Following extensive training and appropriate assessments, assistance dogs are helping people with physical disabilities or diseases in everyday life. The responsibilities can differ vastly; dogs use their olfactory sense as a diagnostic tool for cancer and COVID-19 and even to open doors for disabled people. Assistance dogs also perform other duties, including the following:
Guide dogs lead people with impaired vision, direct them through traffic, and help them with tasks such as crossing the street.
Service dogs help patients with multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, or other diseases through targeted assistance. They turn on light switches, open doors, or pick up small objects that have fallen down.
Signal dogs, also called hearing dogs, react to noises such as the telephone, doorbell, or fire alarm. They lead deaf people to the source of the noise.
Medical signal dogs have vastly different responsibilities, depending on the person's disease. For patients with diabetes, alert dogs recognize a dangerous metabolic state before clinical symptoms develop. For patients with epilepsy, dogs warn patients that a seizure is about to occur.
Researchers are investigating whether dogs can sniff out various diseases, such as cancer, COVID-19, or bacterial infections. It is likely that they recognize these diseases through volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled air.
