Assistance Dogs are specifically trained to assist a person with a disability. Disabilities may be a result of birth, injury, illness or aging. There are many laws that protect assistance dog users. The Americans with Disability Act defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. If they meet this definition, animals are considered service animals under the ADA regardless of whether they have been licensed or certified by a state or local government. Assistance dogs can be trained to assist with a variety of disabilities including:

• Physical Disabilities - Service dogs assist people with compromised physical abilities by retrieving objects, aiding with transitional movements, opening doors, operating light or door opening devices, pulling a wheel chair, assisting with undressing, and similar tasks.
  
  
• Psychiatric Disabilities - Psychiatric service dogs are capable of redirecting the handler during dissociative spells, locating a person or place during a panic attack, providing physical barriers from others, retrieving medications, interrupting hallucinations or providing comforting behaviors. (Service Dog Central, 2007)
  
  
• Seizure/Specific Medical Response - Seizure/Medical Response dogs assist by alerting another person who can help, retrieving a phone, or operating a switch to call for help. There have been reports that some dogs can detect an upcoming medical crisis (such as a seizure or low blood sugar) many minutes before it happens allowing the handler to take preventative or prescriptive measures. 
  
  
• Visual Impairments - Guide dogs enhance community mobility by helping people compensate for visual impairments by alerting them to obstacles.
  
  
• Hearing Impairments - Hearing dogs respond and alert to sounds such as doorbells, phones, crying infants, smoke detectors, and alarm clocks.