Becoming Assistance Dog
Predominantly, empirical, and theoretical research on psychiatric assistance dogs in the Netherlands is an evaluation of the impact an assistance dog has on the handler’s quality of life. One element central to this narrative is the construction of a service dog as medical tool, without which someone cannot function. Yet to look at service dogs as tools does not do justice to who these companion species are and what they mean to handlers: it ignores the importance of the human-canine attachment. The aim of this study is to move beyond investigating the effectiveness of psychiatric assistance dogs as medical tools, and instead focus on how the handler-assistance dog bond is worked at, taking into consideration both human and canine strengths and vulnerabilities, to understand how animal assisted interventions become valuable for both species in daily practice. My research question is: How do handler and assistance dog work towards, and keep a bond? To investigate, I focused on behavior I can observe, how handlers and assistance dogs practice bonding. Besides, I did interviews with the handlers, practiced autoethnography, created works of art with my dog, and distributed a sur- vey on Instagram with open-ended questions. From these inquiries, I conclude that the bond can best be described in terms of kinship. Furthermore, the handler works around a problem of translation by focusing on appreciation, and by acting upon existing norms. The labor that is done to work towards and keep a bond are, what I call, practices of love that assistance dog and handler do to each other. These practices include training, play, caring for each other’s bodies, and alerting to distress. The insights of this research suggest that an animal assisted intervention can still be valuable, in terms of kinship and who handler and dog become, even when its counterproductive as the intervention highlights, instead of reduces, some of the mental health problems for which handlers got their assistance dog in the first place.
Becoming Assistance Dog
Predominantly, empirical, and theoretical research on psychiatric assistance dogs in the Netherlands is an evaluation of the impact an assistance dog has on the handler’s quality of life. One element central to this narrative is the construction of a service dog as medical tool, without which someone cannot function. Yet to look at service dogs as tools does not do justice to who these companion species are and what they mean to handlers: it ignores the importance of the human-canine attachment. The aim of this study is to move beyond investigating the effectiveness of psychiatric assistance dogs as medical tools, and instead focus on how the handler-assistance dog bond is worked at, taking into consideration both human and canine strengths and vulnerabilities, to understand how animal assisted interventions become valuable for both species in daily practice. My research question is: How do handler and assistance dog work towards, and keep a bond? To investigate, I focused on behavior I can observe, how handlers and assistance dogs practice bonding. Besides, I did interviews with the handlers, practiced autoethnography, created works of art with my dog, and distributed a sur- vey on Instagram with open-ended questions. From these inquiries, I conclude that the bond can best be described in terms of kinship. Furthermore, the handler works around a problem of translation by focusing on appreciation, and by acting upon existing norms. The labor that is done to work towards and keep a bond are, what I call, practices of love that assistance dog and handler do to each other. These practices include training, play, caring for each other’s bodies, and alerting to distress. The insights of this research suggest that an animal assisted intervention can still be valuable, in terms of kinship and who handler and dog become, even when its counterproductive as the intervention highlights, instead of reduces, some of the mental health problems for which handlers got their assistance dog in the first place.
