What Are Service Guide Dogs?

Guide Dogs

• Whenever someone talks about service animals, initially you may think of a "seeing eye" dog that is trained to service the blind. These highly trained animals are prized by their owners for their ability to stop them when they see traffic on the street or stop them when they are entering into an unsafe situation. One of the most prominent members of the seeing eye dog community, The Seeing Eye, has as its motto, "Independence and Dignity." This group, founded in 1929, helps the blind and visually impaired find the right canine for their needs. Participants in Seeing Eye travel to Morristown, New Jersey to spend a month training with their new dogs. Volunteer foster parents raise each Seeing Eye puppy until they are ready for training. Up to 93 percent of seeing eye dog owners achieve a sense of independence from having a seeing eye dog with them in their daily lives.

Hearing and Signal Dogs

• Intensive training provides the deaf and the hearing impaired with a dog that can assist them in daily living. These hearing and signal dogs alert their owners to a number of sounds. The dogs are trained to recognize the sound of a telephone, a knock on the door, smoke alarms, crying babies and sirens. These dogs are trained across the nation by various charity organizations, most notably By Your Side, located in Lutz, Florida, which also trains mobility, seizure, social and therapy dogs. Fidos for Freedom trains dogs in the District of Columbia for the hearing impaired. Some owners choose to train their own service dogs and use such services as Golden Ears Hearing Dogs for assistance in accomplishin the task. The owners, in turn, are able to rely on their dogs to be their ears.

Psychiatric Service Dogs

• A growing field of canine assistance is psychiatric service dogs. Canines trained as a psychiatric services dogs are sometimes referred to as "therapy dogs" and unlike service animals are not incorporated into the auspices of federal disability laws. These dogs assist those individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, hypervigilance and even schizophrenia. Dogs trained for psychiatric care help when their owners become disoriented due to stress or a psychiatric episode in which they lose awareness of their surroundings. A psychiatric service dog can guide an individual to his car, his home or the nearest building to procure help. Psychiatric service dogs help with hypervigiliance by providing a sense of security for their owners and can be trained to make sure all windows, doors and other entrances are sealed for the owner's peace of mind. They are heavily used by Veteran's Affairs and are becoming more common in psychiatric therapy.

Seizure Dogs

• Seizure alert dogs, contrary to common belief, usually do not alert their human masters that they are about to experience a seizure, but are trained instead to deal with the aftermath of a seizure. Trained to lie with their companion during a seizure, a seizure dog will lick the hands and face of their owners or try nudging or pawing to help them regain cognizant thought. It is a common misconception that a dog can be trained to spot a seizure. In many cases, dogs that alerted their owners about an impending seizure were pets that had no prior training. The University of Florida has conducted research in regards to why some dogs respond to seizures and others do not, but so far, nothing is conclusive. Seizure assistance dogs still make their owners' lives easier by helping them in the aftermath and can even help those affected by severe migraines.