Should You Consider Getting A (Psychiatric) Service Dog?

Almost everyone is familiar with the concept of guide dogs for people with visual impairments — but were you aware that service dogs can help people with an enormous variety of disabilities in an equally enormous number of different ways? If you have a disability, not only may you qualify for a service dog under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or an equivalent law in your jurisdiction, service dogs are now allowed into an increasingly wide range of establishments. Landlords and hotels can't refuse to admit service dogs, and your service animal may even be able to board a plane together with you, as well as entering public spaces including government facilities. 

What Is A Service Dog?

A service dog is, in short, a dog that has especially been bred and trained to perform tasks that assist people with a wide range of disabilities in their daily functioning. Your service dog is trained to perform a variety of tasks to meet your needs. Conditions that allow you to qualify for a service dog in the US include, but are not limited to, blindness, mobility issues, deafness, diabetes, epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, and osteoporosis. People with cancer, debilitating anxiety disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and autism are candidates for service dogs as well. 

What Tasks Can A Service Dog Perform?

Once you hear what a well-trained service dog can do, you're actually more likely to ask — in utter amazement — what service canines can't do! Some examples of tasks performed by some service dogs include:

• Detect subtle changes in blood scent and warn their owner that they will have a seizure over the next few hours, long before the owner could ever be aware of this themselves, or alert a diabetic that their blood glucose levels are off.
• Locate people and places, and search areas for signs of danger. These tasks can benefit people with vision loss as well as those with dissociative disorders and PTSD, among others.
• Provide physical support that allows people with mobility restrictions walk better.
• Fetch medication and remind the owner to take it at the right time.
• Clear a person's airways and even return them to consciousness. 
• Prevent the owner from carrying out dangerous tasks such as walking into roads.
• Provide a physical barrier between the owner and the general public, being a source of comfort and grounding. This can help people with PTSD and social anxiety, for example.
• Help carry items.
• Call 911 and provide emergency phone numbers to neighbors. 

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Note: If you believe you might benefit from a service dog, it is imperative to make a list of those things you most need from a dog. Even these amazing animals have their limitations. No dog can perform all of the above tasks, and certain individual dogs as well as breeds are best suited to particular functions. 

Thinking About Getting A Service Dog?

General Benefits Of Service Dogs

A service dog can recognize medical and emotional challenges before you can. Your wellbeing, or the wellbeing of your child, is literally the dog's job. While you — as the parent of a type 1 diabetic with a service dog points out — can at times convince yourself that nothing is wrong, forget to check something, or even oversleep when medications need to be given, a service dog isn't going to be in that position. Not only will a service dog always put your needs first, even when you won't, they won't stop reminding you until you take action either. 

Though service dogs can attract a lot of attention while you are out and about in public places (including comments such as "why can't I bring my dog in?" and "what's wrong with you?"), their presence also takes the focus off you and onto the dog. No matter where you are, you will know that the dog is always there to comfort you. Service dogs can even, for instance, provide companionship to hospitalized children. 

Where And How Do I Get A Service Dog?

Numerous service dog agencies are available across the US and in many other countries. If you are in the United States and have been thinking about applying for a service dog, however, your first step should always be to check in with your healthcare providers to discuss whether you qualify for a service dog. Remember that the dog needs to perform actual "tasks" that you cannot do yourself, and that companionship and physical protection aren't considered tasks, even if they really are. 

A Word Of Caution

The above-mentioned parent of a diabetic child, in a blog post linked in the sources box below this article, does a great job at dispelling some myths about service dogs — making it clear, above all, that service dogs are not ordinary animals. 

When you get your service dog, you may believe that their training means that they are now and will forever, automatically be capable of performing the tasks for which you have them. This is not so. Service dogs require constant work, from training you do with them, to attending programs, to grooming, in order to make sure that they remain able to do their tasks and that they are clean enough to enter all the public spaces they are allowed into. Service dogs are working animals — they can't simply relax in the company of other dogs, and even their "leisure time" needs to be geared towards keeping them on task. 

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When you do approach a service dog agency about getting a dog, make sure to ask them as many questions as you can about the ongoing care aspect, and ensure that you fully understand what having a service dog involves. Once you do understand this and are ready to take a service canine on, they are truly amazing and may even save your life one day.