Service Dogs
are trained to meet the needs of people with disabilities.
What is a service dog?
Service Dogs are legally defined (Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990) and are trained to meet the needs of their handlers who have disabilities.
Federal laws protect the rights of individuals with disabilities to be accompanied by their service dogs in public places.
These dogs are individually trained to do work or perform physical tasks directly related to the handler’s disability. They can provide physical assistance, companionship, psychological, and social benefits.
"Service animals are
working animals, not pets.
Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.”
Tasks are chosen to help with a handler’s specific disabilities.
Mobility service dogs:
open and close doors
retrieve keys, shoes, etc.
pull a manual wheelchair
find the phone
“brace” to balance handler
turn light switches on and off
Psychiatric service dogs:
Wake handlers from PTSD nightmares
Perform deep pressure therapy
Hearing service dogs:
respond to different sounds such as:
knocking and doorbells
timers and alarm clocks
smoke alarms
telephones
baby cries
and the handler’s name.
Medical alert dogs:
alert to conditions like seizures
“The dogs help (the veterans) by retrieving their medicine or slippers when they can’t move.
In some cases, they are right there to wake them up during a nightmare, or are there for a lick on the face after the nightmare.”
— Susan Luehrs, Hawaii Fi-Do founder