Mobility and Assistance

Mobility assistance dog tasks are infinite. Each service dog performs actions it’s trained for. If you have a daily routine, your dog will learn what you need and may even look to you for their next task before you even give it. Typical daily tasks play a huge role in both the handler’s, and the dog’s lives, and these tasks can become routine. In most cases, environmental cues will inform the dog what is needed, but with mobility assistance, many of the tasks must be cued by the handler.

First are Guide Dogs, then the most thought of service dog is most likely a mobility assistance dog. Hearing dogs are actually more prevalent and have been around longer, but hearing dogs are usually invisible. I remember seeing my first hearing dog in a shelter in Florida in 1992.

Mobility assistance dogs perform a variety of tasks for their handler. Pushing the button on automatic doors, retrieving dropped or out of reach items, answering the phone, pulling a wheelchair, fetching a cane, helping to remove clothing and many other tasks. One of the most common tasks I personally have trained in a mobility assistance dog is balance and staying upright. There are many reasons why someone would need a dog to help keep them upright and being overweight is the least of those reasons. Many dogs serve as a brace for people who are ambulatory but suffer from blood pressure issues (POTS) and suffer from balance and strength issues. A mobility assistance dog can tug open and close doors and drawers, turn lights on and off, and summon help by finding another person in the house. In public, the mobility assistance dog is often an invisible helper, keeping their handler upright, on a straight path, or avoiding obstacles.

A service dog is a trained to perform various tasks for their human partners who have a disability. These trained tasks are directly related to the handler’s disability and help that handler do things the disability prevents.

An Assistance Dog is one that helps its owner in everyday life, but not necessarily with mobility. This usually covers such things as helping with the laundry, opening the doors at a mall or just the front door of your house, turning lights on and off because you are bed bound, accessing things on counters when you can’t reach, dialing the phone for help or just rolling your over in bed because you’re having a nightmare.

Assistance and Mobility Assistance dogs have many things in common, so if you also purchased out book Mobility Assistance Dogs, there will be some crossover.

And Assistance Dog can be small. As small as 20lbs, if you don’t need a lot of retrieving from high places. But even that can be manipulated with the addition of “stairs” for a small dog to climb.