Types of Service Dogs

Most everyone has heard of a guide dog, but there are many other kinds of service dogs that may not be as well known.  Here are just a few categories that SDs fall into:

Alert/Response Service Dogs

Autism Service Dogs

Balance/Mobility Service Dogs

Guide Dogs

Hearing Alert Service dogs

Neurological/Traumatic Brain Injury Service Dogs

Psychiatric Service Dogs

It’s amazing that one animal can have so many different job titles, and amazing what they can learn.  Many of these furry helpers are “cross-trained”, or trained to do more than one type of job.  I fully support the use of SDs, except when the handler is a child, or the “point” of having a SD is to tether an autistic child to him.  Properly trained, service dogs can make a difference in the lives of many people!

Getting Started

I am a 26-year-old woman with a disability getting started on the path of being a service dog handler.

It’s been a long journey getting to where I am today.  My diagnosis came about 25 months ago, and I have to admit it’s been a rough road since then.  My siblings were instrumental in getting me diagnosed correctly, and along with researching my condition and the new medications I was put on, I started looking into service dogs as a part of my treatment plan.

A service dog, or SD, is not a magic fix for anything, least of all my disease.  I really wish they could be.  Wouldn’t it be great if all I needed was a dog, and I was as good as new?  Sadly, that’s not the case, but a service dog can help.  Used correctly, a service dog can be a good addition to a person’s treatment plan.  In my case, that means I continue taking my meds.  I continue practicing good sleep hygiene, and my attemps to get daily exercise.  I continue seeing a doctor regularly.

But a dog can help in quite a lot of ways, both big and little.  Already I’ve worked with a doctor and several people in the service dog community to come up with a list of tasks, or things the service dog will be trained to do to assist me.  Sometimes it’s a little more obvious than other when the dog is performing a task, but don’t ever disrupt a service dog team out in public.  The dog could be doing more than you realize, and often is!

Without this task training, the dog would not be allowed to accompany me in public.  The dog’s task training is what makes it a service dog. As it stands, the dog is not the one with the right to enter most buildings.  Because I am disabled, it is *me* who has the right to enter these places and to bring with me my piece of medical equipment.  This particular medical equipment just happens to have four legs and a tail.