Dogs can go on strike, demand their fair share
This just in: animals are able to exhibit a wide range of emotions. I’m sure you’re shocked. But there’s more to it than that and it’s pretty fascinating.
Could robots replace service dogs or assistance animals?
This morning CNN reported on a new technology from the Center for Healthcare Robotics at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a 5 foot tall gray metal robot called El-E (pronounced Ellie) and it’s being designed to help assist with patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. See El-E in action.
Traveling with your assistance animal
It's that time of year again that many of us begin to think about traveling to be with family and friends for the holidays. While traveling with your trained assistance animal is your privilege, there are some steps you need to take to make sure your trip goes smoothly.
We’ve listened. And now we’re ready to start working on the update!
During the month of September the United States Service Dog Registry invited everyone to write in with their suggestions about how they would like to see the the registry improved. And we had an amazing response—bigger than we had anticipated! We want to warmly thank all of you who wrote in with your suggestions (and many compliments)! We're still going through all of our e-mails, categorizing suggestions and tabulating votes for specific things. We also want to remind everyone that not all of your suggestions will be able to be included either because of cost issues or because they will compromise privacy. But we do have a few exciting things that we are ready to say will be officially included in the next update:
We’re updating our website and services, now is your time to be heard!
We are going to be conducting a major overhaul of the United States Service Dog Registry starting in October, which means you once again have the chance to give us your input to make this Assistance Animal Registry exactly what you need! We’re going to be including a lot of new features. We will slightly revise the site layout with more information, add the ability to register other types of animals and allow access to a few more items in our shop. Please send us your comments and we will take them into consideration when we perform our update. Now is your chance to be heard!
Service Dogs (and their handlers) should consider taking the Canine Good Citizen test too
Training your dog to help with your disability is a very complex and time consuming process. Some people who put in many hours training their dog to help them with their own epilepsy, mobility issues, blindness, psychiatric conditions, etc. do not take into consideration how their dog behaves toward others in public. One of the best things you can do to help train your dog is to take the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen Test. While we don't require it, the United States Service Dog Registry highly recommends getting your dog retested with the AKC's Canine Good Citizen test every two years.