September is National Dog Service Month. Rubie Nathanson, a trainer with Dog Training Elite, joined Cheddar News to discuss the differences between a service dog and a typical pet and the importance of service dogs overall.

<div class="block">September is National Dog Service Month. Rubie Nathanson, a trainer with Dog Training Elite, joined Cheddar News to discuss the differences between a service dog and a typical pet and the importance of service dogs overall.</div>

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Cheddar Paws: Observing National Service Dog Month

September is National Service Dog Month. So we're excited to welcome Ruby Nathanson from dog training elite and her dog Jerry to show us some skills. Good morning. So what separates a service dog who by the way, Jerry behaved so well from a typical pet? So the difference of a service dog and a typical pet is that a service dog is trained to perform a specific amount or of tasks for the handler and the handler only. They're also trained to go in the public and they have to go through a series of tests. So they have to be extremely obedient. How do you interact with the service dog? Can we pet him? Because I see a sign on him that says do not pet. Yeah. So a lot of the misconceptions around service dogs, um emotional support animals and with therapy dogs that a service dog is trained specifically for the handler and the handler only, whereas a therapy dog is trained for the community. So the community or excuse me, the therapy dog is able to go to universities to go to hospitals, rehabilitation centers, even airports where there might be people with higher stress where that dog can help them and emotional support animals, they do not require any specific training or train tasks and are not protected by AD A. So what about the skills that this dog can do? What can they help their owners do? Yes. So service dogs can help reduce anxiety and panic attacks by grounding and interrupting behaviors. And that could be seen with DPT therapy and also sensory stimulation. But in addition, it can help with mobility support, autism support and scent training as well for the specific individuals. I'm sorry, we often think about service dogs for people who are blind, but you just sort of opened my eyes to the world of service dogs. What can uh how can people benefit from having a service dog as opposed to maybe a therapy dog or an emotional support dog? Yeah. So we work a lot with veterans right now. Uh we know Veterans Day is coming up and uh we do see a lot of them come to us that have PTSD and so we help them with creating or teaching the dog and training the dog on specific tasks that they will need to just go throughout their day and since it's for them and for them only, right, um It will help them whether it is reducing the anxiety, whether it is feeling protected when they're at a grocery store, um Whether it is just grounding in just public areas, can you demonstrate some skills with Jerry. Yeah. So um since service dogs are able to do things on um an automatic response based on how I'm feeling. Uh some of the ones that he knows is grounding techniques for me. So we'll demonstrate one of deep pressure therapy. If I'm sitting down, he's able to come up over my lap um and stay there until I tell him to leave. So up. Ok. Pressure, round pressure, pressure all the way. Oh Jack pressure. Come on and he senses that when he senses something is wrong. Yes, there we go. What goes into training a service dog? How hard is it? So every dog is different. Every training is different for every dog, you know, um whether it is um alternative types of training or treat training as well. Uh We really need to focus on the obedience and then after the obedience is um great and passes A K CS public or excuse me, A K CS can good citizen test. Then they go on to pass the public access test. After they pass that, then we're able to understand what our client needs and how we are able to help the dog do a task for the specific um handler to help them go throughout their day. So sweet and very briefly, what are some of the biggest misconceptions that folks have about service dogs? Yeah. So um service dogs are again trained for the handler and handler only. Whereas therapy dogs are for the community and emotional support. Animals have no required training. So, a lot of misconceptions are that people think that um around come. So people think that um a service dog can be pet and can be touched and is for everyone. And that's not necessarily the you actually taught us that today. Thank you so much, Ruby and her dog Jerry for showing us some of those skills. Fascinating.