How Dogs Improve Our Mental Health

“When Waffle (@wafflenugget), my Bernese Mountain Dog, came home with me when she was eight weeks old, she was the best Valentine’s Day present ever. Dogs have always been my safe place; they are my spot to come home to. At the time, I was at home, disabled, and working super part-time. I had a history of psychosis, including hallucinations and suicidal ideation, and PTSD. I spent years in an agoraphobic state struggling to leave the house.

Three months after we got Waffle, she started doing something strange. I’d be on the couch on my computer and she’d suddenly wake up, run, and jump on me. My now-husband and I called it a ‘fluff bomb.’ As soon as Waffle would fluff bomb, I’d start to see hallucinations. I kept track of when these would occur and realized that she was picking up on my body chemistry changes and alerting me that these visualizations would soon come.

From there, I spent a lot of focused time training her to be my service dog. I was able to start building my career—a feat in of itself for someone whose doctors said was destined to live her life in a psychiatric ward. Waffle was and is my lifeline. She’s my greatest teacher and has empowered my growth.

This past year has been triggering. My PTSD went from being manageable to becoming a constant daily battle. I went from having one night terror a week to five a night.

Still, Waffle has been instrumental. The tasks I taught her as a puppy—how to get me up and out of the house—have been foundational this year.

With Waffle, I hope to teach other people that we’re all going through something, if you’re just brave enough to ask about it. And life is better when you ask. There’s no shame in mental illness, it’s human. Honestly, life is a lot better when we’re human together.” —Kate Speer, 33, CEO of The Dogist, Norwich, Vermont