Service dogs are beyond fetching
The Autism News | English
One moment 15-year-old Glen Gregos was a happy-go-lucky kid riding a motorcycle. The next he was the lucky-to-be-alive victim of a terrible accident, paralyzed from the chest down.
Now 54 and a resident of Woodland Hills, Gregos has built a rewarding life — college, marriage, a successful banking career, a daughter who just graduated from college.
Still, for decades after the accident, Gregos faced challenges every day from simple things most of us take for granted — going to the grocery store, going out the front door. And then six years ago, his life took another dramatic turn. He met Beulah — a.k.a. Miss Bo — a black Labrador retriever who has been at his side, 24/7, ever since — to open doors, carry bags, pull his wheelchair, pick up anything he drops on the floor and cheer up any black mood he falls into.
“It’s hard to put into words everything these dogs do for you,” he says. “It’s physical. It’s emotional. It’s all-encompassing. You probably have to live it to understand it.”
Miss Bo is not considered a pet. She’s a service dog, a concept first introduced with guide (or seeing-eye) dogs for the blind, perhaps as far back as the 16th century, though it wasn’t until 1929 that the first guide dog training school in the U.S. opened up. By the 1970s, people had started training dogs to help with other disabilities, and that trend has continued.
Service dogs now include dogs that can open cupboards and drawers, alert someone to a ringing telephone, assist someone during a disorienting seizure, help someone keep their balance or get back up after a fall, not to mention dogs that can sniff allergens in the air or low blood sugar on someone’s breath.
“Here in the U.S. we have a highly individualistic culture — creative, experimental,” says Lynette Hart, director of the Center for Animals in Society at UC Davis. “It’s like a caldron for coming up with new things that dogs can do for us. And dogs love to work. It’s a very natural marriage for them to help people.”
This has been a boon for many who, like Gregos, have had their lives changed by some extraordinary dogs. But potential pitfalls abound. “There’s almost no regulation,” Hart says. “And everyone wants to do what they want to do.”
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