Assistance Animals

Enhancing Independence and Well-being with Trained Companions

Assistance animals can play a transformative role in the lives of individuals with disabilities, offering not just companionship but also practical support. Our Assistance Animals service facilitates the integration of trained animals into your daily life, whether for physical assistance, emotional support, or as guide animals. We guide you through the process of acquiring an assistance animal, ensuring they are a suitable match for your needs and lifestyle. Our support extends to helping you navigate public access rights and responsibilities, enhancing your independence and quality of life.

Some of the tasks that assistance dogs can be trained to do include:

1. Assisting individuals in wheelchairs by pulling them.

2. Helping people with walking difficulties maintain their balance.

3. Turning on and off light switches.

4. Moving the arms or legs of individuals who are paralyzed.

5. Opening and closing doors, drawers, and fridges.

6. Assisting with making beds.

7. Retrieving or picking up items like mobile phones or keys.

8. Pushing pedestrian crossing buttons.

9. Picking up clothing and helping with laundry.

10. Paying cashiers.

11. Barking to alert their owners to potential danger.

12. Alerting individuals to seizures or other medical issues, such as low blood sugar in a diabetic child.

13. Finding and leading another person to the owner or affected child.

The main types of assistance dogs are:

1. Assistance/service dogs: These dogs are trained to assist individuals with various disabilities in managing personal and other tasks.

2. Guide dogs or seeing eye dogs: These dogs are trained to assist individuals who are blind or visually impaired in navigating safely and independently.

3. Hearing dogs: These dogs are trained to assist individuals who are deaf or have hearing problems by alerting them to sounds.

4. Medical alert dogs: These dogs are trained to detect potential medical episodes, such as impending seizures for individuals with epilepsy or blood sugar changes for individuals with diabetes.

5. Psychiatric assistance dogs: These dogs are trained to interrupt anxiety, alert to triggering situations, and wake individuals having nightmares for those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other mental or medical health-related disabilities. Assistance animals can provide support to individuals with physical disabilities, specific medical conditions, autism, PTSD or other mental health conditions, and dementia. It is important to note that there is a clear distinction between assistance animals and emotional support animals.