Medical Service Dog

While the ADA does not have specific rules for leaving your service dog at home, if you truly need a service dog, it is not recommended by Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs that a recipient leave home without him/her. Service dogs are protected under federal law and granted accommodation rights by businesses, allowing them to accompany their recipient everywhere they need to go that the public would normally be allowed to go.

Why Should I Avoid Leaving My Service Dog at Home

A service dog is intended to work for someone 24/7. While service dogs do sleep and take breaks, they are also very tuned into their recipient. To even qualify by law to have a service dog, you must have a disability for which the dog is trained to mitigate the challenges.

Therefore, if you have a permanent disability, those challenges can occur at anytime, anywhere. If you leave the service dog at home, they will not be able to assist you if you experience a medical event or other issue while in public.

There is also a very strong bond between a service dog and the recipient. The dog understands their job, so if you leave them at home, they often become very anxious and upset that they have been separated from their recipients, and that is an unhealthy state of mind for them. If you leave them behind regularly, the dog will decide that you do not need them to really work for you. If you become complacent in doing what is necessary to maintain this strong bond with the dog, they will become complacent as well.

If you only ask the dog to help you some of the time and not all the time, then the dog will not know when he is supposed to work and when he isn’t.

Making Lifestyle Changes for Your Service Dog

Disabilities such as seizures, diabetic changes, PTSD, mobility, and more can cause complications for recipients when they are in public at any given time. While there are instances where you may be tempted to leave them at home, you are placing yourself in a situation where you could experience an emergency and would be left without the assistance of the service dog.

When you get a service dog, it is sometimes necessary to make lifestyle changes. For example, if you enjoy riding motorcycles, you will have to give up riding since you cannot take your service dog with you. Another example would be if you like to go to the shooting range. It is not an appropriate place for a service dog because the gunshots are very loud, and they have not been adjusted to noise like that in most cases to where they’re comfortable with it. This can cause the dog to start having a negative experience which can materialize into behavioral issues and other problems you want to avoid. Concerts and clubs are another very loud environment that is not appropriate for a service dog.

Leaving your service dog at home to go enjoy these types of activities puts you at risk of having a seizure, diabetic high or low, PTSD episode, vertigo, etc., or can leave you with difficulty getting up from your seat or keeping your balance without any support from your service dog.

You cannot predict what things are going to happen while you’re away. If you leave the dog at home, you are gambling that you might be okay without your service dog, putting your health, safety, and life at risk. If you are comfortable going places and doing things without your service dog, then it may be the case that you do not require the assistance of a service dog.

How to Ensure Success with Your Service Dog

Service dogs are highly trained and do a wonderful job with their assigned tasks. To ensure the best performance and relationship possible, it is a 50/50 effort between you and your service dog. If you do not do what you are supposed to do with your service dog, then you will not have a proper working relationship with the dog.

Service dogs are trained to mitigate the challenges of a wide range of disabilities 24/7, so they should be always with the recipient, no matter the circumstances. This not only keeps the recipient safe but also provides the dog with the opportunity to fulfill the purpose for which they were trained.

Learn More About Service Dogs Today!

Visit the Guardian Angels Medical Service Dog website today to learn more about how service dog organizations help those with permanent disabilities regain their independence!

For years, people thought that PTSD was an emotional issue. It has carried several different names throughout the generations, including Shellshock, Johnny Blues, Combat Fatigue, etc. Today, we know that this condition is known by the name of post-traumatic stress. (more…)

Blake Sowers, Kennel Master at Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs and US Army Veteran, joined the Guardian Angels team in July 2022. (more…)

Regis, a 100% medically retired Navy veteran, served for approximately 16 years. He has been married to his wife for almost 21 years and together they have five children.  His oldest child joined the Navy when she graduated in 2016. Regis said he enjoys spending time with his wife and children, as well as his service dog Cheyenne, who he was paired with in 2016. (more…)

Service dogs can provide a wide range of support for people with PTSD. This condition impacts portions of the brain that regulate emotions and fear responses. It is characterized by high anxiety, panic attacks, brittle emotions, debilitating triggers, and re-experiencing traumatic events through flashbacks and/or night terrors. It is common in veterans and first responders but can be experienced by anyone who has suffered through a traumatic event or series of traumatic events. Symptoms of PTSD frequently lead to isolation and serious depression.  (more…)

Playtime is especially important for dogs, just as it is for humans because it is a time of bonding, enrichment, relaxation, and there is no pressure. We have certain games that are good games and others that are not appropriate for service dogs.

