Everyone knows that a dog is a man's best friend. However, service dogs do more than provide a person with a best friend. Approximately 500,000 people in the United States alone have service dogs by their sides. Service dogs are used for a variety of things such as post-traumatic stress disorder, diabetes, disabilities, anxiety, and more. They help navigate, protect, and calm their owners. Some service dogs are even trained to wake up their owners when they are having a nightmare.
The training of service dogs is very extensive. They are trained to help people with disabilities to make their life as normal as possible. Service dogs in training should first be house trained. They should be taught to remain on task with distractions (such as people like me trying to pet them) present. Untrained dogs get distracted by people, sights, sounds, scents, and other animals. It is important for service dogs to be unbothered by all of the changes around them so they can focus on their owners. A service dog should also be trained to work with specific disabilities. Everyone with a service dog is very different, so each dog has to be able to work with their person.
A growing problem in this field is people who say their dogs are service dogs when they aren't. Buying a service dog vest off of Amazon and throwing it on your untrained Pomeranian just because it doesn't like to be home alone doesn't qualify it as a service dog. When people do this, they're putting the people with real disabilities in harm's way. Untrained dogs posing as service dogs can pose a threat to disabled people as well as their service dogs. Many states are passing more laws to try to prevent people from saying their dog is a service dog when it is not.
Service dogs are usually seen wearing a vest that makes it known that they are a service dog. However, by law, service dogs are not required to wear a vest at all times. Sometimes, people might see a service dog without a vest and assume that it's not a service dog. Often, people will just go up and pet these dogs. People should never pet a service dog, let alone any dog that they are unfamiliar with unless the owner says it's okay or the dog appears that it wants to be petted. If people don't know if a dog is a service dog or not, don't be stupid. Always ask a dog's owner for permission before petting their dog. If it is a service dog that isn't in uniform, you're creating a disturbance. The dog is trying to help their owner and you petting the dog are putting them both in danger. This has become a big problem recently and it can be easily avoided.
Service dogs are extremely helpful to people with disabilities. They go through a lot of training to become a service dog, and they use that training to help their owners with their life. No matter what disability a person has, a service dog can help them.
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