3 minute read
Service animal types
Our Animal Friends Service dogs trained for specific tasks
Animals serve many roles in their human companions’ lives. In addition to being loyal pets, animals help wrangle livestock, assist police and rescue personnel, sniff out illnesses, and perform other lifesaving or comforting tasks.
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Service dogs provide immeasurable value to the individuals who rely on them. The Americans with Disabilities Act says service dogs are those that are specifically trained to perform certain tasks for people with disabilities. The services provided can help individuals with psychiatric, physical, sensory, intellectual, or mental disabilities.
The organization Share America has said that there are at least half a million service dogs in the United States.
Service dogs have the legal right to enter all public spaces, which sets them apart from emotional support animals. The following are some of the different types of service dogs.
Cardiac service dogs: These dogs can recognize dangerous changes in an individual’s heart rate or blood pressure. They can alert people to issues so immediate interventions can be made. Cardiac service dogs also can be trained to notify emergency services of a lifethreatening event.
Guide dogs: These are among the most recognizable service dogs. They assist the visually impaired with navigating obstacles and helping them get around.
Hearing dogs: Hearing dogs have to be specially trained to give off body language clues to convey messages to their owners, rather than barking. This may include touching with a nose or paw.
Seizure alert dogs: Seizure alert dogs are trained to recognize subtle changes in human behavior that indicate a seizure is imminent. They can position themselves to protect a person during a seizure.
Diabetic alert dogs: A dog’s sense of smell is thousands of times more acute than a human’s. Diabetic alert dogs can smell chemical changes in bodies that are traced to altered blood sugar readings that occur with diabetes.
Mobility assistance dogs: These dogs offer assistance to those with mobility issues, such as individuals with paralysis, arthritis and spinal cord injuries. The dogs can close doors, pull wheelchairs, fetch objects, and support the weight of a person’s body.
Autism support dogs: Autism support dogs may provide comfort and reduce anxiety among children with autism, and could even prevent such youngsters from running away.
n Retiring Retirement
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shift going on between the generations now. I call it the “Mark Zuckerberg Syndrome.” In former times, young people would work for years “climbing the ladder,” and would learn sagely advice from older bosses – perhaps even wanting to become like their mentors. Today, millennials like Zuckerberg are at the top of the ladder, and where does that leave the senior who didn’t grow up with computers and a smart phone?
Moreover, the divorce rate has severed some of the ties between grandparents and grandchildren. Additionally, elders who used to live under the same roof as the grandkids may now be in assisted living or gated communities.
Overall, the generation gap is greater than ever before.
How do we give voice to these seniors? Ironically, the answer could be the very thing that set up seniors as “has beens” and put them out to pasture.
Technology.
Podcasts are reaching billions of listeners. I envision young folks drinking from the fount of these interviews like a parched person in a desert.
As the audiences grow to include more senior listeners, it is my hope that older people will also tune in instead of dropping out and revel in the idea that they haven’t lost their voices.
Robert J. LaCosta can be reached at norepcom@gmail.com
NowFamily CAPITAL DISTRICT GENERATIONS TOGETHER
