these websites do international things, and they’re just trying to follow, you know, if they have $0 and give a certificate, or is that, is it yeah, sorry.
Tara 00:13:53 Most of the ones that I know of off the top of my head are just US-based. Okay. Um, and if, if they’re trying to do the right thing and trying to help people, they’ll say on their website somewhere that this is not an obligation, this is entirely voluntary, and this is not actually protect you makes sense. Um, it’s just something that you can have to help you feel better with because you can then point to, well, I, I pointed to a thing, you know, I, I put my information on the internet and now it’s there. Um, yeah.
Thora 00:14:26 So let me ask you about the difference between a service dog and like an emotional support dog. Are they doing
Tara 00:14:35 Okay? Yes. Very different. Uh, well, okay. Not very, very different, but there’s a very specific legal difference. Okay. Um, so an emotional support animal is any animal that gives you emotional support. So anything like all those people on the airlines that were getting hate from the airlines for bringing their peacocks and their hamsters or whatnot, they’re not technically wrong. Legally, those are all emotional support animals, because it’s an animal that gives them emotional support right. By existing. Um, so I’ve got ferrets all be emotional support animals. Yes. Sort of, yes. Uh, well, you can, so you, with your dog, they can be very emotionally unhelpful at some points. Yes.
Thora 00:15:24 Barking dog in a house full of autistic people is not ideal.
Tara 00:15:27 Exactly. So, um, you know, not, not every animal, a hundred percent of the time would necessarily qualify. Um, but in order to get the legal protections, to have an emotional support animal, um, cause they do have some different legal rights from your standard pet. You do have to be, um, you, you do have to have it signed off by a psychiatrist or a therapist or something like that. So those are very specifically for psychiatric stuff.
Adam: How cool.
Thora 00:16:00 Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea. I’m trying to think of, uh, what, um, well, like anxiety, you know, I mean, I could go to my doctor and be like, you know what? My anxiety is really high and I feel like a bunny would help.
Tara 00:16:16 Right. Well, I mean, that’s basically how it works. Um, because they, they have no legal, you know, there’s no standard of training for them. There’s no nothing. It’s just, I need to have something living with me to help me feel better. Whether it’s like anxiety, depression, PTSD, anything like that, autism, uh, but say you live somewhere where that’s a no pet housing. So that is how you can get that support that you need for your disability in a place where you can’t have it. So no pet housing is the only place now. Um, they just came out with a new law. Like I think it goes into effect in a couple of days, like brand new law for airlines, where they’re no longer allowing emotional support animals on them.
Thora: Oh, wow. Do you know why?
Tara: Because all the shenanigans that went down with these emotional support animals for the past couple of years,
Adam 00:17:11 I have my emotional support elephant. Then I’m bringing on this 87. I just my own, sorry.
Tara 00:17:22 Well, you know, to be fair to the airlines, I don’t think they understood the law when they said you could have an emotional support animal. Cause then they tried to put restrictions on it later when legally it can be any animal. And they were thinking everybody would bring a dog or a cat and then people started to bring other things.
Adam 00:17:37 And I think like everything that you start off with, uh, you know, trying to be helpful and then things get, you know, it. Yeah.
Tara 00:17:45 Yeah. And the other
Adam 00:17:48 Thing is just, yeah.
Thora 00:17:51 Okay. I can have an emotional support peacock and understand that that’s not going to be ideal on an airplane. Okay.
Tara: That’s right. Okay. And the other issue is that, you know, there is no training requirement for an emotional support animal. So that’s why you had all these issues with dogs, growling, barking, peeing on planes, attacking people, things like that. Um, it’s a very different, yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it’s hard on the animals. It’s scary. Cause they don’t know you, you, for a service dog, you do a ton of training before you take your dog on a plane. And most people with emotional support animals just, they want the sport. So they bring the animal, the sport, but it’s not a stuffed animal. Right.
Adam 00:18:33 Then all of a sudden the, the, uh, emotional support animal needs their own emotional support person. And then it’s a vicious cycle. And then again, the whole plan would be,
Tara 00:18:44 Yeah. So, so that’s, that’s emotional support animals. Um, so, so they’re, they’re only, you know, once this new laws goes into, into effect, um, they’re really only allowed in non pet housing. Um, and there’s some stipulations with that too. But, um, service dogs have, uh, training requirements and they have to be specifically trained in a task that mitigates or disability emotional support is not a task. It does not qualify as a task. Gotcha. So it’s good benefit, but doesn’t count.
Adam 00:19:23 Are there any things about your job that you, you know, well, dislike, I guess first, because I, you know, tell me both things that you absolutely love about it or, or dislike.
