The Pet Sit Blog

Celebrate the selfless love and devotion of assistance dogs

August 11, 2009

Posted in: Uncategorized

This week, August 9-15, marks the first National Assistance Dog Week.  This week was created to recognize the devoted, hardworking assistance dogs who help individuals mitigate their disability-related limitations.

These specially trained dogs transform the lives of their human partners, who have debilitating physical and mental disabilities, by serving as their companion, helper, aide, best friend and close member of their family.

Assistance dogs are classified in the following ways:

Guide Dogs – Assist people with vision loss, leading these individuals around physical obstacles and to destinations such as seating, crossing streets, entering or exiting doorways, elevators and stairways.

Service Dogs – Assist people with disabilities with walking, balance, dressing, transferring from place to place, retrieving and carrying items, opening doors and drawers, pushing buttons, pulling wheelchairs and aiding with household chores, such as putting in and removing clothes from the washer and dryer.

Hearing Alert Dogs – Alert people with a hearing loss to the presence of specific sounds such as doorbells, telephones, crying babies, sirens, another person, buzzing timers or sensors, knocks at the door or smoke, fire and clock alarms.

Seizure Alert/Seizure Response Dogs – Alert or respond to medical conditions, such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, epilepsy, panic attack, anxiety attack, post-traumatic stress and seizures.

Medical Alert/Medical Response Dogs – Alert a person to oncoming medical conditions, such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, epilepsy, panic attack, anxiety attack, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

National Assistance Dog Week was established due to the efforts of Marcie Davis, a paraplegic for more than 35 years and CEO of Davis Innovations, a consulting firm based in Santa Fe, NM. Davis is the author of Working Like Dogs: The Service Dog Guidebook, a resource book that captures personal stories, checklists and practical tips to provide the reader with an A-Z guide about service dogs. She is the host of the Internet radio program, Working Like Dogs at www.petliferadio.com. She founded Working Like Dogs to honor assistance dogs around the world.