Playtime Activities to Never Do with Your Service Dog

We never play tug of war with our service dogs. Instead, we always teach them to drop an item in our hand. Playing tug of war would be very counterproductive. We also don’t wrestle with the dog; some people like to get rough, wrestle, roll, and tumble which is also opposite of their training and inappropriate for many reasons.

We never want them to have that kind of contact with a disabled individual or jump on them at an inappropriate time because in a dog’s mind, if it’s okay sometimes, it should be okay all the time. We must be consistent in our behaviors and actions around our dogs.

Safe Exercises for Your Service Dog

A game enjoyed by many dogs is chasing a ball. When playing fetch, you want to make sure they bring it back to hand. When you play ball with your dog, never throw it up in the air. While they are tremendous athletes, and they love to play, they can suffer damage just like a football, basketball, or a pole vault player. When they jump up in the air and down again, they put high impact on their joints. They can tear a ligament or muscle just like an athlete.

Even if you don’t see an injury earlier in life, these are things that could cause complications later in the service dog’s geriatric life. So, throw the ball out straight, not up in the air. This way the dog can chase out directly for it instead reducing the chance of injury.

If your service dog doesn’t bring the ball back, then there are other lessons that need to go into the rules of that game. It’s just like playing any other kind of game. For example, if you’re playing Monopoly, there are certain rules. You roll the dice, there are so many spaces you can go to when you can collect, not collect, etc. So, just like there are rules to that type of a game, what you need to do is teach your dog the rules of our games.

For service dogs, we start very young because we turn these games into tasks later in life. Therefore, they enjoy their tasks. They think their tasks are a lot of fun because these are the games, we played to set their foundation.

If your dog doesn’t enjoy playing ball, then go for walks or practice their obedience training. Even though they might be stellar at doing all their basic obedience this is a wonderful time for bonding and great positive reinforcement with treats. Practice their sit, stay, down, recall and heeling while making sure it’s all a positive experience.

Every time they do something right, reward them right away. Dog’s think within the moment, so you need to capture behaviors by being quick with the reward.

If you want to get creative, you could set up little obstacle courses in your backyard, with different things for them to learn to do, like wobble tables and teeter-totters. You can also set up hay bales at different heights or set up tires for jumping through. There are a lot of different ways you can be creative. Just be sure that you don’t make anything dangerous. You would never want exercises that would risk their health or well-being by causing an injury.

Pay Attention to the Weather When Playing Outside with Your Service Dog

Recipients and dog owners need to be very cognizant of the temperature outside. Many dogs are very high energy with a lot of drive. They will continue to play ball until they drop over with a heat stroke. Dogs get hot much quicker than people; it’s harder for them to cool themselves. If it’s hot out, you need to play early in the day or late in the day and limit the activities. Even if the dog still wants to play, you might need to stop sooner for the dog’s well-being.

The same thing goes if it’s cold or freezing outside. You want to make sure their feet are protected since dogs can get frostbite just like people. Always be aware. Never walk them on hot pavement or blacktop. We’ve seen dogs with horrible burns on the bottom of their feet, and they can’t walk for days.

Also, if your dog is normally on grass and you’re going someplace to throw the ball, like a parking lot or a tennis court, it’s important to keep in mind that it can take all the protective layers off the pads of their feet. With this type of injury, they will be lame for days, and they will have bloody sores on the pads of their feet, which causes them serious pain to walk. Always be sure their feet are protected in these situations.

Have Additional Questions About Playtime for Your Service Dog? Contact us Today at MedicalServiceDogs.org!