Tara 00:19:36 Uh, I love, I, especially now going more into service dog work. I love that I can help people get the support they need. Yeah. Um, cause even if like there’s a lot of people, especially with psychiatric disabilities who don’t realize they even qualify for a service dog. And once you have that service dog, you’re like, Holy shit, night and day difference from what you feel comfort wise when you’re out and about in public and what you can accomplish in your day. Um, I don’t know if y’all know the spoon theory, but they give you extra spoons. That’s awesome. Yeah. I love it.
Thora 00:20:12 Yeah. So batteries in my house because it’s easier for my daughter to understand.
Tara Well, that’s a good one. I like that. I like that. But yeah, it’s, it’s exactly the same thing.
Thora We just use battery instead of spoons.
Tara They’re like an external charger kit then. Yeah. They give you a little boost. Um, so, so I love that. Um, and I love working with dogs and I love working with the people. Um, the things I don’t like are the people, and this is a little more applicable to the pet dog world, which is another reason why I’m shifting, um, out of there as the people who just want it fixed and don’t want to do anything about it. Yeah. Most, most of the changes have to come from what you’re doing with your dog. Um, and then specifically for the service dog stuff, people who don’t understand the laws, but are adamant that they know them better than you. You can pull it up, like pull the ADA website up on your phone point, right. At the actual physical law. And they’ll still be like, no, you’re wrong.
Adam 00:21:22 That’s awesome. I think we all come across those people. Yeah.
Tara 00:21:28 They’re everywhere.
Thora 00:21:32 Well, someone’s got to teach me patience. Right.
Adam That’s right. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last 20 years.
Thora 00:21:47 Okay. So let’s talk specifically about autism then. Um, we all know that it’s got, you know, struggles and it’s got, you know, things that we like about it. Right. Um, you know, and it’s a balancing act every day. Um, so, so let’s talk about those. What are the struggles that you have specifically because of autism, and then let’s kind of, you know, slide on into, you know, how does your autism help you at work?
Tara 00:22:08 So struggles with it and work, um, executive dysfunction, uh, consistency and planning and doing things in like breaking it down into small enough steps that the dog can understand that you can understand and keep up with it. It’s all mandatory for training. And it does all something I very much not good at. Yeah. Um, so especially working with people, cause like in my head, I’ve got all this knowledge I’ve collected and I’m like, it makes sense to me, but breaking it down in such a way that I can explain it to another human, it doesn’t always come across as, as well either. Or I’ll info dump on people. Cause it’s, it’s, it’s become a special interest and I’ve turned it into a job and I get all excited. I get really into it. And then people are like, you can just watch them in the lesson. Like, Oh no, I don’t. I’m like 10 steps back and I forgotten it all.
Adam 00:23:05 Should I have been taking notes? Where’s my head. I get that a lot. If they just ask one question and I miss it, misinterpreted it as they want to know everything I know. And it’s just, you know, an hour later, just stop please. Yes.
Tara 00:23:23 Yes. That is uh huh. Yep. Yep. I have done that.
Tara 00:23:29 Um, so the, the that’s probably the biggest struggle, struggle working with dogs and people directly. Um, but then marketing and sales calls, like somebody has got to find out how I have a service dog program and how they can be a part of it. Somehow. I, they, they don’t just magically appear at my door and say, Hey, a book. I’m not sure why, but that’d be so handy. But, um, so that, that’s, that’s my other struggle for keeping it a viable business.
Thora Um, how do you, how do you mitigate that? Um, cause I’d really love to know, especially, um,
Tara uh, not, well, no. So for, uh, cause a lot of it has to do with energy levels too, right? Like I’m much better at a lot of this stuff if I have more energy than on days when I don’t have any energy. So, um, big part of it is working with myself instead of trying to work against myself.
Tara 00:24:40 So I have an idea for what I need to get done every week. Um, and I’ll have days kind of set up and if I have lessons in person with somebody or a resume with somebody, um, those are like hard times that cannot change barring, you know, super extreme circumstances. Yeah. Um, and then I kind of just fit everything in around it. So I’ll know like this week I have to get X, Y, and Z done. Um, if it’s super time sensitive, uh, then I’ll know to try to fit that in first. Um, and it doesn’t always work well. I’m still working on making that system more productive for myself. Um, and then like high energy things I try to not have on other days with high energy stuff. So if I’m doing yeah, in-person lesson days, I don’t want to take a sales call. I don’t want to do it.
