A Service Dog
Dogs not only fill us with love and affection. They also offer us protection and guard our home. But it does not stop there. There are some dogs out there, known as service dogs, who actually makes lives of other people easier. Namely, people with special abilities. A service dog is an assistance dog that has been specifically trained to assist the physically and mentally impaired.
The job of a Service Dog
The U.S Department of Justice, through the Civil Rights Division, issued an updated definition of what a service animal is and what his job is. It states:
Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
Training a Service Dog
Since the job of a service dog is to mitigate a person’s disabilities, sometimes the training of the animal is done specifically to meet the owner’s needs. The truth is that, to some extent, all service dogs are custom-trained for a specific individual.
Sometimes, the owner of the dog decides to train his service dog himself. This is allowed in several countries like the United States, England, and Ireland.
It is without a doubt that service dogs are a life-changer for many people with physical and mental disabilities. In Dogalize we appreciate the work our best friends do every day. They entertain us, keep us sane many times, and also help us in our darkest hours. Stay in touch with us to learn more about how to reciprocate your dog’s unconditional love.