The Jobs Dogs Do: Service, Therapy, Work and Emotional Support

We humans choose from a wide variety of jobs, careers, hobbies and chores. Same with dogs. Most are beloved pets, sharing love and affection as members of our households. But other dogs have more specific and rigorous employment, as:

• Service dogs,

• Therapy dogs,

• Working dogs, and

• Emotional support animals.

Like doctors, lawyers, teachers and plumbers, canines with these vocations must meet different requirements, receive different levels and kinds of training and do their work in varying social contexts.

Service Dogs

As defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), service dogs are trained to perform specific tasks that meet the targeted needs of people with disabilities. Disabilities can be “physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.”

Courtesy: ADA.gov

For instance:

• Guide dogs help blind people navigate the world.

• Signal dogs alert deaf people to sounds, such as a knock at the door.

• Physical support dogs assist those in wheelchairs or on crutches to open doors or carry things.

• Autism assistance pooches help those on the autism spectrum distinguish important sensory signals, such as a smoke alarm, from other input.

The ADA gives service dogs full access to public spaces, including restaurants, stores, libraries and public transport, including airplanes. Their training is long and rigorous, taking as much as 220 hours over the first 18 months of the animal’s life. See our blog entitled “Can My Dog Become a Service Dog?” for more details.

Therapy Dogs

Therapy dogs provide affection and comfort to people in such places as hospitals, nursing homes, schools and disaster areas. They must be comfortable in these sensory-dense environments and capable of interacting patiently and lovingly with a wide spectrum of people.

Although they are typically trained and certified by reputable organizations (many have been certified as Canine Good Citizens (CGC) by the American Kennel Club), they do not fall under the protection of the ADA. Therefore, therapy dogs do not have full and free access to public places. The rules of access for therapy dogs vary according to the guidelines of the places they may visit.

Working Dogs

Working dogs are the serious cousins of the playful pets we have at home. They are trained for specific tasks, such as:

Courtesy: Manfred Burdick / Pixabay

• Search and Rescue – Finding people lost or injured in a crisis, such as an earthquake. Often, it’s the dogs’ extraordinary sense of smell that qualifies them for this work.

• Explosive and Drug Detection – Here again, that talented nose makes our canine companions good at sniffing out dangerous or illegal materials.

• Cancer Detection – Hard to believe, but dogs can learn to sniff out cancer in a patient’s breath or urine. In a study performed in Italy, dogs – in this case, two Belgian Malinois and a mixed breed, all family pets – were trained to detect specific organic compounds in the urine of lung cancer patients. The dogs were 90 percent effective at differentiating the samples of non-diseased individuals from those of people diagnosed with cancer.

• Allergy Alert Dogs – These pups learn to detect allergens and their residues at schools, social events and group gatherings. They can alert their owners to the presence of potential troublesome substances and prevent allergy attacks.

The “no pet” rule applies when encountering a working dog. When you spot these pups in public, know that they are on the job and serious about their work – don’t interrupt them.

Emotional Support Animals

Courtesy: Rebecca Scholz / Pixabay

This is the most general category of doggy employment. Unlike dogs trained for specific purposes, emotional support canines (along with pigs, ducks, hamsters, iguanas and just about any other non-human beastie) just need to be their warm (even if they are cold-blooded) and comforting selves. They provide companionship for people suffering from stress, anxiety, loneliness, or other conditions that can be improved by bonding with a sympathetic being. Interacting with dogs increases our dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin levels and lowers the stress hormone cortisol. The result is improved mood and enhanced happiness.

On the one hand, emotional support dogs are not considered service dogs under the ADA and do not have unlimited access to public spaces. On the other hand, the Fair Housing Act specifies that they receive “reasonable accommodations” even in buildings that don’t allow pets. Airlines, however, are no longer required to allow emotional support animals onboard, so leave that baby kangaroo at home.

In all these ways, our dogs once again prove that they are indeed humanity’s best friends. Whatever jobs they have, they are sources of gratifying companionship as well as a boon to our physical and psychological health. See Facts about Service Dogs under our menu tab: Our Dogs & Puppies for a comparison of the different types of assistance dogs.