Animal Jobs Series | Dog & Cat Health, Wellness, Products and Breed Information

Animal Jobs Series
| Print | By Jennifer Hoyden | June 11, 2009 10:12 AM

Guide Dogs

There is a proverbial saying that when you lose one sense, you gain another. For people who are legally blind (having a "central visual acuity of 20/200 or less," according to the American Foundation for the Blind) there is also an option to gain a canine companion in the form of a highly-dedicated, very intelligent, well-trained guide dog.

These service animals, sometimes referred to as guide dogs dogs, are typically Labrador and Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds or other large-breed dogs who have been raised since they were puppies to serve a blind or vision-impaired individual.

A dog that works with the owner in such a capacity is first and foremost an aid to the owner, who is often regarded as a handler. Despite the clinical language, the mutual bond that develops between the two elevates the relationship beyond "pet" and "owner," indeed they are a team in the truest sense of the word. The dogs accompany their handlers through everyday life and activities, from the mundane to the momentous, from work to appointments, from grocery shopping to dates and other social functions.

Training begins at a very young age. Often dogs are placed with volunteer "puppy raisers" as early as 8 weeks of age. At Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), a national non-profit organization that provides trained assistance dogs and ongoing support to those who qualify, the volunteer puppy-raising program is crucial to their success. The early care a puppy receives from a host family "establishes the foundation of early experiences, which are critical in preparing the puppy for advanced training."

After more than a year of devoting time and energy each day to care for the puppy (feeding, grooming, socializing, exercising and basic training are all the responsibility of the volunteer), a puppy raiser returns the dog at approximately 16 to 18 months of age to a center for more advanced training. If the dog has shown an aptitude to perform as a guide dog, and has been sufficiently trained in the necessary skills, team training can begin.

The blind or vision-impaired recipient is partnered with their new canine companion and both learn to work together to accomplish their goals. This is often done over a two-week period while living together at an on-site training facility. Some agencies provide guidance dogs free of charge, and some agencies charge a fee to cover the expense of raising and training the dogs.

Assistance Dogs International (ADI), a coalition of non-profit organizations that train and place assistance dogs, defines the relationship thusly, "Guide dogs assist blind and visually-impaired people by avoiding obstacles, stopping at curbs and steps, and negotiating traffic. The harness and U-shaped handle fosters communication between the dog and the blind partner. In this partnership, the human's role is to provide directional commands, while the dog's role is to insure the team's safety even if this requires disobeying an unsafe command."

Providing safe passage through sometimes literal darkness for their handler is the key responsibility of a guide dog when working in public. Within the training programs, dogs are taught reasonably good manners for navigating through crowds so that they do not cause their handler to bump into people unnecessarily. Similarly, it is imperative that an observer exercise equally good consideration and never pet, address or distract a service dog without explicit permission from the handler, who relies on the dog's concentration and focus for their well-being.

Despite the necessity for professionalism while on the job, it isn't all work and no play for a guide dog. All service animals have recreation time, when they play and relax, after being given a release command from their handler. For a dog that is chosen to work as a service animal, the stimulation and concentration of working is a major reward.

In addition to the training, a certain personality qualifies a dog to be certified as a guide dog. The dog is predisposed to want to do the work, and there may not be words to fully express what that service means to the handler, but the dog, using all of his senses, probably already knows that.

Do you work with a Guide Dog? Tell us your stories. Go to my.petside.com and post a message.

Bomb Dogs

When Max and Power enter FBI Headquarters, their mission is to ensure the safety of everyone in the vicinity by searching for any potentially deadly explosives. Max and Power are a team; Max is an officer and Power is a 5-year-old black Labrador Retriever and a K-9 Explosive Detector trained to detect roughly 19,000 different components that make up explosives. If he detects anything, Power indicates this by sitting.

Disco, a 6-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever, works in the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office with handler Special Agent Kathleen Carson. Disco is kept quite busy attending The Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards, Olympics, Super Bowl and other local events that need to be screened for the public's safety.

Worst case scenario, a detection team finds a bomb, quickly setting the wheels in motion to safely disarm it. Best case scenario, they provide confirmation (and with it, peace of mind) that there is no bomb. Either way, these partners enter with no guarantee of the outcome, bravely working to ensure the safety of others.

While no one wants to imagine a bomb in the building or vicinity, the reality is that bombs exist and unfortunately dangerous people do use them to intimidate and harm others. Removing a found bomb is imperative of course, but nothing can be done without first detecting and finding the bomb. Bomb-sniffing dogs, or bomb dogs, are one of the best defenses, and a preferred recourse to quickly and reliably establish whether there is indeed a bomb.

Buildings, large and small, methods of transportation (cars, trucks, boats, trains, planes), entertainment venues, public and private centers, with historical or religious significance, densely populated or isolated locations are all vulnerable, and are all able to be thoroughly searched for a potential threat by a bomb dog and a handler, or a team of dogs and their handlers.

To be certified as a bomb dog, training is rigorous. It starts early, with a dog first screened for the right temperament. Where service dogs that aid vision- or hearing-impaired individuals and people with physical disabilities must be extremely calm, a bomb dog is trained off of a natural impulse of playfulness and energy. For a bomb dog, searching for and detecting explosives is a game, and one they eagerly play with a drive and stamina not easily matched.

At Work Dogs International, a private company that trains dogs, dog and handler teams, and provides detection services, the dogs are screened for temperament, which must be friendly and outgoing, and a strong hunting instinct. With those characteristics in place, it is a matter of training the dog how to work with a handler to follow the appropriate commands necessary in the field, and what exactly it is they are supposed to hunt for.

