About Understanding Assistance Dogs by Jennifer Gravrok
ASSISTANCE DOGS are becoming an increasingly desired tool to mitigate the effects of various disabilities. Despite all the incredible benefits that social media touts, they are not the appropriate tool for everyone. People who get an assistance dog without fully understanding the journey ahead will have more serious challenges and potentially a strained relationship for the life of the dog. This book will help you:
• identify which trained skills an assistance dog could provide to mitigate the effects of your disability
• determine whether you can form a mutually beneficial relationship with an assistance dog (I will walk you through the many factors to consider, including considerations for your ability to care for the dog, your lifestyle, your support system, home, work, school, other personal factors, etc.)
• decide—if it turns out that an assistance dog can assist your disability and you can form a mutually beneficial relationship—what method of getting and working with an assistance dog is best for you.
By reading this book you will be able to decide whether an assistance dog is the right tool to assist you to mitigate your disability. Also, what’s next in terms of finding an assistance dog and forming a viable, lasting working relationship if you decide the answer is yes.
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Author Bio:
Jennifer Gravrok has been studying and working with assistance dog organizations, clients, and assistance dogs since 2016. She completed her PhD in December 2019 at La Trobe University, where she studied the benefits and challenges that first-time assistance dog handlers experience. She worked with people who received a variety of types of assistance dogs from different organizations around Australia and the world. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the Nancy Millis Award for exceptional merit, rated in the top 5 percent of theses examined.
During this time, she also did volunteer work, assisting in raising and training numerous dogs at different stages, from puppies to fully trained assistance dogs.
Since then, she has also worked for two assistance dog organizations in the United States, where she predominantly worked with handlers. In this, she has involved herself in all aspects of the journey: interviewing prospective clients, assisting in the matching process between client and dog, preparing and teaching clients how to work with their matched assistance dog, and problem-solving ongoing challenges they experienced years after placement.
Throughout, she has collected scientific research and anecdotal notes about the challenges handlers experience and information that clients have stated they wished they knew before partnering with an assistance dog. In Understanding Assistance Dogs, she has compiled these benefits, challenges, and experiences for your benefit, aiming to share the true journey of getting an assistance dog with the world.