Shout out to the mom at the ice rink today who not only took the time to explain what a service dog was to her 5 (ish) year old—but also gave one of the best kid-friendly explanations of an anxiety service dog I’ve ever heard.
Post initial dog-discussion, the little girl wanted to know what “job” Deacon was doing (Sound carries over the ice and we were the only people there. I was skating, but I could still hear their conversation on the bleachers).
Mom: “I don’t know. Maybe he’s a seizure dog, or an allergy dog, or an anxiety dog.”
Little girl then enquires about each of these things (What’s a seizure? Allergies that make you sneeze? What’s anxiety?) The saint of a mother patiently and clearly explains each of these things. But her explanation for anxiety struck me.
“You know how sometimes you get scared at night and we wrap you up like a burrito and breathe together until you feel better? Sometimes adults feel scared like that too—not because of a bad dream or because something scary is happening, but because their brains trick them into thinking something scary is happening. That’s called anxiety. But adults can’t bring their moms with them everywhere to take care of them when their anxiety gets bad, so sometimes they get a dog who’s trained to take care of them like their mom would.”
Nava 