ASL Solutions Blog

Ever wondered why dogs are the animals used for search and rescue operations? What is it about their noses that makes them unique? Just what situations do they work in, exactly? Read on to learn the answers to these questions (and a fair bit more)! Photo credit: Peter Hershey (Stocksnap) Search and Rescue Dogs (SAR dogs) are employed by humans for a wide variety of tasks: they can help find people who are lost in the wilderness, patients who have wandered away from a care facility, or humans stuck in debris after a natural disaster like an earthquake, or snow after an avalanche. These trained dogs work well under pressure and have saved countless lives, well-earning the title of "heroes". Some suggest that a single SAR dog can do the work of 20-30 human searchers. You've probably heard that dogs have an amazing sense of smell, but do you know why? Dogs have over 100 million (some studies suggest between 125-300 million) sensory receptor sites in their nasal cavities (whic...

Do you want know the difference between service, therapy, and emotional support animals? Do you not know how to behave around working animals? Read on to learn more! Norman loves his job as a therapy dog. He went through lots of training to get certified! Q: What are the differences between service/therapy/emotional support animals? A:  There are three main categories of animals that help humans mentally and/or physically: Service, therapy, and emotional support animals are all unique and can do different things for the humans around them. Some people may have more than one helper animal, and that's normal. Service animals help those with disabilities with a myriad of different tasks, depending on the disability/ies their human has. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifies that service animals must be individually trained to "take a specific action when needed to assist the person with a disability". They don't have to be professionally trained, and the AD...