Paws With A Cause Essay

I talked to both my psychologist, Doctor Samantha Jordan, and my psychiatrist, Doctor Sandra Kovachi, and they both believe having a service dog would be helpful for my needs.

Most of the therapy dogs come from a selective breeding program known as the American Kennel Club (AKC). These dogs go through several months of obedience training and must be able to strictly follow commands. These dogs must also feel comfortable in the presence of wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, oxygen tanks, food carts, and any other equipment patients and therapists use. A number of studies have demonstrated that the presence of therapy dogs serve to increase the quantity and quality of positive attention directed toward the physically handicapped by both familiar individuals and

There are 3 different types of service dogs people can have: Emotional Support Animals, Therapy Animals, and Service Animals. Emotional Support Animals have one task and that is to provide comfort and support, emotionally, to someone who needs it and has a documented health condition. Therapy Animals are registered through an agency and their purpose is to provide therapeutic value to those who need it. Service animals are trained to perform tasks the owner simply cannot do on their own, guiding blind people, detecting seizures, helping people who have lost legs or arms.

In the field of therapy, there are numerous of therapy available out there for different type of individuals and situations as well. There is one type of therapy that usually contains people and animal, it is animal-assisted therapy is a therapeutic approach that brings animals and individuals with physical and/or emotional needs together to perform the therapy. Animal-assisted therapy tend to be focused on individuals either children or elderly for them to be able to connect with the animal thus feeling comfortable talking with the therapist. Pet therapy works for all ages, whether sick or not (Lanchnit, 2011). Although, this paper, most of the focus is on animal-assisted therapy towards children using dogs.

Emotional support animals have way less rights than service animals. Emotional support animals are still often considered just pets making them not allowed in most public places with their owner, despite their importance. This is not to say that they are given no rights, there are still laws protecting them and ensuring that people can keep access to their emotional support animals. One of the main rights given to people with these

III.     Although this may not seem relevant to you, there are many people who have service dogs for various reasons. Seeing them when you walk into a room can brighten one’s day. Obviously, dogs are cute, but service dog’s jobs are more than being cute, their job is helping individuals with disabilities do as much as they can to live a normal life. (Audience Relevance)

These animals are there to provide not only emotional support, but they also provide their humans with companionship. Jim was a lost individual that spent a lot of time isolating himself from people. Jim is a veteran and he was filled with anxiety after being deployed. Jim now has an emotional support dog named, Sarge. Sarge is there for Jim and she helps his anxiety level. When Jim is in a crowd of people, his anxiety level rises. But, with Sarge by his side, he is able to go out and do normal things. Jim was on a lot of medication and now with Sarge, he is off all the medication. Sarge really did a lot to help Jim and now Jim is working with an organization called Paws and Stripes. It is an organization that works to bring these emotional support dogs to our veterans that suffer from a mental or physical disability. It is amazing how just one dog can bring about such a change in a person. (Psychiatric Service Dog Society, 2012)

Dogs have helped humans in various medical fields for a long time. There are dogs that get experimental cancer treatments to see if they would be safe for humans. There are dogs that are trained to sniff out cancer in a human and according to the article by D. Becker, “there are even service dogs who alert their owners when their blood sugar is dropping dangerously low.” (p.1). Some people think that service dogs should not be allowed in schools because they are afraid. However they are wrong because service dogs are so well trained they will not harm the students or other people in a

The legal definition of a service animal was then changed to a dog rather than just an animal. The change also excludes non-working dogs which are emotional support animals. This has caused other groups to pop up to get

I’ll be getting an autism service dog soon, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think the dog will be a great help to me as I finish up high school and prepare for college. Recently, I was telling my friend about my dog, andshe wasn’t sure how my service dog would be different from a regular dog.I realized that many people probably don’t know much about them.

“Veterans report that service dogs help break their isolation. People will often avert their eyes when they see a wounded veteran. But when the veteran has a dog, the same people will come up and say, 'Hi' to pet the dog and then strike up a conversation.” This quote from United States Senator Al Franken is a shining example of the power that a service animal can have to improve the quality of life for those with special needs who have a service animal. Imagine!

A therapy dog is skilled to care and offer comfort to patients in hospitals, retirement homes, schools, catastrophe area, and people with learning complications. From a different perspective, a service dog is an assistance dog trained specifically to help persons with disabilities including autism, hearing and visual difficulties. The dogs aid cognitive therapy enabling the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) victims to expose themselves gradually to feelings and thoughts reminding them of the past. The dogs offer comfort, affection, and companion that enable the victims to relax triggering the sense of flashback within them. Flashback is critical in the treatment process of PTSD.

This act guarantees that all people with disabilities have legal right to use their assistance animals in all areas that are open to the general public. Any “no pet policy” does not apply to service dogs. As such, businesses cannot charge extra fees for service dogs accompanying the individual. Service dogs are trained specifically to assist people with physical and mental impairments. They are trained over a span of approximately 120 hours over six months of training, to be alert and on guard. With that in mind, it is important to always ask before coming into contact with a service dog, as any distraction may hinder them from their job. Service dogs are usually recognized by wearing collars, harnesses, and/or vests. Although unnecessary, identification papers should be present when the service dog is in use. Fraudulent claims of service dogs include penalties such as: a minimum $1000 fine, jail time, and confiscation of the

My registered Therapy Dog, Lucky, has been a member of Therapy Dog International since 2011. Under my training, Lucky has also passed his Canine Good Citizenship test. Lucky and I visit multiple facilities including assisted living establishments and elementary schools. Lucky has also been called upon for home visits with a local suffering form ALS. During our visit, our goal is to progress the humans physical, social, emotional, and cognitive function. The ability to communicate and find common interest with a variety of individuals has helped me to form lasting friendships while working with

There has been a long history with animals and their natural bonds with humans for many decades now. Dogs have helped people with a multitude of illnesses for some time now, however Americans were not the first to discover this natural trait in animals. The Germans during World War 1 were the first to discover this. In the book, History of Guide Dog Use by Veterans it states that the German army in particular “relied heavily on the use of German shepherds as ambulance and messenger dogs. The Germans reportedly used more than 25,000 dogs during World War I. ' these dogs were ideally suited for this type of work, with ell-known traits such as trainability, loyalty, intelligence, strength, and endurance” (Ostermeier 587). In today 's society, we have numerous people who are unaware of the services that animals can provide for humans. Specifically humans with mental or physical disabilities. In this paper I will present various types of service animals as well as the many services they provide.