Assistance Animals

By Kristin Hartness, Canines for Disabled Kids & Service Dog Partner Almost every week someone asks me if their personal dog can be trained as a service dog. The short answer is…maybe. Training a service dog takes a long time, a lot of work, substantial money and a willingness to risk a broken heart. While this is…

By Kristin Hartness, Canines for Disabled Kids & Service Dog Partner Retirement—the point where a person stops employment completely. Well, that sounds very official, and it should as it came directly from the Wikipedia. For a service dog this statement may or may not be true. Retiring My First Service Dog Laddie, my first service…

By Adrian Johansen TThe impact that animals have on our lives cannot be overstated. They are always so much more than pets. They are members of our families, our most loyal companions. For many of us, they are also a vital means of support. Beyond the traditional role of guide dogs for those with visual…

By John Peterson The positive impact that a pet can have on the lives of their human partners with disabilities and mental health challenges cannot be overstated! Pet owners report feeling less lonely because of the presence of their pets. At the same time, they are less stressed because having a pet offers you the…

By Susan Doktor No matter what you call your service animal, you can count on one thing: he (or she) is going to come running when you do. There are over half a million service dogs in the US providing critical assistance to disabled people. Opening cabinet doors, soothing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, pulling wheelchairs…

By Janis D. Gioia, MAEd When George Strait recorded the song Love Without End, Amen, he wasn’t singing about the bond between a rescued service dog and his handler, or how that love would change both of their lives forever. But if he knew Amy Fey (one of his biggest fans) and her service dog…

By Joel Snyder People often have a special bond with their pets. But this is especially true for people who have autism, including children with autism. When humans have autism, they form a special bond with their dogs. The very experience of training a dog can make an amazing difference in how people and children…

By Jenny Ho The old adage says a dog is man’s best friend; however, for more than 7,000 people with disabilities across the UK, they are a lot more than that. To them, they are lifesavers. Assistance Dogs UK is an organization which works with eight assistance dogs charities to bring canine care to those…

By Kristin Hartness, Canines for Disabled Kids More and more often I meet people who tell me they self-trained or privately trained their service dog.  The answers I get when I ask why they chose that route vary from thoughtful and well planned choices to vague and mumbled avoided responses. Sometimes I meet people who think…

By Kristin Hartness, Canines for Disabled Kids Stop, the world is spinning with all the terms that are tossed in conversation about why someone has an animal they want to take in public. The truth is that it is often hard to figure out which animals are legal service animals with public access and which animals…

By Kristin Hartness, Canines for Disabled Kids Facilitation is when a person, usually a child under the age of 14, is placed in a 3-way service dog partnership. The child, the service dog, and a facilitator work together in public environments as a team.  The team can work in public only when all 3 partners…

A Poem by Berg Two and a half years ago, 7-year-old Berg came to Horse Boy World burdened with a diagnosis of PDD-NOS and selective mutism. Virtually non-verbal, she rarely made eye contact, would tense her body into a stiff leg/back posture, would avoid all body contact and suffered from regular, long-lasting meltdowns. She lived…