Adam 00:25:33 I’ve always done, you know, I’ve called it something different because like I said, I’m undiagnosed and this is great for me because I’m learning so much, you know, talking to people like, it’s funny, like I’ll go through like 20 years or 30 years of stuff in my head, as you say things, you know? But, um, I don’t, I forgot what I was going to say now, but
Thora 00:25:52 No, but like that lining up and the, in the distribution of tasks in such a way, like almost as like a priority, like here’s priority one and they go here, here and here and then here’s priority two and they kind of go around them, but they still have to get
Adam 00:26:05 That’s. What I was going to say is I’ve always, I’ve always come up with, at some point in time, I came up with, I really can, I got to get one thing done per day, like one big thing done per day and that’s it. And all the other stuff it sort of has to be on a rolling calendar, you know, it’s like maybe, maybe, but, but I feel accomplished if I get that one big thing done. And then I, that gives me the energy to do all the other stuff, you know? Yes. Yes. Cause the podcast
Tara 00:26:35 Lists for days, people are watching the podcast. Won’t see it here because they’ll be listening, but that’s my rolling list of marketing ideas for like topics I want to post about on Facebook or talk about, um, cause I’ll do lives in, in my, uh, Facebook groups for people. Um,
Adam 00:26:52 I’m sorry to interrupt you. Uh, for our listeners. It’s a huge, it’s like a whiteboard. Yeah. And so it’s, it’s, that’s awesome. And it’s filled up.
Tara 00:27:01 Yeah. It’s probably got like 30 different things on there. So I’ll like
Thora: For our listeners, what’s your Facebook group? If you don’t mind people joining.
Tara: Yeah. So I’m doing a free challenge next week and that’ll probably, I don’t know how quickly you guys get these out. Um, but that free challenge group will turn into my Facebook group. Um, so I can send you a link cause depending on how soon people see this, the name might change. Oh, okay. Um, but if you look for my Facebook page, just like my, my business page, it’s Pulse K9, P U L S E letter K number nine. Okay. Um, and I’ll have them linked on there too.
Adam 00:27:43 Okay. So we’ll figure out how to link it into, put it in the show notes. Okay, perfect. Yeah, because it will come out, you know, a little bit later, so, and we’ll keep in touch with you and make sure that it has,
Tara 00:27:55 I haven’t decided what the name of the group is going to be once the challenge is over. So nobody knows what that name is yet. Not even myself. Um, but it’ll be, um, something like free tips for, for service dogs working with me. Um, and I have a pet dog equivalent. That’s just training tips with Pulse K9, dog training. Awesome.
Tara 00:28:22 I’ll do like, I have that list and I’ll just jot things down as they come to me because usually they’re coming to me. I won’t have the time because it’ll be in the car ride or something or at the gym or whatever. Um, or I’ll I’ll, I won’t have the energy to do anything with them yet. Um, so on the days I do have a lot of energy and I got like, I’m just super, super in the flow of things. I can just knock out like a ton of marketing stuff and just have it ready to go. And then I can send it off on days when I’m not as not as prepared.
Adam 00:28:53 That’s good. Yeah, I do. Um, and I, I drive a lot, um, for my work and I use, uh, I use like an audio recorder as things come up.
Thora 00:29:06 Similar works pretty well for me. Yeah. I have, I’ve always have a computer in front of me, so I think it’s Google. Keep my keep notes. Everything goes,
Adam: Yeah. Thanks. You’ve always have a phone in your hand.
Thora: Something some screen in front of me, it’s either this computer, my work computer or my phone.
Adam 00:29:26 If you had Google goggles, you could just always,
Tara 00:29:31 I don’t think I get anything done. I’d I’d have like YouTube or Tik TOK or something on there and I’d never get anything done.
Adam 00:29:42 I dream about that stuff, but I can’t actually do it. I always ended up having to be doing something that gets something done. And I always like dream about like, just like relaxing and sitting around and like watching like bingeing on Netflix or something. And then I look at my Fitbit and it says, you know, this week you sat down for one hour, like,
Thora 00:30:06 Okay. We recently had a four day weekend and I think the total resting minutes of his Fitbit was something like, it was like 80 something minutes for the entire four day weekend. He does not sit down.
Tara 00:30:23 I want to somewhere, but also I feel like I get things done. I don’t even know if I get anything done now. I don’t know.
Tara 00:30:33 Oh man. Now my challenge is once, once I’m going and I’m working on something, I’m usually good, but it’s getting started. That’s where, that’s where it really
Thora Initiation. That is a hard one for me. You know, for me, I think it has to be external. If it’s external, I can get up and do it. Like Adam needs something and I will get up and do it. Uh, my boss needs something like for me to clock in everyday, you know, I do that. Um, but like I think I went four months with the intention to like, um, clean out my dresser and, and get rid of stuff I didn’t need and rearrange the things that I did and I still haven’t done it.