Many people do not realize the difference between visible and invisible disabilities. As human beings, we are visual creatures. When we see someone walking with a cane, in a wheelchair, or with braces on their legs, we immediately realize that this person has a disability, and we can put that in terms that our mind understands. What we don’t see is the cashier ringing up your groceries who may have a very serious diabetic imbalance – a brittle diabetic that could suddenly collapse or become incoherent because you don’t see diabetes externally until something happens. (more…)

Jonathan Conover, MSW, LCSWA, is an Army Veteran who served for eleven years, with one deployment to Iraq and three to Afghanistan. He is now a Licensed Clinical Social Worker employed as an independently contracted outpatient therapist. (more…)

In honor of Administrative Professionals Week last week, Guardian Angels would like to feature Gwyneth Hiesinger, who works in the organization’s finance department. She assists the organization with a variety of tasks, such as tracking donations and the money that goes out of the organization. Gwyneth recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs in February. (more…)

Keeping your service dog healthy is crucial to ensure they can perform their job and lead a long, healthy, happy life. At Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, we keep our dogs as healthy as possible and teach our recipients to do the same. We’ve put together our top tips for keeping your service dog healthy and happy.

Keep Them at a Healthy Weight

Overweight dogs are a major issue in the U.S. When your dog is overweight, they are at a higher risk for conditions such as heart issues and cancer, while also putting extra stress on their joints which can lead to arthritis and other mobility complications.

To check if your service dog is at a healthy weight, he/she should have a visible waistline. When you touch your dog’s ribs, you should be able to feel their ribs rather than a layer of fat. If you are unable to feel their ribs, your dog is probably overweight. Another way to check is to look down over their back and look for an indentation between the hips and ribs – their waistline. If you see that this area goes straight back with no indent or if it balloons out, your dog is overweight. Be sure you are feeding them the correct portions for their activity level and avoid overfeeding them treats. Dog food labels give feeding instructions that ensure the dog never starves, however, the dog’s activity level must be taken into consideration making the label suggestions inappropriate in most cases.

Feed Them a Scientific vs Cost Formulation Dog Food

When it comes to dog food, there’s something called a cost formulation and a scientific formulation. The less expensive dog foods typically fall under

the cost formulation. All they are required to do is meet the percentage analysis that you see on the labeling; it doesn’t specify where those products come from that make up that analysis. Sadly, they could be using shoe leather and feathers to meet those criteria. Yikes, this is definitely not what we want to feed our dogs to maximize their health and nutrition! This is why we always recommend a scientific formulation. These companies guarantee their sources of ingredients that make up the analysis. The cheaper foods do not guarantee you what these sources are because they are buying whatever is the cheapest. With a scientific formulation of dog food, you are getting a higher quality ingredient.
With so many dog foods on the market, it’s really important to do your homework. Our veterinarian, Dr. Rogers, and our founder, Carol Borden, have done a great deal of research on diets because we absolutely want to give our dogs the finest foundation possible at an affordable price for our recipients.

What was particularly important to Carol was not only the type of product that was being sourced to meet those percentages, but where it was being sourced from. We know that many of the dog treats coming from China have killed a lot of dogs in our country. We know that some of the raw hides and chew toys are cured in formaldehyde. We would never give our dogs anything like that.

When Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs did all the research as to what dog food we should feed our dogs, we ended up choosing a dog food that was predominantly sourced in the U.S. with ingredients that are grown here on farms in the U.S. In addition, there are a few ingredients that are sourced from safe places, such as salmon from Norway or lamb from New Zealand.

In your research, you will see that there is a lot of concern for heavy metals and naturally occurring toxins in dog foods. Unfortunately, over 50% of dogs in the U.S. die of cancer each year. We have to question if that may be caused in part by a dog’s diet.

