Our Dogs Recognize Our Invisible and Unnamed Symptoms
Dear MS.net readers, I wrote this one year ago but was not ready to post it yet. Thank you for requesting this update.
August 22, 2023, was one year since the first love of my life, my service dog Bean, passed away.
For thirteen years, Bean had been my rock. He was with me before I knew that I had MS, through my diagnosis, and as I accepted my permanent physical and cognitive disabilities. Then, Bean assumed new responsibilities as my service dog, enabling me to return to working and living independently (with Bean). In 3 countries and 5 cities, Bean shepherded me around and through physical and mental obstacles and took me home before I collapsed of daily increases in my MS symptoms (“MS fatigue”).
Support during my loss and grief
This community, the MultipleSclerosis.net community, offered me incredible support during my loss and grief. Thank you all. Writing about Bean’s life and work was the first step in thinking about a new chapter of my life without Bean physically by my side.
And reading your replies of support, ideas, empathy, and great understanding helped me to walk again, knowing that Bean would always be with me.
Dogs can recognize our bad MS days
Very surprisingly, your responses to my article about Bean talked about how your dogs also know when you are having “a bad MS day” and, at that point, how your dog does not leave your side.
Increases in MS fatigue, the ability to decide to move, memory loss, and mood can change within a day or an hour. They are often seen as “invisible symptoms” of MS that are not easily recognizable (and generally undefined). BUT, so very many of you reported how your dog responds – in advance – to increases in your MS symptoms and responds accordingly!
For example, you noted how they sense oncoming increases in balance problems, tiredness, visual problems, and your ability to remain upright, and then stabilize you and shepherd you to a couch or bed. At this point, your replies report an overwhelming pattern of how your dog works to calm you when you are in this state of increased symptom severity. It seems that our dogs are clearly connected to something humans cannot “see.”
All kinds of dogs can help us
Some view golden retrievers and labradors as the preferred breeds for service dogs, guide dogs, epileptic seizure, and diabetic alert dogs and mobility dogs. Per your responses, this is not always the case with regards to MS service dogs. I am amazed by the great variety of dog breeds that accompany us and have accompanied us, including:
- Akita, Aussiedoodle, Australian Labradoodle
- Bernese Mountain Dog, Boxer, Blue Heeler
- Chow Chow, Collie, Dutch Shepherd, French Bulldog
- German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Greyhound
- Jack Russell, Labrador, Shetland Sheepdog, wolf/Malamute and Yorkshire Terrier
The biggest surprise to me here was a Greyhound, but a community member shared that Greyhounds do not need as much exercise as people expect, and they can be good at bracing because of their stature.
Mobility assistance and emotional support
And what an incredible number of mobility assistance tasks these dogs perform for our community: balance, bracing, forward momentum, assistance standing, climbing stairs, retrieving items and fallen objects, opening and closing doors, retrieving items from the refrigerator, pushing elevator buttons, finding safe places to rest, helping with laundry, removing socks.
These are only a few of the “visible” tasks that you reported.
Many of you also shared about the emotional support that your dog provides, helping you with depression and loneliness, acceptance of your diagnosis, giving you confidence and unconditional love. This role is no less important than preventing falls, but this difference is of the utmost importance at the level of your rights to have a service dog accompanying you in public places.
Our rights with service animals
A service dog is an animal who is “trained to perform a task directly related to a person’s disability,” according to U.S. law. It, however, states that service animals are not “emotional support or comfort dogs, because providing emotional support or comfort is not a task related to a person’s disability.” The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) further states that service animals are not "required to be certified or go through a professional training program."
Honestly, for me, there are so many directions that this discussion could take from here. For example, does this mean that preventing falls is more important than preventing a chronic depressive state? When a dog recognizes daily onset symptom increase in advance (e.g., increased problems with memory and movement), what is this called?
Answers, I have not. But in your replies to my story of Bean, you have written pages of reports of dogs who are providing the service of helping you with really awful, daily, potentially fall-inducing symptoms of MS.
Join the conversation