This week it’s time to honor assistance dogs and all the work they do to enrich the lives of people with disabilities.  A “service animal” as defined by The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is “any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability.”  The service dog concept was introduced in 1975 by Canine Companions for Independence (CCI).  They defined service dogs as highly trained to assist people with disabilities by doing specific functions such as opening and closing doors, retrieving items and operating light switches.

Two assistance programs are Paws for Freedom and R.E.A.D.  Paws for Freedom is a non-profit established in 2005 that allows children with learning disabilities to train service dogs in the Student Trainer and Retriever Teams (S.T.A.R.T). To enhance the students’ experiences as well as to provide additional training for the dogs, one hour training/educational sessions are held five times weekly during the school year.  Each trainer is assigned a puppy and has the responsibility for the care and training of his/her dog.  Pairings are based upon the student’s needs, level of maturity and the dog’s temperament.

Public outings and presentations are also planned for the students accompanied by their dogs.  When a dog becomes ready for placement, a two-week training camp is held to place the dogs with their disabled recipients.  The student trainers are involved in various aspects of the camp so that they can interact with the recipients and see the end results of their training efforts.

Another assistance dog program is the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) program.  This program, affiliated with Pets for Life, Inc., seeks to improve children’s reading, literacy and communications skills through partnering of a child and registered pet assisted therapy team.  Often children with reading problems lack confidence and fear failure.  The dogs are good listeners, don’t judge, and permit the children to work at their own pace.  The children view themselves as helping the dog learn and understand the reading material.  Participants show improvement in reading and communication skills, higher self-esteem and enhanced social skills.

The R.E.A.D. program is in its 11th year.  There are more than 2,000 teams located throughout the US, Canada and Europe.

Materials from Paws for Freedom and R.E.A.D were used as reference for this post