Get a well-trained ESA dog - basic steps and guidelines
An emotional support animal (ESA) is defined as such a kind of animal which gets specialized to provide care and support to people who are suffering from any kind of mental disorder. ESAs help people in reducing their feelings of loneliness and depression.
A well-trained emotional support animal can make all the difference in the world to someone suffering from emotional or mental health challenges. At realesaletter.com, we understand this and provide our customers with access to well-trained ESA dogs that are ready to provide emotional support. Our dogs are trained in accordance with the latest guidelines and regulations and are suitable for individuals with a wide range of mental health conditions. We ensure that our animals are well-behaved, obedient, and provide the support that you need.
It is not easy to get an ESA letter because mental health professionals completely examine the condition of the people and provide a letter. There are three types of ESA letters such as realesaletter for housing, ESA letter for travelling and a combo of both. People prefer to get a combo letter so that they can easily live and travel with their ESA. For the provision of an ESA letter, a mental health professional needs to be licensed. If a professional does not have a practical license, his ESA letter will not be considered an authentic or credible one.
Once you get an ESA letter, the next step is to choose an appropriate animal to be kept at home. ESA dog is the best choice because of the loyalty and companionship of the animal. You cannot keep a dog as an ESA without providing proper training to him. If the dog is not trained he cannot provide you company and cannot even provide you with emotional support. Some of the basic steps and guidelines for the training of ESA dogs are as follows:
There are different ways for the training of ESA dogs that can be considered efficient and effective. Whatever method you choose, keep the stick on it and continue the regular training. In order to get efficient results, daily give your dog at least 15 minutes. Always reward your dog for his good behaviour but never indulge him in any kind of punishment for learning slowly in the training process. Punishment can adversely impact the behaviour of the dog and will slow down the training process. Once your dog learns good behaviour you can move towards three Ds.
ESAs provide both physical and mental support to the people and help them to stay healthy and safe. In order to get an ESA and keep it in the house, you need to get an ESA Letter from a mental health professional.
Duration: Train your dog to remain in the commanded behaviour until you desist that specific command. This duration can start from 3 seconds and can be increased with time.
Distance: Train your dog to give a response to your voice even when you are far away from him. You should give your dog a command and then move away to a specific distance to train him about the distant commands.
Distraction: ESA dogs need to be trained in different situations even if you are surrounded by different distractions. In order to create distractions, you can include more people in this training process. It will help your dog to keep his focus on your command always.
While training ESA dogs, always try to maintain their sense of authority and calm. Dogs can better understand body language as compared to verbal words so train them according to their strength.
Specialized Anxiety Technique
The purpose of ESA dogs is to provide relief from different symptoms of mental illness. ESA dogs need to be trained in such a way that they can help in reducing the symptoms of anxiety, especially during crisis moments. Deep Pressure Therapy is the most common technique which can be taught to dogs for this purpose.
In this therapy, an ESA dog can put pressure on specific areas of the body to relieve mental and emotional stress. Small dogs can be even trained to sit on your body in specific areas. ESA dogs must be trained to remain calm and relaxed during stressful situations so that they can help you to relieve different symptoms.
Getting on Sofa
ESA dogs must be trained well on how they can sit on the sofa. This sofa sitting can help the dogs to accompany you while receiving DPT. Different words such as 'paws up' and 'paws down' can be used to set commands for the different actions of dogs. You can use these commands and can show relevant action so that they can follow you on each word. Once they get it learned you should reward them with treats and love. This practise should be continued until dogs get used to it.
Applying Pressure
After teaching on the sitting sofa, you should teach the ESA dogs to sit on specific areas of the body to apply pressure. This pressure can help you to relieve stress and remain calm. Different command words can be assigned for this activity as well so that dogs can easily pick these. This technique of applying pressure can be proven difficult if you are having a large breed of dog. Big Breeds can only use their heads and paws for this purpose they cannot sit on themselves.
Signs of Anxiety
Dogs must be taught to detect different symptoms of anxiety and stress so that they can provide therapy and stress relief techniques. In this technique, both the command and reward system will help the dogs to become used to helping you.
Once you train your ESA dog, it will become easier for you to live with it. ESA dogs can help you to relieve different symptoms of mental illness when they get the proper training. Well-trained dogs will improve your mental health more efficiently.
Useful Resources
What Type of Professionals Can Sign an ESA Letter for Me?
steps to register my bird as an ESA
Can we select our ESA ourselves or only our psychiatrist can recommend it?
Are free ESA letters legit?
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