The Possibility Dogs: What a Handful of "Unadoptables" Taught Me About Service,
Hope, and Healing [Hardcover] By Susanna Charleson
Book Description
Release date: June 4, 2013
An inspiring story that shows how dogs can be rescued, and can rescue in return.
With her critically acclaimed, bestselling first book, Scent of the Missing, Susannah Charleson was widely praised for her unique insight into the kinship between humans and dogs, as revealed through her work in canine search and rescue alongside her partner, golden retriever Puzzle.
Now, in The Possibility Dogs, Charleson journeys into the world of psychiatric service, where dogs aid humans with disabilities that may be unseen but are no less felt. This work had a profound effect on Charleson, perhaps because, for her, this journey began as a personal one: Charleson herself struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder for months after a particularly grisly search. Collaboration with her search dog partner made the surprising difference to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learns to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, often plucking them from shelters at the last minute, and to train them for work beside hurting partners, to whom these second-chance dogs bring intelligence, comfort, and hope.
Along the way she comes to see canine potential everywhere, often where she least expects it – from Merlin the chocolate lab puppy with the broken tail once cast away in a garbage bag, who now stabilizes his partner’s panic attacks; to Ollie, the blind and deaf terrier, rescued moments before it was too late, who now soothes anxious children; to Jake Piper, the starving pit bull terrier mix with the wayward ears who is transformed into a working service dog and, who, for Charleson, goes from abandoned to irreplaceable.
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Amazon.com purchaser review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Canine Psychological Assistants
By Robert B. Richey May 2, 2013
I personally think that most dogs are really neat people. I have a few dog friends who I think would enjoy this book, but maybe they would not care to read it because they already know most of what this book is about. That is good, I guess because one result of reading this book is that I now think that I understand some of the things that dogs have attempted to teach me in the past.
This book is about a set of dogs with a specialized purpose in life - they spend their lives in taking care of their humans. These are service dogs. Now you probably know what service dogs are, they are `seeing eye' dogs, deaf assistance dogs, search and rescue dogs and avalanche rescue dogs. That list does not even scratch the surface of the specializations of service dogs. A lot of what this book is about is the psychiatric service dogs. They are vital dogs which provide the services for persons who are handicapped in a way that may not be obvious to the population at large. They help make life worth living for depressed, traumatized, or suicidal persons. If that was what this book was about, it is well worth reading, but...
This book is about service dogs that have their own needs. If you have ever been around a rescue dog, a dog which has been abandoned, a dog which nobody wants to adopt because they are ugly, because they are blind, because they are the wrong color then you know that those are the dogs that most appreciate their adopter and are fiercely loyal to them. In this book, the author discusses the training of these `unadoptable' dogs to be very effective service dogs, especially in the service of psychiatrically needy humans.
A wonderful book to help you understand the need for these dogs even if you do not care for dogs.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/054773493X
Hope, and Healing [Hardcover] By Susanna Charleson
Book Description
Release date: June 4, 2013
An inspiring story that shows how dogs can be rescued, and can rescue in return.
With her critically acclaimed, bestselling first book, Scent of the Missing, Susannah Charleson was widely praised for her unique insight into the kinship between humans and dogs, as revealed through her work in canine search and rescue alongside her partner, golden retriever Puzzle.
Now, in The Possibility Dogs, Charleson journeys into the world of psychiatric service, where dogs aid humans with disabilities that may be unseen but are no less felt. This work had a profound effect on Charleson, perhaps because, for her, this journey began as a personal one: Charleson herself struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder for months after a particularly grisly search. Collaboration with her search dog partner made the surprising difference to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learns to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, often plucking them from shelters at the last minute, and to train them for work beside hurting partners, to whom these second-chance dogs bring intelligence, comfort, and hope.
Along the way she comes to see canine potential everywhere, often where she least expects it – from Merlin the chocolate lab puppy with the broken tail once cast away in a garbage bag, who now stabilizes his partner’s panic attacks; to Ollie, the blind and deaf terrier, rescued moments before it was too late, who now soothes anxious children; to Jake Piper, the starving pit bull terrier mix with the wayward ears who is transformed into a working service dog and, who, for Charleson, goes from abandoned to irreplaceable.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Amazon.com purchaser review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Canine Psychological Assistants
By Robert B. Richey May 2, 2013
I personally think that most dogs are really neat people. I have a few dog friends who I think would enjoy this book, but maybe they would not care to read it because they already know most of what this book is about. That is good, I guess because one result of reading this book is that I now think that I understand some of the things that dogs have attempted to teach me in the past.
This book is about a set of dogs with a specialized purpose in life - they spend their lives in taking care of their humans. These are service dogs. Now you probably know what service dogs are, they are `seeing eye' dogs, deaf assistance dogs, search and rescue dogs and avalanche rescue dogs. That list does not even scratch the surface of the specializations of service dogs. A lot of what this book is about is the psychiatric service dogs. They are vital dogs which provide the services for persons who are handicapped in a way that may not be obvious to the population at large. They help make life worth living for depressed, traumatized, or suicidal persons. If that was what this book was about, it is well worth reading, but...
This book is about service dogs that have their own needs. If you have ever been around a rescue dog, a dog which has been abandoned, a dog which nobody wants to adopt because they are ugly, because they are blind, because they are the wrong color then you know that those are the dogs that most appreciate their adopter and are fiercely loyal to them. In this book, the author discusses the training of these `unadoptable' dogs to be very effective service dogs, especially in the service of psychiatrically needy humans.
A wonderful book to help you understand the need for these dogs even if you do not care for dogs.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/054773493X
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