Service Dogs and Assistance Dogs
Different sources use the terms "service dog", "assistance dog", "service animal", and "assistance animal". In the book Working Like Dogs: The Service Dog Guidebook, by Marcie Davis and Melissa Bunnell (Alpine Publications, Crawford CO, 2007, ISBN 1-57779-083-3), the "service dog" is one kind of "assistance dog". Marcie Davis, who is paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair, has a service dog to perform tasks that are difficult or impossible for her to do alone.
Service Dogs Are Specifically Trained to Help Their Owners
The article Air Canada and Pets Who Fly discusses defining a service dog, or other service animal. Air Canada decided in the summer of 2007 to stop allowing pets to ride in the passenger compartment of their aircraft. An exception was to be made for service animals. That's why the definition can be important.
The definition of a service animal in the United States federal legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act is "any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to a person with a disability". The U.S. Federal Register, Vol. 68, No. 90, May 9, 2003,at page 24875, has a lengthy and readable paper, mainly directed at airline staff, entitled Policy Guidance Concerning Service Animals in Air Transportation. This paper points out that the main difference between a service animal and a pet is usually training.
Working Like Dogs: The Service Dog Guidebook
The concept of training is reiterated in Working Like Dogs. The authors point out that a service dog performs tasks - tasks for which the particular dog has been trained and which the dog and its disabled owner have learned to do together.
Service Dog Training is Extensive and Customized
While service dogs start out learning basic social skills as puppies, the service dog training becomes more complex and specific as the dog advances in its career. As Working Like Dogs explains, the agencies that provide service dogs operate differently, according to the needs they are meeting. Service dogs can be trained to assist persons who are blind or have limited vision - the familiar seeing-eye dog. However, there are service dogs doing many other jobs, including hearing ear dogs to help persons who are deaf or have impaired hearing, and those with limited mobility. Many service dogs help people whose needs are invisible.
Working With the Right Service Dog Offers Freedom and Independence
One of the best parts of Working Like Dogs is author Marcie Davis's description of the freedom she felt upon becoming comfortable working with her first service dog, Ramona. A 20-something woman, married and reliant upon her husband to help her get around town, Marcie suddenly had the confidence to switch from a manual to a power wheelchair, and to drive an accessible vehicle. With the dog's help, much of the fear of "what could happen" went away.
A Dog is a Commitment
Owning any animal, pet or service animal, is a big commitment. The freedom a service dog gives comes with a price, and that is a commitment to care for the animal, and to be committed to the relationship with it. For pet owners, this seems like a natural and easy thing to do. But, for new dog owners like Marcie Davis, it is a major step. One of the reasons she and Melissa Bunnell wrote Working Like Dogs was to de-mystify service dogs.
Anyone who is curious about what service dogs do, what it's like to have one, how service and guide dogs are trained, and what the law is on travelling with an assistance dog - whether it's around the corner or across the country - will find some clear answers in this book.
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