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Classification Essay Dogs

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Have you ever thought about all the ways that dogs help people? Different types of dogs are more ideal to help people. The American Kennel Club counts 167 breeds, but only a handful of those are qualified to be assistance dogs. There are many ways that dogs can help people. Although there more, these three are the main ones. The most common is Guide dogs which are assistance dogs for the blind. The main ones also include Police dogs, and Search and Rescue dogs. It is not completely clear when the use of guide dogs began. The first program for guide dogs in the US started around World War I. It started with a man named Gerhard Stalling who wanted to help blind WWI veterans. Dorothy Eustis started writing about Stalling’s work. This attracted …show more content…

The dogs are trained to walk with not only a leash but with a u-shaped harness. This harness helps teach the dogs the command “forward” which means for the dogs to walk just ahead of their owner or trainer at a constant speed and with a constant pull on the harness, all in a straight line. One of the hardest obstacles for the trainers and the dogs to overcome is the dog’s natural hunting instinct because the dog will want to chase rabbits, birds, and other small animals. But with plenty of training, patience, and dedication they can eventually overcome that obstacle. The dogs are constantly exposed to busy, noisy, and challenging environments. In this stage of their training, the dogs are taught to assist their owners across the street quickly. The dogs learn to stop at curbs or ramps, so that the owner can feel with his or her foot and get on the sidewalk safely. In another part of their training, the dogs learn to help their owners locate items such as door handles and elevator buttons, by walking right up to it. The dogs will place their nose right up in front of it, so the owner can feel down the dog to the handle or button. In the later stages of training the trainer will occasionally blindfold himself to see how the dog will do with someone who can’t see. The guide dogs go through almost two years of training before they are placed

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