Behavioral Interruption - Psychiatric Service Dogs

Scratching. Picking. Nail biting. Pacing. Repeatedly checking door locks. Washing hands until they are raw. These are some behaviors that can consume a person until they interfere with normal functional behavior. In other words, some behavioral habits interrupt normal life for people. Behavioral Interruption as a K9 task involves the dog sensing the specified behavior in their handler, and using a cue to the handler to do something else.

Here is an example. Kelly is 8 years old, and has anxiety from previous trauma. Kelly frequently gets caught up in thoughts about “scary things,” and during these thoughts she subconsciously picks at the skin on her arms. She picks until she bleeds, and has many little scars from this behavior. Kelly’s Service Dog, Wylan, uses this behavior as a cue to go to Kelly for some petting. He bumps her with his nose, to ask for attention. This cues Kelly to stop picking and to pet Wylan instead. Over time, this reduces the amount of picking Kelly does, and builds the relationship between dog and girl.

DailyNLP.com has this to say: “Pattern interrupts are really useful in that they shake up a person’s typical thoughts and actions and opens the possibility for something new to take place. …
When a pattern is interrupted completely, the person is left without a next step in their thought process or behavior, and naturally opens up to whatever next step is offered to him or her by the situation.
In other words, the person whose pattern is interrupted becomes highly influenceable.”

Influenced to interact with their Service Dog, perhaps?

Behavioral Interruption is an excellent tool which can have tremendous benefits for children and adults alike, and even enhances relationships between handlers and their K9s.