Filenews 3 April 2022 - by Myrto Zoumidou
He does not wear a surgical robe and does not use a stethoscope... Not even surgical instruments are able to use. He does not drive a car, but he can offer safety in the movement of his guardian who needs him at every step of his life! From simple and everyday chores, to emotional support, offering, anyway, profusely his love.
He cannot express himself in words, but he knows very well how to willingly offer great services to the person in need, often having healing properties that have a catalytic effect on the improvement of living conditions. He has four legs, wags his tail and is the best... hairy dog - assistant or therapist.
An assistant dog does not only have the ability to accompany a blind person or smell and warn an upcoming disease or an epileptic seizure or disorder in the sugar of a diabetic patient. It can become the most loyal assistant to people with mobility problems or disabilities, for people with partial or total hearing loss and to people who need emotional support. The dog - assistant is not a pet, but a "tool of life", necessary for the person who needs it. It is enough to be properly trained and have the appropriate connection with the person it is called to serve.
What is an assistant dog
In order to learn more about the dogs - assistants or therapists, we visited the "Assistance Dogs Cyprus" Training School in Nicosia and talked with the founder Maria – Christina Patala, who willingly explained to us everything related to their training and capabilities.
Initially, an assistant dog is a trained or trained dog for persons with visible or non-visible disabilities. An assistance dog, under the United Nations International Convention on Free Access for Persons with Disabilities, reserves the right of unhindered access to all areas. He always bears the insignia (special zone around his neck and chest) where "ASSISTANCE DOG" is written and has at his disposal all the necessary certificates he needs, after having passed the appropriate training.
As Maria - Christina explains, the training of a dog - assistant is individualized according to the needs of his prospective guardian, depending on the medical issues he faces. If, for example, it has frequent episodes of seizure in its medical history, the dog is trained to recognize the signs, warn and have the skills to respond during an episode to protect its guardian.
Further, an assistant dog with its presence enhances the psychology of a person with medical problems, helps to regain his self-confidence, reduce anxiety and fear, offering him greater security and more freedom of movement inside and outside the house.
Education
The School Assistance Dogs Cyprus, having the expertise in dog training, in early 2020 decided to go a step further, emphasizing on the training of assistance dogs. The gap was particularly evident in this area and at the same time there was a great need for people with mobility, psychological problems or even epilepsy and diabetes issues, to have under their tutelage a faithful four-legged assistant.
Several of our fellow human beings in the past had contacted similar centers abroad for the acquisition of such a trained dog with the cost being particularly deterrent, but also the risk that the training of the dog will not be suitable for its guardian. Another deterrent was the training time of an assistant dog, since most of the time it approaches 2 years. The cost of training an assistant dog abroad is more than 20,000 euros, while in Cyprus the cost is halved.
Not even a guide for people with visual disabilities
In several foreign countries, a large part of the cost of training an assistant dog is absorbed by the state and very little by private sponsorships. In Cyprus, even private initiatives, available to provide such a service to a human being, are infinitesimal, despite the fact that an assistant dog is often more than necessary. The cost, as Maria Christina explains, most of the time, although much smaller than abroad, is prohibitive due to financial difficulties.
An assistant dog needs about 1.5 years of perfection of its training in order to be able to fully meet the tasks it is called upon to undertake. In essence, the cost covers the working hours of a trainer during the training of the dog.
As Maria-Christina explains, it is very important to connect the dog with its guardian, in order to be able to be trained and offer its services. It is not possible for any dog, even trained, to end up with any person.
Until recently, despite the needs and the interest that existed from various persons, in Cyprus there was not even a guide dog for people with visual disabilities.
How a guardian - angel evolves
Dogs that are trained to become assistants or provide emotional support to persons in need, go through the process of strict basic training and socialization, always against the background of positive rewarding the animal and without any use of violence, physical or psychological. Always with scientifically proven methods.
In Cyprus there are several shelters for abandoned or even battered animals, which are a first-class reservoir for finding a prospective assistant dog. In this way, a second chance is given and with the appropriate care and education to provide beneficial services to the people who need it. Maria Christina and her team, based on their experience, in any case where they need to train a four-legged assistant, proceed to research to identify and suit the right dog, based on the needs of its guardian.
Basic training provides the assistance dog with the skills to be able to move everywhere without reactions, without being distracted and escaping from the side of his guardian. A process, as Maria Christina explains, which is quite time consuming.
Then follows the specialized training of the assistance dog, which is adapted to the needs it is called to serve for its guardian. If it is, for example, a person with physical disabilities, the dog is trained to accompany him to the supermarket and give him things from the shelves. Or even inside the house to give him objects that fell on the floor or under furniture and other daily tasks, such as pressing light switches, taking the clothes out of the washing machine, etc.
Upon completion of his training, the assistant dog is asked to go through examinations with the specifications of corresponding international organizations and get an identity card and certification that it is now officially an assistant dog and can serve the needs of his guardian. An important part of the examination of the dog is its behaviour in public places. The identity of the assistance dog serves its unhindered access to public places and air transport.
One of the important gaps, highlighted by Maria Christina, is the access of assistant dogs, especially in private spaces, since the legislation covers only their entry into government buildings and organizations. There is an urgent need to harmonise national legislation allowing access to assistance dogs in all places, as is the case in all European countries.
The problem, he notes, focuses on private spaces, public and non-public, which concerns the mentality that pervades cypriot society, mainly due to ignorance about dogs - assistants and their duties.
It is not a few more times that the presence of a dog in a place, in the minds of some implies with... microbes, despite the fact that in the obligations of a guardian are the regular rules of hygiene of the animal and blood tests for diseases on a 6-month basis; It is important, he stresses, for society to be informed about the importance of the presence of a dog - assistant for the person who needs him in order to have a normal, inclusive life, like all people. Depriving an assistant dog of access to a place equals discrimination against a person who is trafficked by wheelchair and there is no access to a space.
THE INTERVENTION OF THE STATE IN THE PROVISION OF ASSISTANCE IS NECESSARY
May, Andrew's only companion
Maria Christina and her team lived beautiful experiences during trainings of dogs - assistants. If one asks her about what she would keep, she always replies that the satisfaction of achieving the goal is for a dog to be ready to offer its services as an assistant to the people who need it.
We asked her to single out one of the experiences she lived and she talked to us about Mr. Andreas Tryfonos, who lives in a village in Limassol and his dog May. The endless hours of his loneliness, his only companion is his dog.
He turned to Maria Christina and her team to help him with key issues of May's education. After visiting him they found that the dog had several health problems. They undertook her training pro bono for two months, in order to help both Mr. Andrew and May.
Soon, however, the dog, due to health and age problems, will complete the cycle of her life and Mr. Andreas is already facing the need to find a new dog - assistant, something that he is unable to support financially, despite the fact that he is necessary.
We contacted Mr. Andreas, who told us that a suitable dog - assistant, properly trained, will give him greater facilities in his daily life and, at the same time, he underlined the importance of psychological support. The economic difficulties, however, are enormous, especially since he was stuck at a very young and productive age.
He called, through the "F", the State to create such an institution, which will not consider as a luxury the acquisition of a dog - assistant from people who need it, especially to those who cannot afford its cost. Not only for him, but for all the people who need him to live unconditionally and inclusively in their daily lives.
