Celebrating the service and leadership of guide dogs worldwide . . .

Happy International Guide Dog Day ! ! ! 

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🐶 🐩 Information about Service Dogs 🐾 🐺

The Concept of Guide Dogs:

Germany:
Origination: In 1819, Johann Wilhelm Klein is credited for the idea for guide dogs, founding the Institute for the Education of the Blind in Vienna, Germany. He wrote about a method for the training of guide dogs.
Continuing Concept: The concept of having a guide dog did not catch on until World War I, when soldiers were returning home from serving in the war who had become blind from exposure to poisonous gases. Credit goes out to Dr. Gerhard Stalling who came up with the idea of training a great amount of dogs to help the blind men. In the year 1916, Stalling had opened up the world’s first guide dog school. Over the series of years thereafter, more and more guide dog schools had sprung up throughout Germany, training of approximately 600 dogs per year. It caught on so great, that along with those ex-soldiers, the schools had provided guide dogs to blind people throughout the world. After years had passed though, due quality control issues, the schools were eventually forced to close.

Sweden:
Origination: In 1847 in Sweden, a blind man named Jakob Birrer wrote how he had a special program for the training of his own guide dog.
Continuing Concept: Birrer wrote about his experiences of being guided over a period of five years by a Spitz that he had specially trained to lead while being blind.

United States:
Origination: In the 1920s, Dorothy Harrison Eustis helped to relaunch the guide dog movement in America. Eustis helped in the training of America’s first guide dog. By the year 1929, she founded the Seeing Eye School in New Jersey.
Continuing Concept: Today there are guide dog schools throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, and throughout North America. Thanks to these schools, guide dogs have helped transform the lives of thousands people.

Origination of the Date:
Organizations around the world, including World Blind Union (WBU) (donations are welcomed and appreciated) observe the International Guide Dog Day. Guide dog demonstrations, workshops, and special events are observed worldwide at guide dog schools on this day.

Celebrated: Since the year 1989, every year on the last Wednesday in April, the International Guide Dog Day is celebrated in order to commemorate the existence of guide dogs worldwide. The International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) (donations are welcomed and appreciated) was established in 1989 with the mission to support the efforts of its members in the advancement and provision of guide dogs to attain independent mobility in a safe manner for blind or partially sighted individuals.

A Few Facts:
I am sharing a few facts, and more, some trivia, some not trivial. . .

Typical Breeds Used as Guide Dogs:

• Labrador Retrievers
• Golden Retrievers
• German Shepherds
• More. . .

Training and Acclimation: A typical guide dog takes about two years in training with a cost totalling in the range of $45,000 to $60,000. The costs cover everything from the boarding and extensive drilling by professional trainers to condition to serving the needs of the blind. It also includes a supervised week long period in order to acclimating the dog to its recipient.

A.K.C. Recognition: The American Kennel Club (A.K.C.) also recognized the admiration of service dogs. More direct information about the differences between service dogs, therapy dogs, working dogs and emotional support animal are fully explained in the website article: Service, Working,Therapy, Emotional Support Dogs: Which Is Which?

Training:
Program For Training: There are various training for any and all dogs available. The training for a service dog for the blind is extra special and needs to be done in the consistent method as sanctioned by the American Disabilities Act (ADA), Service Animal requirements. The document states that after 2010, only dogs are now considered to be in the status of a service animal, now called service dogs. The trainers are certified, licensed individuals that put their souls into their work..

Where Service Dogs are Allowed:  Even the biggest champions in the world are not invited to go into stores and restaurants. A service dog cannot be discriminated against by a store owner, and must be welcomed to accompany their blind owner. Since March 15, 2011, only dogs are now recognized as service animals under titles II and III of the ADA. Service dogs serve as guidance to a person with the disability of not being able to guide him/herself because of blindness. Under the ADA and its implementing regulations, the right of a blind person to be accompanied by a guide dog in places which serve the public is guaranteed, and cannot be deemed with any type of refusal by a business or in the case of housing where animal restrictions are in force.

Criminal Activity Involving Service Animals: If a crime happens against a service animal, it often can not only aggravate the crime, but often change the degree and the total crime, up to and including murder. The dog is licensed with the state it is in and if the blind person should happen to die as a result, I have seen the murder sentence issued. The sentencing of criminal activities leading up to the death of service dogs is very steep, indeed. Typical sentences of a person who intentionally causes injury to, or the death of, a guide, signal, or service dog that is found guilty are punishable as a misdemeanor, with imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment. If the criminal activity includes the death of the owner, it really aggrevates the murder charges through the felony murder rule, because the consideration of the law is amplified becaseu of the previous misdemeanor rules as listed previously, which are already a steep charge of the death of an animal.

Future Dates for International Guide Dog Day:
Every year, International Guide Dog Day is celebrated on the last Wednesday in April.

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