Service Dog Tasks for Anxiety - Body Blocks

Learn how to teach your dog three service dog tasks to help mitigate PTSD, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, and more.

“For people who experience anxiety in crowded settings the dogs can be taught to provide a barrier between individuals and the handler by blocking the handler on the front side or providing cover for the back of the handler. When teaching the dog to create a barrier between handler and other people, the dog is taught to stand in front of the handler by using hand targeting to either position the dog directly in front of the handler facing outward or across the front of the handler. The dog can either sit, lie down or stand in this position.

With training the dog can “Cover” the handler’s back and prevent people from walking up too close to the back of the person and surprising them. The dog must not must not wander and must stay directly behind the handler. It is best to train this with a wall behind the handler, so the dog gets used to being very close to his handler. Then the handler says, “Watch my back.” or “Cover” as people walk by.”

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[bbyskittles]

Funny how when I was younger I didnt understand why someone would need a service dog (other than the blind and deaf). Now I understand and I wish my mom would have recognized my disorders so maybe I could have had a service dog growing up. Would have saved me a concussion two years ago...but I blame myself for not getting proper help.

[aceasphyxiation]

Ive been training my dog service dog techniques even though she won't become a service dog. I just do so as it is helpful with my anxiety and depression. She knows the commands very well but the issue is once the treats are gone so is her motivation though sometimes when i do go into an episode she will react if in the right mindset. I've used a lot of the techniques in this video only I've changed the names for my training. Block for me is to go behind me and the word Front is for obviously being infront of me. Cover is for dpt in my case. This video is really helpful 🖤🖤

[peachlemonade]

I have GAD, or generalized anxiety disorder, and something that always messes with me if people standing behind me. I just freak out because a) I don't know what their doing and b) i can't hear them well enough and I'm always freaking out about people just watching my every move and judging me. When your dog does "Cover" all I could think about is how it would make feel safer knowing that there's someone(thing) behind me and I can know what he/she is doing instead of wondering and being to scared to turn around.

[nicoldanielle]

Hi, I am disabled and am training my own service dog, Molly. Wow, what a perfect video to run across. These happen to be a couple of the tasks I wanted to train her to do. the other one is " give an excuse to leave a negative situation" on cue. The platform seems another pro tip- so grateful!

[shinu]

These are very simple tasks so they are good ones to teach forst instead of jumping right into more complicated stuff like DPT or alerts. Will definatly be teaching these to my SDiT!

[ezra]

I had no idea I could get a dog to help me with anxiety I get being alone in public spaces, especially when strangers get too close to me. I knew they’d be able to help me with medications and panic attacks, but this would help me so much more with day to day stuff that is more subtle than stopping an immediate attack. This is a game changer.

[CRFranklin]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. We will be adding this to our increasingly long list of tasks!

[madybensdorp]

This is honestly so awesome! Thank you so much for sharing! I know Dusty would never be able to do a lot of tasks but this is something she could definitely do!

[servicedogzeki]

For me DPT works and having my SD alert to psychical symptoms of my anxiety

[lokilockness]

Thank you so much I just started work with PADS and me and my girl Raven are a newish team she’s 14 months old

[maxhamlin]

My therapist is undereducated on service dogs (which I know because she says that service dogs can’t do things that are commonly trained like block and cover). This will be every helpful so that I can show her what Anxiety Service Dogs can do.

[hvvryijjzdkk]

This is a very good video! You explained the process so well! Thanks so much for this! 😊

[jogtindell]

By far the best training video out there! Concise and clear. Well done!

[faithoaks]

I was trying to find out how to get a service dog for anxiety... Everything I read online is for medical ailments .. so not sure and also how can you purchase your own puppy to train as it grows for this? I have debilitating panic attacks and due to this can't be in public alone.. I would love to be able to be a normal adult and be able to take my kids to the park or go grocery shopping... Any info or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

[VeraJosephine]

Sometimes I feel like I'm the service animal for my dog 🤣 Gonna teach all these to keep my boy in a safe distance when he's uncomfortable with people coming close. Especially when someone stops to have a chat he gets nervous and doesn't know how to act. I want to avoid people touching him in those situations, but I never figured out, how to get him that close to me so the bodyweight can tell me he's still fine behind my back. Using a platform will solve this in a minute! Thanks a lot for this and all of your Videos! Lots of kisses to Oak and Tucker <3

[haseblack]

This was literally the most perfect video I needed thank you! Bringing home by puppy in a few days and i cant wait to get to the basics and watch how she grows. Thanks again!

[melodyshu]

I have bad anxiety and depression and need a service dog. Unfortunately at this time I’m not allowed to have one due to my living situations. Your videos are helping me prepare to have a service dog. Thank you. And if you have any tips please help.

[leafy]

I've been training my dog service dog tasks tho she's not going to be a service dog, it's just really helpful to have some extra help because some days it's just to hard to do stuff that I'm supposed to be doing at my age like walk, hang out, talk to people

[patricksworld]

Y'all I got the darn ESA ad for this vid help!

[phoenixgate]

Very clearly explained thank you! May I ask where you got your platforms? I’d love to see more videos like this, as there are so few out there for a task training anxiety service dogs. Great video.