Service dogs are trained to offer companionship, comfort, affection, and physical support to people in need. These animals dedicate their lives to supporting and accompanying people with disabilities or with a physical or mental condition.

These dogs offer two types of service:

• Therapy dogs. They are dogs who volunteer with their owners to improve the lives of other people by visiting schools, hospitals and nursing homes.
• Assistance dogs. They live completely with the end user or the person who requires it.

What is a service dog like?

All the skills learned by service dogs allow them to become essential and necessary companions for those who adopt them as service dogs.

Each assistance dog is trained to perform specific tasks. These depend on each person. For example, a person with limited mobility may benefit from a dog capable of opening drawers, pointing at objects with his nose, carrying things, and turning lights on and off.

There are various types of assistance dogs, including the following:

• Guide dogs: They support people with visual disabilities.
• Signal dogs: Support people with hearing disabilities.
• Service dogs: They support people with autism.
• Medical alert dogs: Trained to support, in case of emergency, people who have a medical condition.
• Rehabilitation dogs: They provide accompaniment and support to people with disabilities or to people who are undergoing medical treatment.

Training a dog can last between six months to two years, depending on the degree of specialization required by the end user.

During the month of July, Disability Pride Month is commemorated. The objective of this celebration is:

1. Change the way people think about and define disability.
2. Eradicate the shame that some people with disabilities live with.
3. Understand disability as a natural part of human diversity.

Why does this date exist?

Originally this celebration was known as Disability Awareness Month, but after a few years, the word “awareness” was not enough to do justice to the main objective of this date, which is to create a culture that celebrates diversity and inclusion.

The month is commemorated, so far, only in New York City. It began in 2010, 20 years after the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). A document that was a watershed in the human rights of people with disabilities in the United States. We hope that this celebration will soon spread to the rest of the United States.

At TeletonUSA Foundation we want all our boys and girls to feel proud of who they are, just as we are proud of them.