Types of Service Dogs

Autism is a neurological disorder that can affect a person in many ways, like being unable to hold eye contact, having a difficult time with social interactions, and having repetitive phrases and movements that can be harmful. While a service dog may be an inappropriate option for many people who are autistic, for those that are able to successfully utilize this as an option, it can be life changing! A service dog may be used in some of the following ways to mitigate the symptoms of autism:

• Providing deep stimulation to calm a handler

• Alerting to increasing anxiety due to overstimulation

• Interrupting harmful repetitive movements in a safe way

• Track a missing child with autism who frequently elopes

• Wake someone from a nightmare or alert a parent to a night terror

While we do not train full guide dogs, we do train guiding tasks for those that need this due to disability when they are training a dog for many purposes (e.g. migraine alert, autism support, and guiding tasks; etc.). We will teach a dog additional tasks like:

• Guide to a seat

• Guide to a specific person

• Guide to the exit

• Guide to the bathroom

• Guide to a safe space

Hearing alert dogs may be useful for those that are D/deaf, Hard of Hearing, or have auditory processing issues. While a dog may not be able to translate English into a sign language, they can assist with several tasks to help one integrate into a hearing world with greater ease, like:

• Alerting you to sirens, fire alarms, and other emergency noises

• Alerting you when your name has been called

• Alerting you to the sound of an alarm or a timer

• Alerting you to someone knocking or ringing your doorbell

• Alerting you to the sound of your child crying

Not all service dogs will succeed as a medical alert service dog, but those that can are definitely a special, life saving tool for many with a variety of disabilities. These alerts could be for disabilities like:

• Migraines 

• Seizures

• Anxiety

• Diabetes

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

Similar to medical alert, these service dogs are trained to automatically respond or be cued to respond to a medical episode with a task(s) to assist with your disability, like:

• Deep Pressure Therapy

• Retrieving an emergency medical bag with things like a rescue medication or something to drink/eat

• Call Emergency Services on a dog friendly phone

• Guiding you to a safe space to recover from your medical episode

• Barking for help or to alert emergency personnel to your location

There are many disabilities that would benefit from a mobility service dog. While we believe that mobility service dogs are not a replacement for a mobility device, there are many other ways a service dog can assist with a movement impairment, like:

• Picking up dropped items

• Retrieving a named item

• Turning lights off and on

• Assisting in dressing and undressing

• Carrying grocery bags upstairs and helping you put away groceries

There are many psychiatric disabilities which may see an improvement in symptoms with the help of a PSD. We do not limit which diagnosis we will help train a PSD for, as long as the doctor treating your diagnosis believes it will be beneficial and you understand that a PSD is not a cure for a diagnosis (we still encourage you to seek treatment with your doctor). Additionally, it is important to note that a service dog may increase social anxiety for some. Here are some ways a dog may be trained to mitigate your symptoms:

• Deep Pressure Therapy

• Checking a room for intruders

• Hallucination Discernment

• Behavior Interruption for self-harming behaviors (in a way that is safe for the dog to perform)

• Orbiting around you to give you breathing room in a crowd, aka "crowd control"