Do Not Feed Your Service Dog People Food

At Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, we do not feed our service dogs people food at all. Our service dogs have public access rights which means they can go into food venues such as restaurants and grocery stores. We never want them to be begging for human food or being “hoovers” on the floor at a restaurant. Another reason is not all people food is good for dogs. If you give an overabundance of people food, it can upset the balance of what they should be receiving in their diet. It also adds to the dog’s risk of obesity, and could even cause a GI upset with diarrhea.

Take Care of Your Dog’s Dental Health

Dental health care is important for your dog. If your service dog doesn’t like to chew on bones such as Nyla bones, which help clean the teeth, you will need to get a toothbrush or dental wipes so you can help keep their teeth clean. There are a variety of dog-specific dental products on the market that you can use and get your dog used to. This is far better and less expensive than having to put your dog under anesthesia to have a dental cleaning.

Ensure Your Service Dog Gets Regular Exercise

Another great way to keep your service dog at a healthy weight is to make sure they are getting regular exercise and mental enrichment. Activities you can do with your dog include playing catch, taking a walk, practice your obedience drills, and more!

We recommend that you avoid throwing the ball or toy up in the air to prevent injuries such as a tear to the CCL (the same as the ACL in a human). You also do not want to encourage your dog to lunge for a treat or toy either. Bigger dogs playing this way could even result in you getting knocked over and injured.

At Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, we build confidence courses that include platforms, steps, tunnels, sway bridges, wobble tables, and tires. These courses should be built only a foot or two off the ground to prevent accidents. Dogs should be introduced to confidence courses slowly and with positive reinforcement to ensure they find their comfort zone.

Schedule Regular Veterinary Visits

Be sure to take your service dog to the veterinarian for their annual checkup to get their vaccines along with stool sample testing, and an overall wellness check. Once your dog reaches about seven years of age, you should start adding a geriatric profile to their annual wellness exams so you know what’s going on within your dog. This is an excellent way to stay ahead of a potential problem that could be addressed early. These annual visits will help you identify dietary issues or other problems that may need to be addressed with supplements or other changes for their well-being.
Additionally, it’s important to observe a geriatric dog as he ages. If you observe that he is slowing down, there may be supportive care that you could provide him/her with early such as for an arthritic condition which is very common. This condition is not going to show up in the blood work, but the veterinarian will certainly make the appropriate suggestions in talking with the client and examining the dog. By adding the appropriate supportive veterinary medications, your dog will not only be more comfortable, but it may also extend their working life.

Use Preventatives as Needed

Regardless of where you live, heartworms can become an issue for your dog. It is crucial to keep up with your dog’s heartworm preventative. Without this preventive, heartworms will kill the dog over time. Flea and tick preventatives are necessary depending on where you live. Even if you keep your home clean and free of parasites, sometimes wild animals can carry them in. In other cases, your neighbors may not keep up with fleas and ticks as well you do, which can transfer over to your home.

Have Questions About Service Dog Care? Contact us Today!

If you have any questions about caring for your service dog, please reach out to Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs today to learn more!

Whether a dog is a pet or a working dog, they all offer some level of emotional support to their owner regardless of their mental or physical condition. (more…)

April is the month of the military child, and children hold a special place in our hearts here at Guardian Angels. Many of our recipients suffer from PTS, and as a result, their children can be impacted by Intergenerational PTS. (more…)

The volunteers at Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs are critically important. In fact, when I first started the organization, there was little to no funding. Therefore, I depended a lot on what volunteers were willing to do and capable of doing for me. They were a huge asset in many capacities, such as writing thank you notes, helping with cleaning and feeding the dogs, etc. Some of them even became our volunteer founding board members that are still with our organization today. (more…)

Sarah, a Military Sexual Trauma survivor, served in the Army from 2005 to 2007. Sarah had an accident, falling from a height of about 19 feet. During this time, she requested compassionate reassignment due to her husband at the time being ill. After her husband passed away, she got out of the military. “I stayed basically locked in my house, failing to adapt to civilian life,” Sarah said. (more…)

Exercise is a crucial part of the physical and mental health of your dog. When exercising with your dog, safety is key to preventing injury or long-term physical issues. At Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, we’ve put together some tips for safely exercising your dog, providing them with physical and mental enrichment.

