06-10-2012, 10:37 PM
So, I'm semi looking into service dogs, and am trying to figure out what they can do for SPD. Does anyone here have information about some of what service dogs can do for SPD?
The trick is that I'm specifically looking for information about tasks, not about help that isn't from tasks. I'm looking for the things that make it a service dog rather than an emotional support animal. Not everyone actually follows the strict requirements on that difference, and that difference matters quite a bit to me at the moment. (If I end up going the route of looking into a service dog, I'd be getting help from someone who's job includes making sure that people follow those laws properly).
So, either ideas for yourself, your children, things you've heard about others doing, whatever. What is there for tasks that dogs do for SPD?
(The definition of a task in this sense is something that the animal does to help with a disability which can not easily be replaced by an object (i.e. a dog waking you up in the morning isn't a task, because that's what an alarm clock does, but if you can't use an alarm clock it could be), and which it requires special training to do instead of being something a dog does naturally (i.e. the fact that lying down with a dog with my head on its back calms me down a lot doesn't make it a task).
The trick is that I'm specifically looking for information about tasks, not about help that isn't from tasks. I'm looking for the things that make it a service dog rather than an emotional support animal. Not everyone actually follows the strict requirements on that difference, and that difference matters quite a bit to me at the moment. (If I end up going the route of looking into a service dog, I'd be getting help from someone who's job includes making sure that people follow those laws properly).
So, either ideas for yourself, your children, things you've heard about others doing, whatever. What is there for tasks that dogs do for SPD?
(The definition of a task in this sense is something that the animal does to help with a disability which can not easily be replaced by an object (i.e. a dog waking you up in the morning isn't a task, because that's what an alarm clock does, but if you can't use an alarm clock it could be), and which it requires special training to do instead of being something a dog does naturally (i.e. the fact that lying down with a dog with my head on its back calms me down a lot doesn't make it a task).