I was tossing up whether or not to put this is brainbent but hey I'm after whatever advice people might have on the subject. My family has always had some sort of animal, be it cat or dog or guinea pig or bird. Fish too, but they're less interactive. It's always just been a company thing, another member of the family. Now that my sister and I have moved out, we really really miss the family dog, Pip. I'm lucky enough that he can come and visit me for a day or two while parents are in town running errands, and I make sure I can stockpile images of him to send to my sister. But, he still goes home with my parents at the end of the day. Being around the dog really helps a lot with my ability to cope with day to day life. I go for more frequent walks, I take breaks from my computer to fuss over him. Even the cleanliness of my room is improved, because the dog sure can't pick up after me, and I don't want him to be living in a pigsty, even if I think it's acceptable conditions for myself. When I suffer from pretty bad depression and anxiety (plus a few other ??fuzzy diagnoses), the company makes a noticeable difference in my life. Which is my understanding of how a support or assistance animal might be able to help assist Except uh. None of my doctors are taking the idea seriously? At best, they're going 'but you realise that's not something that can happen immediately', and then never returning to the issue. At worst, they go 'but you're not blind', showing how they've no idea about the broader applications of support animals. So it's back to trying to figure it out on my own. My parents support the idea, but I'd like to try and get some of the research done myself before I start turning to them for help. I understand that I would still have the ongoing cost of looking after an animal. I'm Australian, living in NSW, and I'm going to keep doing research but- Especially if anyone has an emotional support animal, I'd love to hear whatever advice or input you have on the subject??
I'm definitely after a support animal (i didn't make any mention of service animals in my post?). I don't have issues which require company while I'm out and about (it's mostly about avoiding isolating and starving myself because I won't go out in the first place), so I wouldn't have a need for an animal that can go anywhere with me. I would still go through training to have it properly declared as an assistance animal, because that's apparently the best way to have the animal and my rights protected, and I wouldn't want to have a badly trained animal- my parents were slack in the latest dog's training and it's just led to problems for all parties.
one thing i'd keep in mind if you want to get a dog and train it yourself/have it trained for you, is that not all dogs really 'click' with the sort of training required to gain service dog certification. it's entirely possible you'll go through buying and raising a puppy and have it unable to be certified. it seems like you don't really need or want the additional task training anyway, but only certified animals have guaranteed rights to things like housing. if it doesn't get service certification you can still try to pass it as an emotional support animal and get a note from a doctor to try and sway the opinion of people leasing out places or what have you, but in the case of emotional support animals they have no legal obligation to accept the animal and can say 'no' to the request.
@Alska Thank you for trying to help regardless- sorry if the comment about the doctors was confusing, I meant it more in a fashion of 'they think the only assistance animals out there are like seeing eye or other service dogs'. Thank you, you're not stupid, I'm sorry if I was a bit sharp. @Aniseed That's understandable, yeah. I've been talking with a friend who's done some research into the subject and they've caught me up on that I would have to first acquire dog and then seek training, so it'll be dependant now on whether or not my current residence would be willing to let me have a dog while seeking training for it. I'd be prepared to deal with the possibility of it not receiving certification.
