SERVICE DOGS SHINE
Man's Best Fried Indeed
Reprinted from Grand Mesa

Unlike seeing-eye dogs, service dogs provide help to those bound to wheelchairs or suffering decreased body movement from strokes or neurological conditions.

"Trainers state, "we had the dogs perform the tasks they were trained to do, including giving the cashier money and retrieving the change, turning on and off lights, pulling wheelchairs, opening/closing doors, and opening refrigerator doors and getting items for you."

The six-week training was intense," the trainer said. "The first two weeks we assumed the role of a person with disabilities and lived in a wheelchair for most of the day. We went on field trips to malls, downtown, movie theaters, restaurants and rode the public transit system with our wheelchairs and service dogs. We had the dogs perform the tasks they were trained to do, including giving the cashier money and retrieving the change, turning on and off lights, pulling wheelchairs, opening/closing doors, and opening refrigerator doors and getting items for you. They know almost 100 different commands before they are placed with the person with disabilities. They are amazing to watch! As a companion, the dogs are allowed under the American With Disabilities Act to go wherever the trainer or recipient goes.

"You will be seeing more dogs in public places than ever before," trainers said. "These dogs and trainers will be identified in some way with 'service dog' designation. I would like the public to know these dogs are bathed and groomed frequently, especially when going out in public. They are being trained to be unobtrusive helpmates, so you may not notice that they are under a table in a restaurant until they are on their way out."

Because they are trained to be in the same environments as humans, they are also desensitized to any noise, smell or distraction before being placed with a disabled person. Simmons advises that other people should not interact with a dog that is working with a trainer or disabled person because they are focused on working with their master.

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At Risk Teens Train Disability Service Dogs
from the Colorado Journal, Sept., 2000

In Colorado, the "High Schooled Assistance Dog Program," allows at-risk teens to train service dogs to work with people with disabilities. In the seminar, each student worked with a teen who was in a detention center, teaching them to train the dogs.