Over the past few decades, dog trainers have found that certain breeds’ intelligence and dispositions have made them very helpful to people: not just for companionship or protection, but in assisting people with unique needs and challenges. In that time, assistance dogs, service dogs, and even therapy dogs have been able to make a big difference in the lives of thousands of individuals worldwide.
Differences Between Assistance Dogs, Service Dogs, and Therapy Dogs
People tend to be most familiar with dogs classified as assistance dogs. They help people with audio or visual impairment. Service dogs are similar to assistance dogs in that they’re trained for specific needs other than the needs addressed by assistance dogs. Finally, therapy dogs address psychological and social needs by providing comfort and affection to those who need it.
Various Functions Of Assistance and Service Dogs
Because different dog breeds have very different skills, there are a number of different roles that service and assistance dogs can play that help their owners. Here are some of the most common:
• Guide dogs (sometimes called “seeing eye dogs”) assist those who are blind or have visual impairments in get around by literally guiding them about and keeping them on safe paths and out of harm’s way.
• Hearing dogs (also called signal dogs) help those who are hard of hearing by providing feedback on the aural information going on around them, such as the sound of oncoming traffic or a call of alert from someone nearby.
• Allergy dogs can help owners with severe, life-threatening food allergies by alerting them to traces of that food (especially nuts) that humans cannot detect.
• Seizure response dogs are trained to help people with seizure disorders (such as epilepsy) by getting help, keeping the person out of harm’s way, and removing dangerous objects while the owner is having a seizure episode.
• Mobility assistance dogs help people with physical disabilities by providing help moving (via support or pulling) and daily tasks (such as opening doors, picking up objects, and flipping light switches).
• Psychiatric service dogs (which are different from the therapy dogs described below) are specifically trained to assist handlers who are at risk because of psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. They help by reminding the handler to take medication, interrupting harmful behavior, leading the handler away from stressful situations, and getting help when necessary.
Functions Of Therapy Dogs
A therapy dog is quite different from an assistance dog or service dog in the specifics of the help it provides, and also in the qualities necessary to make a particular dog successful in its role. The dogs discussed above need to be intelligent, obedient, reliable, and able to respond calmly to stressful situations.
Therapy dogs needn’t be intelligent; they must be calm, affectionate, gentle, and friendly. Their role is to provide comfort and companionship, as well as affection, to people who are staying in hospitals, nursing homes, and retirement communities. Therapy dogs visit and provide affection and stimulation to residents, which provides emotional support and can make a big difference in the life of the people there.
While each dog is different, all three types (therapy dogs, service dogs, assistance dogs) play essential roles in the lives of the handlers they help.
