ESA Dog - Dogs to the Rescue
More dogs are earning the title of "Man's Best Friend" in many new ways. Many studies of the human/animal bond point out how important and unique the relationships are between people and their pets. It has been shown that having pets relieves the stress of busy, everyday lives. Owning a pet has been known to lessen the occurrence of stroke and heart attacks .If you're looking for more tips, servicedog has it for you.
The majority of dogs live in family environments, and the companionship they provide is well worth the effort involved in taking care of a dog. For children, dogs teach responsibility through understanding their care and feelings.
Today, more dogs are service dogs than ever before. They have been trained to assist in many different ways. Assistance dogs are not common house pets. They participate in specialized training programs and work hard to help in the areas they have been trained.
Hearing dogs alert a deaf or hearing impaired person to sounds such as telephones, alarm clocks, oven buzzers, smoke alarms, doorbells or a crying child.
Dogs have proven to help disabled people live independently. Besides being loyal companions, they help people with different kinds of disabilities to do things on their own. They pull wheelchairs, open and close doors, retrieve dropped items, alert a person of an upcoming seizure, turn light switches on and off. Golden and Labrador Retrievers make good service dogs because they are strong, yet have a gentle nature.
Probably the most common service is assisting the blind. They are trained to help the blind to cross the street, go through doors, and to go around obstacles. The blind person's job is to give directional commands, which the dog may or may not obey depending on the situation. If an unsafe command is given, the dog will choose to disobey the command in order to insure the person's safety. In this case the dog must have good judgment and be an independent thinker.
In Italy they are training dogs to leap from helicopters or speeding boats to rescue swimmers who get into trouble. These "life dogs" wear a harness or tow a buoy that victims can grab. Currently 300 dogs are fully trained for duty. The school will train any breed, as long as the dogs weigh at least 66 pounds. Labradors, Newfoundlands and golden retrievers are most commonly used because of their natural instinct for swimming.