Then, constant training is required to reinforce exposure to and familiarity with the numerous chemicals and materials related to explosives, since field work does not necessarily provide daily exposure to these materials.

At Work Dogs International, handlers and dogs are trained on-sight in California at a 10-acre ranch where they can recreate realistic situations "in hope that mistakes are made in training and not on the street." Their site boasts of rigorous testing that illustrates the experience a dog in this line of work might possess, to safeguard themselves as well as ensure the safety of those they work to protect. "We test our bomb dogs in a variety of locations with a number of trainers so they will learn to follow exact orders under any circumstance.

For investigation teams, police units and security forces in charge of bomb detection, the bomb-sniffing dog is often the crucial field asset for mission success and survival. Therefore, our bomb detection dogs have been prepared for all scenarios through the Work Dogs International 600 hour Explosive Detection Course. Only the best are certified as official bomb dogs."

It's scary to think about bombs, and sometimes seeing a bomb dog is unnerving, as it is a reminder of the potential threat, but there is also a deterrent value to the visibility of a bomb dog. Their presence serves as a reminder that we have a wonderful ally against violence.

Do you work with a Bomb Dog? Tell us your stories. Go to my.petside.com and post a message.

Therapy Dogs

To every dog-owning household, a canine companion is a valued member of the family, simultaneously dependent and generously loving. Some of those wonderful dogs take their warm, wonderful personalities beyond the front yard and give to their community as therapy dogs.

These dogs are welcomed guests at institutions and private homes when they are invited to share their most valued traits: calm, affection, tactile stimulation, motivation, physical and emotional interaction, to name a few. To understand what a therapy dog is, it is often helpful to start off defining what a therapy dog is not. Therapy dogs are not service dogs.

Service animals, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (Federal Code of Regulations, 1990) are "animals that are individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities such as guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks. Service animals are working animals, not pets."

Therapy animals, in contrast, are not legally defined by federal law. Therapy animals do provide a valuable benefit to others, but they are usually the personal pets of their owners and handlers, and work with their handlers when acting in a supportive (emotional, mental, physical) capacity with another person. Therapy animals are not exempt from health regulations that deny animals entrance into certain environments (schools, restaurants, markets), whereas service animals are absolutely permitted.

To become a therapy dog, there is a certification process that establishes both the dog's qualifications and the owner's commitment to working as volunteering partners in their community. Therapy Dogs International, Inc. (TDI), a volunteer organization, regulates, tests and registers therapy dogs and their handlers, qualifying both to visit nursing homes, hospitals and wherever therapy dogs are needed and welcomed. TDI sets forth a typical standard for membership, where all dogs must be tested and evaluated by a Certified TDI evaluator.

Additionally, a dog "must be a minimum of one (1) year of age and have a sound temperament. Each dog must pass the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen Test (CGC), and a temperament evaluation for suitability to become a Therapy Dog. The test will also include the evaluation of the dog's behavior around people with the use of some type of service equipment (wheelchairs, crutches, etc.)."

The American Kennel Club's CGC program is a certification program that evaluates basic good manners for dogs through a 10-step test. After passing the test, dogs receive a certificate from the AKC. In addition to passing the tests and evaluations, the TDI also requires a clean bill of health, established through their Health Record Form, to be completed and signed by a licensed veterinarian.

If it seems like a lot of fuss just to permit a dog to sit beside a patient with Alzheimer's and be pet, the truth is that the process is really designed to minimize risk to the patient or recipient of the dog's affection as well as to the dog itself. A therapy dog that disrupts, damages, intimidates, actually harms an individual or destroys property is of no benefit to the audience they aim to work with.

Often intended to introduce much needed calm and tranquility, it is of the utmost importance that a dog has the right temperament and training to be a therapy animal, just as bedside manner and knowledge are critical to a doctor's success in treating a patient. The reality is that hospitals and nursing homes have a lot of extra stimulation that dogs are particularly sensitive to (smells and sounds are the most obvious) and that can result in anxiety in a dog that is normally very calm.

People with handicaps and young children can make spontaneous movements that can startle a dog, producing a response you might not have been able to predict.

To senior citizens, young children, and people with a wide range of emotional, physical or mental challenges, a qualified therapy dog can bring a great deal of peace to a difficult or lonely afternoon, and even progress within a larger course of treatment. Ideally, the work will be rewarding and fun for the dog as well.

Therapy dogs provide individuals, young and old, with much-needed kindness and comfort that can make a difference on a physiological level. If you think your dog is not cut out for a life of therapy work, take heart. Just sitting with a dog has valuable health benefits. An article published in the International Journal of Psychology (2004) revealed the results of a test measuring the effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy for relieving anxiety during a standardized laboratory stressor task - having to do math.

The researchers found that "the beneficial effect of therapy dogs on anxiety is robust." So even if your dog cannot serve your community as a therapy dog, and even if you don't panic at the thought of long division, there is no question that you are still benefiting from daily doses of invaluable treatment at the hands, or paws of your pet.

Do you work with a Therapy Dog? Tell us your stories. Go to my.petside.com and post a message.

Comments (1)

Leanne Hefer October 6, 2009 10:50 AM

I have a 3 month old labrador who is a bit of a clown. He loves people and entertaining young and old. I am interested in taking him to visit retirement homes and children with dissabilities. Is there any advice you could give me to get us started? We live in Johannesburg South Africa. Thank you

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