Anxiety Alert Training

An anxiety alert is an important service dog task for some people with mental health conditions. This task serves as an early warning system: The dog alerts their handler to their increasing anxiety before it escalates, and this allows the handler to take quick action to reduce their anxiety. While the process for training this task appears straightforward, there are important considerations when it comes to generalization, reliability of performance, how the handler should respond after their service dog alerts, and the number of alerts that are trained.

A common approach to training an anxiety alert is to train the dog to respond to body language that indicates increasing anxiety. Of course, every individual is different, but some examples include things like foot tapping, scratching an arm, chewing nails or fidgeting with their hands. It’s important to carefully select the body language indicator. This should be something the handler does frequently when they feel anxious, but not at other times. Because we are often unaware of our own body language, handlers may find it helpful to recruit feedback from a family member, caregiver or therapist when selecting which aspects of their body language to teach the dog to alert to.

Just as selecting the body language is important, choosing the alert behavior is important as well. Common options include a nose nudge and a paw touch. The alert needs to be something easy for the dog to do, as physically demanding alert behaviors are difficult for a dog to repeat and risk the dog needing to be retired early. Jumping up on the handler is usually not a desirable alert behavior. Consider the handler’s comfort: The dog pawing at the handler may be painful or risk a scratch. Additionally, most handlers prefer their dog not muddy their clothes. For these reasons, a nose nudge is the most commonly selected alert. Another consideration is where on the handler’s body the dog will nudge. On their leg? Their arm? It’s important to take time to select the location carefully, aiming for precision in the alert. The location of the alert should be selected thoughtfully to ensure that it is comfortable and consistent for the handler. Once the details for the alert behavior are chosen, the behavior needs to be trained to a level of fluency where it is reliably on cue in all environments where the dog will need to perform it.

The next step involves pairing the alert with the anxious body language, so the body language becomes a visual cue for the dog to alert. This process essentially involves changing the cue. Whenever you want to change a cue, you simply give the new cue followed by the old one. In this case, the body language becomes the new cue, so that should be performed first. Then the old cue for the alert is given and the trainer marks and rewards the dog for performing the alert. For example, the trainer first displays the body language, then verbally cues the dog to “touch.” With some repetition, the verbal cue can be faded out. All done, right? Not quite — this is just the starting point.

Making sure the behavior is under stimulus control is extremely important. Otherwise, the dog may offer false alerts, alerting when the handler is not anxious. This is crucial because, the same way we might question our own emotional state if asked if we are anxious or stressed, false alerts may increase the handler’s stress even if they are not anxious. Trainers can prevent unwanted alerts by rewarding throughout the training loop for this behavior. For instance, scratch your arm, mark and reward the dog for alerting, then cue the dog to lie down on a mat and mark and reward again. Later on in the process, mixing in additional cues the dog already knows well can also help. For instance, mix in cues for behaviors such as sits, downs or hand touches in training sessions, as well as scratching your arm.

While the training process seems simple, there are challenging aspects as well. Trainers need to ensure the dog will perform reliably, even when distracted. This means the dog needs to be rewarded for frequently checking in with the handler in various contexts. If the dog isn’t checking in, they will miss the body language cues. Additionally, the handler needs to practice in different orientations relative to the dog. For instance, if the behavior was trained with the handler standing facing the dog, will the dog still alert if the handler is seated? What if the handler is facing sideways?

Another important consideration is training the dog to persist until the handler responds. Common mistakes when working toward a persistent alert include waiting too long to mark and reward the behavior (increasing criteria too quickly) and only marking and rewarding after the dog alerts persistently. If you wait too long, the dog may become frustrated. This can lead to the dog offering less precise alerts, other untrained behaviors or fewer alert behaviors. In short, this risks weakening the alert behavior itself. Marking only after the dog alerts several times in a row can also cause problems. The dog may begin delaying offering the alert, and you may notice increasing latency over time. The main purpose of an anxiety alert is to let the handler know early. If there is too much of a delay, the task may no longer serve its function of alerting the handler to rising anxiety before it escalates. A simple way to avoid this is to mix things up, sometimes marking early for fast alerts while also periodically delaying and marking for persistent alerts.

The handler’s response to the dog’s alert is an aspect that is often overlooked. Once the dog has alerted to increasing anxiety, what should the handler do? An appropriate response should be determined in consultation with the handler’s mental health provider. There are many options, some of which might include simply leaving the situation, taking medication, cueing the dog to perform deep pressure therapy, interacting with the dog in a mutually enjoyable way, calling a therapist, doing deep breathing or using another helpful strategy. Having a clear plan for responding to the alert helps the handler gain the most benefit from the service dog’s task.

Service dog owner-trainers often approach trainers with very long lists of tasks. It is common for owner-trainers to expect the dog to alert to many different things. However, when it comes to an anxiety alert, if too many body language cues are chosen, there is a risk that the dog will over-generalize and start to alert to various movements that aren’t anxiety-based. Additionally, given the amount of time it takes to train a service dog and fully generalize just one alert behavior to different settings and situations, teaching too many alert cues risks that none are really trained to fluency and reliability.

An anxiety alert can be a lifechanging service dog task for individuals with mental health conditions. Training this behavior involves careful consideration to ensure the dog’s performance is precise, consistent and reliable across different settings. While this service dog skill may seem straightforward, achieving fluency and reliability requires time, thoughtful planning and attention to detail, all of which will help the team be successful.