Assistance Dogs
Special training equips dogs to help people with
disabilities
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| © Seeing Eye
|
Assistance dogs are specially trained to help people who are blind,
deaf, or physically disabled. From the time they are adopted by puppy
raising families or trainers until the time they are retired, their
lives are devoted to the serious task of providing security and independence
to a person with a disability. It's not always a specific breed that
makes the best assistance dog. Instead, dogs are selected for the temperament
and size that suits them for the job they'll have to do.
The first assistance dogs were developed in Germany in the 1920s as
guide dogs for veterans who lost their sight during World War I. There
are now three basic types of assistance dogs:
- Guide dogs
- Hearing dogs
- Service dogs
Assistance dogs serve about 20,000 people in the United States. More than
60 non-profit programs train and place these dogs nationwide.
Guide Dogs
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| © Seeing Eye
|
Guide dogs help people who are blind or visually impaired navigate
their community -- along busy city streets, on public transportation,
through crowded aisles at the grocery store. In 1929, The Seeing Eye
became the first US organization to breed and train guide dogs and match
them with human handlers. Though training methods haven't changed much
since The Seeing Eye's founding, the environment has -- increased traffic,
quieter engines that are harder to hear. This has led to a longer training
period to make sure the dogs are prepared for anything.
Hearing Dogs
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| © Dogs for
the Deaf |
Hearing dogs alert a person who is deaf or hearing-impaired to sounds
like doorbells, smoke alarms and baby cries. The dogs can even be trained
to alert to the name of their owner, making communication with others
easier. The first hearing dogs were trained with the input of an audiologist
(someone that helps people with hearing difficulties), the American
Humane Association, and Roy Kabat who trained animals for movies. Working
together, they came up with a successful training program and the non-profit
organization Dogs for the Deaf was formally established in 1977 to train
and place hearing dogs.
Service dogs
Service dogs help people who have physical disabilities. They can pull
wheelchairs, open doors, retrieve dropped items or provide stability
for someone who can't balance very well. Service dogs can also be trained
to help people with seizure disorders or other medical problems. A leader
in training assistance dogs is Canine Companions for Independence, established
in 1975. The organization started with the simple question: can methods
similar to those used to train guide dogs be used to train dogs to help
people with physical disabilities? The answer was YES! Though the organization
now trains hearing and guide dogs too, the cornerstone of their organization
continues to be training service dogs.
