Service

A service dog poses for the camera.
All About Dogs

The Truth About Service Dogs

Many Pack Leaders wonder about the requirements necessary to register a dog as a service animal. But did you know that the Federal law regulating service animals doesn’t require registration with any organization? In fact, the documents provided by many online organizations claiming to register service dogs are not recognized under Federal law. That law also doesn’t require any particular organization or professional to train a service dog. What this means is that you can train your own dog to perform necessary tasks to help with your disability and — voilà! — your dog is a service dog. Defining a

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a service dogs leads his blind owner on a walk.
All About Dogs

Service Dogs Part 3: Guide Dogs

Service dogs assist individuals in a variety of ways. There are the more commonly recognized guide dogs that assist the blind or visually impaired, as well as dogs that assist the deaf or hard of hearing by alerting their owners of alarms and other important sounds. Service dogs also assist the physically disabled by retrieving objects, pulling wheel chairs, turning off light switches and performing other tasks to help in everyday activities. In addition, there are service dogs that assist with invisible disabilities, such as diabetes and anxiety, alerting a person of a physiological change. These dogs are able to

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A guide dog helps his owner into a handicap bathroom.
All About Dogs

Guide Dog School 2: And His Name Is…

Today I became best friends with a yellow lab whose name is Nash. We were introduced early in the afternoon. He’s good and strong about not crying or whimpering after the trainers leave the room. The room here at Guiding Eyes for the Blind is bigger than a typical dorm room but smaller than a New York City studio apartment. There are two doors, one that leads out to the lobby of GEB, and one that leads out to an alley where the dogs can do their business. We were told to hold onto the leashes for the entire first

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A service dog waits to cross the street until it's safe.
All About Dogs

Guide Dog School 3: Taking Care Of Business

This is part three of Brian Fischler’s ongoing series about meeting and learning to work with his guide dog, Nash. Walking with a Guide Dog Today was the first day that we went out into the streets with our guide dogs. Our instructors were attached to our dogs so we weren’t flying solo. My instructor had a leash also attached to Nash’s collar; that way she could control the dog and ease me into commanding him. I was holding onto his harness to get accustomed to walking with him. We worked on right and left turns. The difficult thing about

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A guide dog sits with his trainer
All About Dogs

Guide Dog School 4: It Isn’t All Work And No Play

Nash and my second day of working together went pretty well. We worked on going forward, right and left turns. A very common misconception about Guide Dogs is that they read traffic lights and tell you when to cross the street. This is not the case, as dogs are color blind. I have to listen to the sound of traffic, and tell Nash when I think it is safe to cross the street. He is trained not to walk into oncoming traffic. This is definitely going to take some getting used to for me. It wasn’t too long ago that

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All About Dogs

Guide Dog School 5: The First Rule To Working With A Guide Dog Is…

The first rule of working with a guide dog is, you never pet a working guide dog. The second rule to working with a guide dog is, you never pet a working guide dog! Nash had his first visitor today, my Uncle Donny. Nash was really well behaved, as he didn’t jump up on him or anything like that. Never pet a working guide dog A common misconception about guide dogs is that you can never pet them. Actually, you can never pet a working guide dog as the affection can be distracting to them. How do you know if

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A dog goes to the bathroom
All About Dogs

Guide Dog School 6: The Blue, And The White… And The Brown

“I am a nightmare walking psychopath talking, king of my jungle, just a gangster stalking.” You have got to love that Ice-T song from the movie “Colors.” So you ask what made me think about that song and movie from 1988? I found out tonight that every guide dog school has their own colors. Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s colors are blue and white, and the colors are on Nash’s harness and the school’s logo (which is embroidered on the harness, not the dog.) Of course I was the one who had to ask the trainer, “What if we live

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A dog lays down after a long walk.
All About Dogs

Guide Dog School 7: The Good, The Bad And….At Least Not Ugly

First, the good. We had good moments during both our morning and afternoon walks today. We began making right turns today, because I am an ambi-turner; I do make right turns in my everyday life. If you are not familiar with that term, see the movie “Zoolander.” When a Guide Dog Loses Focus Nash was really good at leading me around obstacles, both human and non-human. He didn’t walk me into anything. I was a little disappointed with Nash’s crossing of intersections, as he would slow down in the middle of the crosswalk. I can’t stress enough how quickly you

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All About Dogs

Service Dogs Part 1: Hearing-Impaired

This is the first in our series about Service Dogs and the important work they do. Service dogs assist individuals in a variety of ways. There are the more commonly recognized guide dogs that assist the blind or visually impaired, as well as dogs that assist the deaf or hard of hearing by alerting their owners of alarms and other important sounds. Service dogs also assist the physically disabled by retrieving objects, pulling wheel chairs, turning off light switches and performing other tasks to help in everyday activities. In addition, there are service dogs that assist with invisible disabilities, such

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All About Dogs

Service Dogs Part 2: Hypoglycemia/Diabetes

This is the second in our series about service dogs and the important work they do. Service dogs assist individuals in a variety of ways. There are the more commonly recognized guide dogs that assist the blind or visually impaired, as well as dogs that assist the deaf or hard of hearing by alerting their owners of alarms and other important sounds. Service dogs also assist the physically disabled by retrieving objects, pulling wheel chairs, turning off light switches and performing other tasks to help in everyday activities. In addition, there are service dogs that assist with invisible disabilities, such

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