Why is Exercise Important for a Service Dog?

Exercise is important for all dogs – especially service dogs. Since these dogs are working every day, they need mental and physical down time just like people. It keeps them in shape and allows them to release any excess energy they may have. We all need a way to have fun, be physically and mentally fit, so some well thought out, safe exercises are the answer. When receiving a service dog, it’s important to prepare your home including scheduling time for exercise.

Play Catch

Most of our dogs and lots of pet dogs love for their human to throw a ball. This is a great way to exercise your dog, and you too! Everyone loves seeing how athletic their dog can be by jumping up in the air to catch a ball, but when throwing their ball or other toy, only throw it low and straight away from you. Jumping up isn’t so bad, but the landing puts tremendous impact on their muscles and joints. They can tear ligaments or have long term joint inflammation that leads to early, crippling arthritis. If you truly love your dog, then respect him by practicing this exercise correctly so your dog won’t injure themselves by jumping up.

Depending on the disability of our recipients, there are also automatic ball launchers that can be used in place of throwing the ball for their service dog. You can teach the dog to drop the ball right into it and it will launch back out providing entertainment for your dog. Regardless of your ability to interact with your dog physically, you should always be with him while playing to further your bond.

Build a Confidence Course

For a more imaginative activity, Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs builds confidence courses for our service dogs. These are both a physical and mental release for the dog while also serving as a team building exercise between the dog and handler or recipient.
To put these courses together, we build different platforms, steps, sway bridges, tunnels, wobble tables, tunnels and tires. It’s best to build them just a foot or two off the ground to be sure they stay safe if they jump off. These courses are only limited by your imagination. You can switch it up, go at it forward and backwards, etc. Just have fun while building your bond.

With a confidence course, you will need to go slowly at first, allowing the dog to ease into it. We do everything with positive reinforcement, helping them to find their comfort zone. These courses are great exercise for both the dog and the recipient.

Practice Obedience Drills

In addition to throwing a ball or using a confidence course, you can also go through the dog’s obedience such as sit, down, heal, recalls, etc. Practicing their obedience training with positive reinforcement is a great way to keep their skills sharp, exercise them physically and mentally, while also helping you and your dog learn to work well together. Bonding with your service dog is a crucial part of your relationship with them. If you are making it fun, they will always enjoy working for you. It is also a crucial part of being a pet owner in general.

Play Time Activities to Avoid

You never want to encourage your dog to jump or lunge for a treat or a toy. When you do this, you are teaching them to jump on the person holding the toy or treat. If the dog is big, then they could knock the person over or scratch them. They could also accidentally catch your hand or fingers with a tooth which never feels good. This type of activity is not proper communication with your pet because you are telling him/her that it’s okay to jump on people sometimes, but then in other cases, jumping won’t be allowed – very confusing messaging to the dog.

For example:

If the dog just came in with muddy feet and jumps on you right before you’re all dressed up about to go out, then you’re going to be mad at the dog for jumping when you are the one who taught them to jump on you in the first place. For many reasons, we strongly advise against teaching them to jump or lunge like this when playing.

As explained above, you don’t want to launch toys up in the air for them to catch. While dogs are fabulous athletes and we enjoy seeing them demonstrate their abilities, dogs do not realize that they can become injured from jumping into the air and hitting the ground. When they jump up like this, they can tear their equivalent to their ACL. It can also put tremendous impact on their joints, which can shorten their working life.

Always be aware of the temperature when you are playing outside. If it is too hot, only throw the ball 4-5 times. Many dogs are so ball driven that they would continue to catch the ball until they fall over with a heat stroke. If it is snowy and freezing weather, be sure to bring them in after a few minutes of playing so they can warm up their feet and toes again.

Want to Learn More About Service Dog Exercises? Contact us Today!

At Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, we are proud to serve as a service dog non-profit where we have helped hundreds of recipients regain their lives. We are dedicated to providing our service dogs with the best training and care. Contact us today to learn more or see if you are eligible for a service dog!

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