August 3.
Today is Assistance Dog Day. Now
these guys are pretty special dogs. I mean these are the real working
dogs. According to some sources,
assistance dogs can be divided into two groups – service dogs who help
individuals with physical and medical challenges, and facility dogs – who work
in healthcare and educational facilities.
No matter what you call them, they all help humans – in a variety of
ways – from hearing ear dogs, to seeing eye dogs, to dogs who alert people in
the event of a medical emergency. They
help people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and can provide peace and
comfort to people in nursing homes.
These dogs are super smart. And they obviously love their humans. But we can’t forget those humans who train
them – and foster them as young puppies.
Those humans are pretty special too.
It’s clear, that none of the dogs in this
household could have passed the service dog test. My human envisions that Paxton would walk a
visually impaired individual into a wall, or off a pier, and people would NEED
treatment for PTSD after spending a day
with me or Frodo. But we DO provide service too –
comic relief. On a daily basis.
Congrats to all the special dogs who work
so hard and do us canines proud. Let’s
face it – you would never see a seeing eye cat.
Canine helpers – we salute you.
© Linda Wozniak
No comments:
Post a Comment