With September being National Service Dog Month I wanted to take a few minutes to raise awareness and talk to you about the many different types of service dogs.
The requirements of having a service dog include: the dog performing tasks to mitigate a disability and to be trained in public access.
The most commonly known type is the guide dog. Guide dogs help visually impaired people navigate the world. It provides more independence than using a white cane or a human guide.
Hearing assistance dogs alert their handlers to noises they cannot hear themselves. These noises may be things such as fire alarms, a door bell, or the oven timer.
Diabetic alert dogs alert their handlers to high or low blood sugar so they can get more sugar or insulin before they get dangerously high or low.
Seizure alert and response dogs can either alert their handler to an oncoming seizure and get the handler to a safe space before they have the seizure and/or respond to a seizure by putting themselves under their handler’s head so they don’t get a head injury, or to go get help.
Cardiac alert dogs can alert to high or low heart rates so that the handler can assess their situation and try to get their heart rate back to normal before any loss of consciousness.
Mobility assistance dogs help handlers who need help standing up or have a condition that makes their handler prone to light headed or dizziness by being sturdy enough to help the handler catch their balance. These dogs need to be larger in stature to be able to physically do the work.
Autism service dogs can prevent children with autism from bolting into dangerous situations by anchoring them by a harness on the dog and belt on the child. They also can provide a companionship that is hard for the child to achieve with humans. There have also been cases of non verbal autistic children eventually speaking because they wanted to talk to their dog.
Allergy detection dogs can help their handlers by alerting to a severe allergy such as peanuts so that the handler doesn’t enter that area.
Psychiatric service dogs cover a wide range of work. PTSD service dogs are the most well known type. Something I would like to stress is that not all PTSD service dogs are for veterans. There are many people in the world who have PTSD that have not seen combat, one of the biggest causes being domestic violence. Almost all programs who train PTSD service dogs do it only for veterans, so people who have PTSD for non combat related reasons are forced to train their own dogs. Other types of psychiatric service dogs include helping to remind to take medications, interrupting self harm behaviors, administering Deep Pressure Therapy (DPT) in times of high anxiety and many, many more tasks.
The tasks a dog can perform to help their disabled handler are practically endless. If you can dream it, an experienced and talented trainer can probably train your dog to do it. Dogs are incredible animals.
A service dog doesn’t have to be only one type. There are many service dog that fit in multiple categories I’ve listed here.
There are so many types of service dogs that the handler’s disability may not be visible or obvious. I encourage you to never ask someone ‘what is your service dog for?’ This is a highly personal question for some people. If someone wants you to know they will volunteer the information. The only questions someone such as a business owner can ask are ‘Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?’ and ‘What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?’ A person is not allowed to request any documentation that the dog is registered, licensed or certified as a service animal and not allowed to require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person’s disability. These are set by the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA). Each state has their own standards and regulations for service dogs but these basic rules are protected by the ADA.
One thing to remember is that a vest or a service dog registration does not mean the dog is a service animal. The service dog must be specifically trained to mitigate a handler’s disability by performing tasks and must be trained in public access. Public access means that the dog is housebroken, responsive to commands in public and generally under control of the handler at all times.
If you have questions about service animals I would be happy to speak with you.
-Morgan Kuehn, owner of The Brown Dog Canine Care
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