Founder and President of Whiskey's Wish Scott Jackman was injured while on deployment to Afghanistan and medically discharged due to these injuries and subsequently diagnosed with major depression and PTSD. He was given an assistance dog called Whiskey who unfortunately passed too soon with cancer. Whiskey's Wish is named after Whiskey and was instrumental in both Scott and Liz starting this charity organisation.
Tonight we talk toLiz Jackman has been a dog lover since she first set eyes on them. Growing up with dogs and living and working with them on farms then having them as part of Liz's life, they are not only pets but also her best friends. After co-founding Whiskey's Wish in 2014 Liz became a dog handler. Through this handling and assisting her husband Scott, Liz began to learn the many aspects of dog behaviour and the amazing relationship and bond that dogs have in being able to not only provide love and loyalty but also by consistency in training that these amazing creatures provided a fundamental medical aid of assistance to their owners and handlers. Mentored by her husband who is a fully certified and qualified Companion Dog Trainer and Dog behaviourist, Liz became certified earning a Diploma in Dog Training, a certificate in Canine Fear courses and further education in service dog training. In October 2018, Liz started her business A Dog’s Choice Training Services from the requests of those outside of the criteria of the charity who needed assistance with training their dogs for special needs and disabilities.
In this episode Liz chats to us about how and why Whiskey's Wish was started, the service they provide, how the dogs are trained, etc. For the Recipients that are hypervigilant and suffer with high levels of social anxiety a service dog is able to sense, interrupt and mitigate their distress. They may also detect when their person is having a nightmare and wake them. They don't just train dogs for people with PTSD, but also people that may have a service related injury like Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or amputees, etc. We all probably know how clever dogs are, but I still find it incredible that dogs can be trained to do over 400 tasks. They can learn all sorts of tasks on cue from opening doors to retrieving medication to sweeping a house before entering to ensure all is well inside.
Whiskey's Wish also conduct mental health and service dog educational seminars and you can register now for the upcoming workshops in Queensland (see link below).
www.facebook.com/whiskeyswish.org.au
www.linkedin.com/company/whiskeys-wish-inc/
Netty is such a beautiful natured dog. She trained as a Guide Dog, but with her gentle, sensitive and calm temperament, the Guide Dogs wanted to use her for breeding. Of which she excelled and I give her 10 gold stars for her solid effort there - she had 21 puppies all up with a massive first litter of 9 (they all survived and all needed feeding). Mum has a few questions for Netty, particularly the fact she is blissfully awake and running amok well into the night when everyone should be asleep!!! She also has been sniffing a lot and licking her lips after eating. Come and have listen to what Netty has to say about her life as a Guide Dog Mum, what she wants Mum to know and why she's so awake in the middle of the night!
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