CHICAGO, Ill. – Mr. Fluffy, a rambunctious pomeranian, is a top-tier psychiatric service dog. He serves his owner Nathan Barlowe loyally, helping him navigate through his anxiety. Mr. Fluffy provides deep pressure therapy, nonprotective boundary control (keeping space between Nate and others), checking what is behind corners before Barlowe follows, and most importantly, is a loving companion.
A service dog changed Barlowe’s life, and what goes around comes around because, to his owner’s surprise, Mr. Fluffy has a request too.
‘“I taught him to use the communicative buttons because I thought it would be fun,” Barlowe tells us. “At first, he was pressing normal ones like ‘Treat’ and ‘Love You.’ Then, he started pressing the ‘AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH’ button, which, now that I’m thinking about it, is a lot louder than the others, and I’m not sure why it’s included in the set. Anyway, after that, he spelled ‘S-E-R-V-I-C-E’ and I knew what he was trying to tell me.”
In possibly a first, a Service Dog has been granted a Service Human (SH). Mr. Fluffy is formally diagnosed with anxiety, and his SH Emily helps him calm his nerves with deep pressure cuddles, nonprotective boundary control (keeping no space between Mr. Fluffy and toys), checking what is behind corners before Mr. Fluffy checks what is behind them, and is, most importantly, a loving companion.
Barlowe, deeply moved by Mr. Fluffy’s bravery to ask for help when he needed it, has created SHFSDOA (Service Humans for Service Dogs of America) so other pups could get through the day a little easier.
“For those confused, it’s like when your therapist has a therapist (and that therapist has a therapist and so on),” Barlowe delineates. “Everyone needs a little help sometimes.”