“Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability.””
The training service dogs receive results in being well-mannered in public and attentive to their handler and their disability. Service dogs take months to train fully and are essential to the well-being of the handler.
Service dogs come in all shapes and sizes. Although most tend to be larger breeds, smaller breeds can also qualify. If you would like to request a particular breed of dog, know it will take more time for us to find the right puppy for you. We spend a lot of time and effort in evaluating and testing to ensure your puppy has the best chance of successfully making it through the training program.
We train service dogs to do a variety of tasks, which may include:
deep pressure therapy (DPT)
retrieval of dropped objects
tethering to a child so they cannot bolt
interruption of self-injury behaviors
opening of cabinets and doors
turning on light switches
interruption of night terrors
greeting people in the room to differentiate hallucination from reality
searching the house for people to disprove paranoia
alerting to seizures or panic attacks
retrieving medicine.
These tasks can aid psychological disorders, mobility limitations caused by physical state and neurological disabilities, such as autism. There are many different ways a service dog can help the effects of your disability.
A service dog can add so much quality to its handler’s life. We take our job of matching, training and delivering your service dog very seriously so that we can help you increase your independence, self-sufficiency and overall well-being.