Tara: It’s yep. Yeah. Same, same initiation.
Adam 00:31:27 Yeah. Now what was the, uh, the mom, uh, thing
Thora 00:31:30 Override. We had, we had another guest who introduced us to the concept of the mom override,
Adam 00:31:35 Which I call it the parent override personally. But I did stay home with the kids for six years. So, you know, it’s like this I’m like, everything is like, it’s not just moms guys. Wouldn’t tell him what the mom override. But the
Thora 00:31:52 Idea is that when somebody else is in need or somebody else’s struggling or somebody else has something going on, it’s like, you can completely put all your stuff to the side and like be there to help them. Like I thought that was such a really good like concept for her to put a word to.
Tara: That’s a, that’s one of the big benefits of having a service dog. Um, because, um, I’m not a mom unless you count fur babies. Uh, but, but if my dogs need something that then, then it’s done, we’re doing the thing. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and absolutely applies. Yep. Yep. And, and with, with, you know, like the training process, they may not get the most productive thing done, but we’ll at least go out and do something. Um, so, you know, that’s, that’s one way to help kind of build those habits and things is just having a plan to follow with your dog.
Thora 00:32:45 Yeah.
Tara 00:32:48 That also does not count as a task though. That is just a fun benefit.
Thora 00:32:53 And the routines I imagine are probably helpful, right? Like they have an expectation. We’re going to walk every day about this time. And yes, the routines are good for both of us. All of us dogs and humans, mostly autistic humans, but yes.
Tara: Yeah, yeah.
Thora: I read something recently. I thought it was so funny. It was, um, if you, if you have trouble like taking your medication at a specific time every day, what you do is you take your medication and you feed your pet. I think the cat was the example, but you feed your pet at the time you take your medication. And if you forget, if once it becomes a routine, if you forget your pet will not forget and they will come to you expecting a treat and you’d be like, Oh yeah, I need to take my medicine.
Tara 00:33:33 So that is a task!
Thora: Really?
Tara: That is something that you can train your dog to do to help you. It’s a little legally wishy-washy if you want to take them in public, unless you need to take your medication several times through the day and you need to remind her in public. Um, cause usually that’s mostly something people do at home. Um, but I know some ADHD medications got to take several times throughout the day. Um, so that, that is, it’s one of those, there’s really fuzzy tasks that count, but don’t really, but can, and can’t and can get you in trouble in theory, if your dog does something wrong, but technically you count. And then there’s more specific ones that are, you can easily say, okay, I understand why you need the dog in public. Got it. That makes perfect sense.
Thora 00:34:21 I didn’t think it I just read it somewhere,
Tara 00:34:25 But they’re smart. They’ll know. They let me know when dinnertime is,
Adam 00:34:32 My kids do that.
Thora 00:34:36 Yeah.
Adam 00:34:36 No, actually I’m, I’m, I’m a very routine person. So like, it was funny cause our, our daughter has a dual, uh, autism and down syndrome and uh, it was perfect for me because routine was good for her and I love routine. So I’m like, Oh, I’ll do whatever for routines. I’m just that guy to help her out.
Tara: Nice. Perfect. Yep.
Thora: Okay. So the last question is, is, you know, dream job, right? Like, but I feel like we don’t even need to ask you that question unless you’re gonna like come out of left field with something random. I feel like you’re doing the thing that you want to be doing, right?
Tara 00:35:21 Yeah, No, this is, this is, this is it. I get to work with dogs. I get to work with people. I get to help, help them, you know, live, live better lives, you know, um, and not, not feel as stuck really. That’s the big one I’ve noticed with like psychiatric service dogs specifically, um, and help them understand that they can have more help than it. It’s there for them.
Thora: Nice.
Adam: That’s very cool. I love it. Well, Hey Tara, thanks so much for hanging out with us, talking to us about what you do and um, I really enjoyed having you.
Tara: Yeah, thanks for having me. It was fun.
Thora 00:36:04 To the listeners, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, next time we’ll have another awesome guest with another fun job. You can find the show notes and our guests links on our website www.carveresumes.com and includes the transcripts for today’s show. And we’ll see you later.

Adam & Thora’s filler word count*

Um: 17
Uh: 19
Like: 52
You know: 32

*DISCLAIMER: We only count our filler words. Guests are not expected to be professional speakers. I mean, we’re not, either, but we’re supposed to be… right?