Therapy dogs in the schools.

Alaska Assistance Dogs is focusing on education, information resources, and therapeutic programs. Education is hugely important due to problems with “fake” service dogs and poorly self-trained dogs, even poorly trained agency-related service dogs. It can not be emphasized enough that a service dog is not a dog picked up at a shelter, given a few commands and, with an on-line purchased vest, put into the stressful life of performing well in public venues. The liability for that scenario is huge. Service dogs are animals with special temperaments, excellent health lineage and solid training for the rigors of public life. Service dogs are neutered or spayed, do not run around with prong collars because they don’t behave, are taught ONLY with positive reinforcement techniques, and have a lot of public venue experience to be rock solid in any situation.