Dogs bring many benefits to humans. They keep company, give affection, entertain, relieve stress and combat loneliness. But these are not his only ‘superpowers’. Thanks to their intelligence and the possibility of training them for an endless number of tasks, they go from being a domestic pet to becoming a fundamental pillar of many people and in different fields.
Among their many abilities, dogs can smell disease, act as guides, and are trained to detect epileptic seizures. Herding dogs, tracking dogs and those that accompany the police are well known, but within those considered working dogs we also find service dogs, which play a very important role in society.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a service dog as any dog ??that is specifically trained to perform work or tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, whether physical, mental, sensory, or psychiatric.
In other words, service dogs accompany people with disorders or disabilities to make their lives easier, helping them to carry out actions that they cannot undertake on their own, providing them with security, confidence and independence. They have a very significant effect on their well-being and quality of life.
Each service dog is trained to meet the specific needs of the person with a disability they are going to assist, as a general rule, throughout their lives. For this reason, their training is extremely complex and exhaustive and is carried out by professionals.
There are many different types of service dogs depending on the tasks they perform and the people they assist. The best known are guide dogs that help people with visual disabilities. They guide the path of their human when walking, they can help him press the elevator button, open a drawer, give him a specific object or prevent them from crossing the street if it is not safe.
Similar to these, we also find auditory signal dogs, which accompany people with hearing disabilities. For example, they alert them when a loud sound is heard that could pose a danger, such as an ambulance siren, or warn them that someone is knocking on the door.
There are also psychiatric service dogs – not to be confused with therapy dogs – which help people with psychiatric, mental and cognitive disabilities. Among their functions, they can remind the person to take their medication, avoid self-harm, avoid dangers in disoriented people, detect and alleviate panic attacks, etc.
Sensory signal dogs are trained to help and accompany people with autism, helping them to have more confidence and security, as well as to better express their emotions.
On the other hand, we find dogs trained to respond to seizures, indicated for people with epileptic disorders. These detect the seizure early and alert the person to take action such as taking medication or going to a safe place.