Service dogs, or trained dogs who provide assistance to people with disabilities, can be truly life saving. Alison, a woman with a service dog, is creating content on social media to raise awareness about service dogs. She also shares tips on her social media pages about how to train your service dog and keep them happy.
Jack is a poodle/golden doodle mix who is trained to do specific tasks which help to mitigate the panic disorder that Alison suffers from. Training a service dog like Jack can take years, and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Because of this, Alison supports a charity called Atlas which helps to expand the access that people with disabilities have to service dogs. Read on to learn more about the special bond that Alison and Jack share, and the importance it holds:
Here Alison explains what a service dog is, and what a service dog does in order to help its human. Unlike a normal dog, a service dog is trained specifically to assist its individual handler with their unique disability. Service dogs assist people with a range of different mental and physical disabilities.
According to Alison, "My service dog Jack has made my disabilities manageable (along with medication, weekly therapy, and monthly doctors visits). Because of Jack, I can make plans for my future and can exist in the world without fear of spontaneous panic attacks or disassociation because Jack has been trained to recognize and do tasks to mitigate my disabilities." via instagram
Can't get enough of ICanHasCheezburger? Then you're in luck because we're now on Instagram!
For a weekly dose of animal-themed community challenges - Subscribe to our Newsletter!
Can't get enough of ICanHasCheezburger? Find us on Instagram!