07/24/2026
Seeing our puppies do great things brings my heart so much joy!! 🥰❤️
Meet Kai. ❤️
Kai is my Newfoundland and my psychiatric service dog.
Many of you know me as someone who runs an ABA company, had a son named Kreed and had Kreed’s world, trains dogs, or is constantly surrounded by animals. What many people don’t know is that I’ve spent the last 29 years living with Bipolar I Disorder with psychotic features and OCD.
Mental illness can be incredibly lonely. There are days when my own mind convinces me things are real that aren’t. There are days when depression makes it hard to function, anxiety feels overwhelming, or mania and psychosis quietly begin to creep in before I even recognize what’s happening.
That’s where Kai comes in.
Kai was trained using scent samples collected on cotton balls and frozen during training. Over time, she learned to recognize my individual scent changes associated with depression, mania, psychosis, anxiety, suicidal crises, and my baseline.
When she alerts me, she’s often the first sign that something is changing. Sometimes she notices before I do.
She doesn’t just alert, though.
She wraps herself around me in a giant Newfoundland hug and provides deep pressure therapy. She leads me away from crowded places when everything becomes too overwhelming. She interrupts self-injurious or suicidal behaviors. She’s learning to retrieve my medication when she alerts to severe anxiety or a suicidal crisis.
There have been moments when Kai interrupted me during my darkest hours. I don’t know where I would be without her, but I do know she has helped keep me alive.
People often see a service dog lying quietly under a table and think, “What a well-behaved dog.”
What they don’t see is the life she’s protecting.
Over the next several weeks, I’m going to share our journey—from the very first training sessions to where we are today. I’ll share successes, mistakes, learning experiences, and the incredible things a psychiatric service dog can do.
If even one person living with mental illness feels less alone because of our story, or one person learns something new about psychiatric service dogs, then sharing this vulnerable part of my life will have been worth it.
Thank you for letting Kai and me share our journey with you. 🧡
