International Assistance Dog Week

The aim of this week (August 4th - 10th) is to raise awareness of the wide range of roles that assistance dogs have and the ways in which people with disabilities rely on them for independence. Assistance dogs are found worldwide and perform various roles for humans with disabilities and health challenges. This week recognises the special skills these service dogs have and how they make a difference to people's lives. It is also a shout out to the incredible trainers who put in hours and hours of work in training assistance dogs and providing this important work.

Types of Assistance Dogs:

• Autism Dogs - perform tasks that help their handlers cope with the challenges they face, helping to manage a person’s anxiety and facilitating social interaction.

• Support Dogs - help adults and children with physical disabilities to live more independent lives, learning to do tasks that might be hard, impossible, or painful for someone with a disability

• Guide Dogs - assist blind and partially sighted people, helping them live confidently

• Hearing Dogs - alert individuals with hearing impairments to crucial sounds, alerting their handlers by gentle nudges when they recognise various sounds.

• Medical Detection Dogs - detect the odour of human disease, learning to detect small odour changes before a health crisis and warn people to prevent it

• Service Dogs - provide emotional support for those suffering from mental health disorders: PTSD, anxiety or depression.

• Seizure Alert/Response Dogs - recognise when their handler is about to have a seizure and can call for help and position themselves to protect their human during the episode.

• Therapy Dogs - go out to locations such as hospitals, hospices, schools, nursing homes and mental health facilities and offer comfort and companionship.
  

You can celebrate by telling others about it or by dedicating some time or money towards helping assistance dogs, or you may consider adopting a retired service dog yourself!