A SERVICE DOG

 A service dog is specifically trained to help people with disabilities. Those disabilities may include visual difficulties, hearing impairments, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), seizures, ambulatory issues, mental illness, diabetes, autism, and more.

Types of Service Dogs:

Guide Dog – assists an individual who has a vision impairment.

Mobility Dog – may retrieve items, open doors, or even push buttons for its handler.  Also, this Service Animal may assist people with disabilities with walking, balance, and transferring from place to place.

Hearing Dog – alert its handler with a hearing loss to sounds.  This can be a telephone, doorbell, smoke alarm, crying baby, and more.

Medical Alert Dog – trained to alert to oncoming medical conditions, or attend its handler in the event of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.

Autism Service Dog – Assistance Dog that is trained to alert its handler of certain behaviors so that the handler may keep these behaviors to a minimum. This dog provides stability and the dog’s presence offers a calming influence and provides focus. Abstract and concrete thinking advance, focus improves, and the length of attention span increases.  The important role of an autism service dog is affording the individual more independence and autonomy, helping those individuals become a viable part of the community.

Psychiatric Service Dog – works with a handler who has a mental disability.  Some types of tasks could be to attend to a handler who may need a dog to be able to go out in public (agoraphobic), or a handler who suffers from panic attacks, anxiety attacks, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), or other mental disorders.  These dogs are trained NEVER to leave their handler’s side.

 Allergy Alert dogs – Peanut allergies can be life-threatening.  Stepping up to the job to alleviate parents’ fears when their kids leave the house are a variety of dogs that have the uncanny sense to sniff out even the slightest trace of peanuts.  These dogs are trained to detect the allergen and its residue at schools, social events, and everyday activities and alert their owner.  Their training is similar to that of a police dog learning to track scents or drugs.

Hello, my name is Bishop. I joined the VIK9 AHSS family in April of 2024. I currently do not have a Handler but the trainers are training me up as a PTSD and Anxiety Disorder service dog. Once I find my Handler they will start to teach me to alert to what my Handler needs.