© Tammie Rogers 2021
Page Title
Turn a Diagnosis into a Task
We
often
receive
calls
from
people
who
tell
us
their
medical
diagnosis
and
then
ask
whether
a
Service
Dog
can
help
them.
A
diagnosis
cannot
tell
us
whether
a
dog
can
help
you.
We
are
not
doctors
and
so
we
may
not
know
what
it
means to have your condition.
Prior
to
contacting
us,
please
think
with
great
clarity
regarding
what
behaviors
you
would
want
a
dog
to
perform
that
would
mitigate
your
disability
in
some
way.
Only
then
can
we
meet
in
the
middle
between
the
“Dog
Trainer”
and
the
“Client” in order to assess whether using a trained dog is the best way for you to gain some relief from your disability.
An
example
behavior
might
be,
“I
would
like
the
dog
to
stand
still
to
brace
me
when
I
get
out
of
a
chair”,
or
“I
would
like
my
dog
to
lay
across
my
lap
when
I
begin
to
become
anxious
or
hyper-
vigilant.”
The
fringe
benefits
of
emotional
support,
companionship
or
even
the
extra
ears
and
eyes
that
a
companion
dog
can
offer
will
always
be
available
to
you
and
may
often
seem
to
be
the
greatest
advantage
on
any
given
day
with
your
Service
Dog.
However,
it
is
not
a
trained
task
and
cannot
be
the
sole
defining
attribute
of
a
Service
Dog.
We
must
teach
a
Service
Dog
tasks
that mitigate your specific disability to meet the ADA’s definition of a trained Service Dog.