Invitation

If you have popped over here it is by chance you came from a blog. I like to invite you to our new Updated Forum People with Disabilities - Service Dog Awareness.

You do not have to have a Service Animal nor be a person with a disability to join in on the fun. We have lots of various discussions there.

It is accessible friendly and easy to navigate. So come on and join us here at https://pwdsdawareness.forumotion.org/

You may have notice that the link goes to a new server... This was due to having a lot of issues from the other one including a lot of outage. Hopefully we will not have the same issues with this server.  

Hope to see you all there soon.

Assistance / Service Animals

Service Animals also known as Assistance Animals, are dogs or other animals that are individually trained whether from an established training facility, a professional private trainer, or by a individual handler. These wonderful animals though commonly used dogs may come from a breeder, donated by a private individual or from a rescue league. This special training allows the disabled population to depend more completely on themselves. Other types of animals used are Mini Horses - mobility, guides (Guide Horse Foundation in 1999). Monkeys - Mobility (Helping Hands placed Hellion, the 1st monkey helper in 1979), Cats and even Pigs -Medical Alert / Respond, Psychiatric just to name a few.

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Dog Guides

Guide Dogs were the first type of service animals in the community. Guide Dogs also known as Dog Guides were used back in the late 1920’s for WWI Veterans in Germany. An American living in Europe at the time, Dorothy Eustis, brought that concept to this country, and with the valuable assistance of Morris Frank (blind) – founder of the Seeing Eye Inc. and Jack Humphries.

The Seeing Eye Inc. was the first formalized dog guide program of its type in the USA. These dogs are trained to assist those with visual impairments in navigating around obstacles (low and high) and crossing busy streets.

The most common breeds at the time were German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers. Nevertheless over the years since the role of the canine in aiding individuals with disabilities has expanded the use of these Service Animals also expanded whether a person has a physical or mental disability (visual or invisible disability).

Service dogs may be any breed, size or colour. They might sometimes wear identifying equipment such as a harness, backpack, cape or a special collar and leash.

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Hearing Dogs

Signal / Hearing Dogs were trained forty years later when a deaf lady approached Agnes McGrath, a dog trainer, at a kennel in White Bear Lake and with the help of the local Lions, Agnes trained the first six hearing dogs in Minnesota.

The International Hearing Dog Inc. was the first in training dogs to alert those with a hearing impairment to various sounds such as a baby cry, a telephone ringing, a doorbell, knock at the door, the person’s name, beepers, alarms including smoke alarms, sirens, etc. as well as various traffic sounds.

Because of the quality of its program, IHDI was chosen to provide training for Japan’s first hearing dog program. More than 1 in a half million of the 23 million deaf or hard of hearing (H.O.H) individuals in the USA and Canada could benefit from such a dog.

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Mobility Animals

Mobility also known as Brace Animals are trained to assist those with Parkinson, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Congenital Abnormalities, or any person with a balance issue to increase ones independent living skills. Whether be using a wheelchair, crutches, canes or a walker. The work of such animals may include pulling, carrying objects either by backpacks or carting, picking up dropped items, opening doors, turning on or off lights, stabilizing a person either from a seated position or standing. This also includes preventing a fall or assisting in recovering from such.

Parkinson dogs are one of the most recent service animals used. They're taught mostly to help their partner mobility by stepping on their partners foot. This in turns will all their partner to become more stable so they will be able to move once again.


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Medical Alert Respond Animals

Some of the common titles of Medical alert / respond Animals are Diabetic, Seizure, and Psychiatric just to name a few.

The first Seizure Alert Dog was introduced in the late 1980's. Seizure Alert Animals are especially helpful for people who have drop seizures, which occur without warning and often cause injury. They are trained, to respond during and / or after such episodes, corresponding to the titles mentioned above.

These Animals are taught specialized behaviors based on the type of seizure their owner experiences. (e.g. picking up medicine, opening doors for emergency help, summon help, retrieving a phone or calling 911.) But most importantly for individuals with convulsions, which are sometimes violent in nature, these wonderful animals help get their partner safely to the ground to prevent injury. This maybe taught by tugging on a sleeve or pants, licking ones hand or laying his / her head on their partners lap, etc.

Many of these wonderful animals also have the natural ability to alert to oncoming medical disorders such as a seizure as far as 1 hour before hand.

Scientist cannot agree as to why this natural phenomenon happens. Some have stated that it's because an animal may sense or smell the change in body chemistry of a person. Others says its just an unknown reason. Whatever the case may be these animals have the ability to alert!

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Psychiatric Animals

Although it is not clear, possibly in the late 1990's, when the first Psychiatric Service Animal (ie dog) came to play. Nevertheless these service animals are taught to assist those with severe mental disabilities. The various types of conditions are but not limited to: Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar (a.k.a. Manic Depression Disorder), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Anxiety Disorder (a.k.a. Panic Attack Disorder), Autism, Severe Depression and Schizophrenia.

These individuals carry with them a risk of losing consciousness due to hyperventilation. Therefore Psychiatric Service Animals are taught to relentlessly wake their handler by nipping, licking, or even heavy breathing in the individuals face or ear. They also are taught to retrieve items, being focused on their handlers due to memory loss, brace / counter-balancing due to dizziness and or weakness from medication side effects, find keys and phones as well as other items and call 911 in case of an emergency! They also are taught to interrupt repetitive behaviours while trying to keep the individual calm in stressful situations that maybe normal for others. (eg paranoia or hallucinations). The list goes on as many tasks are similar to other types of Service Animals! This depends on an individuals needs.These wonderful Animals are also considered as a Medical Alert-Respond Animal due to the similarity of their tasks.

In today society there are other types of Psychiatric animals (i.e cats, monkeys, etc.) that provides the same benefits and assistance to individuals with mental disabilities (ie invisible disabilities).

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Service Animals ~ That's Who !

All of these Animals are confident, friendly, intelligent, and enjoy working. The most meaningful characteristic of a good service animal is to Intelligently Disobey when a situation poses a danger.

The training whether be school, private trainers or owner-training consists of three stages: 1. Puppy (12 - 15 months Basics and Socialization), 2. Formal Task Training (4 - 6 months). This is a more intense training period which would consist of fine tuning as it were for the individuals needs. 3. Continuing Bonding, Growing, and Training in which all handlers should do for their needs will continue to change and so will the need to teach new tasks or modify the old ones.

Today there are approximately 20,000 service dogs / Animals working in the USA alone with the numbers rising in the next decade. This awakens ones appreciation of existence more than seeing someone who would otherwise have little or no hope of making a significant contribution to life; able to go to work, to live alone and to truly feel and be a part of ones community.



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Service Animal Etiquette

Service~Assistance Animals / Dogs and Dogs in Training have special rules. Please remember that all working service animals are allowed in public and in some places dogs in training have protected access also. Some things that will help service Animal handlers and / or trainers including puppy raisers are:

DO’S AND DON’TS

Please Do Not talk to the dog or call its name or make any animal noises such as meowing, barking or kissing noises. (don’t distract a working animal in any way.)

Do allow the Assistance Animal and the individual to work as a team without any distractions.

Never offer food or toys to a service animal. This may cause digestive and / or behavior problems. They have their own special diet and time. Nor pet the animal without permission first from the handler, nor send children to pet a service animal.. Never tell children service dog bites.

Do speak to the person and not to their dog when greeting an Service Animal Team.

Do Not interfere with the handler, he or she is trained to humanely correct their dog when a mistake has been made.

Do understand that releasing their dog to greet might distract the dogs attentiveness to their partner.

Do Not be insulted if touching the Service Animal is Not Allowed.

We Thank You!!!

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