Is There Dignity Through Dogs?

From Service Dog Training

Does having a service dog lend additional dignity to a person with a disability? Public sentiment and many service dog schools seem to think so.

Reaching for independence and dignity is what this partnership is about.

Support Dogs, Inc. is a national non-for-profit organization that offers dignity, hope and independence by providing highly skilled service dogs to individuals with disabilities…

I’ve seen firsthand the impact that the Guide Dog Foundation has had at bringing independence and dignity to our disabled citizens.

The VetDogs program was created so that America’s veterans would have their own K-9 corps and the chance to live with dignity and self-reliance once again.

Service Dog partnerships encourage independence which, in turn, offers more opportunities, dignity, and privacy for people with mobility impairments.

By helping to sponsor a team, you help bring independence, dignity, and loving companionship into the life of an individual with a disability.

What is dignity? According to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, dignity is 1 the state or quality of being worthy of respect. 2 a composed or serious manner. 3 a sense of pride in oneself.

If dignity is defined as being worthy of respect, and service dogs give people with disabilities dignity, would that imply that people with disabilities that don’t have service dogs are not worthy of respect? Obviously, that is not what most people mean when they say that service dogs give people with disabilities dignity. What are they saying then? The idea seems to be that having a service dog is better and represents a higher level of functionality for the dog user than someone using other adaptive methodologies.

When most people think of service dogs in action, they picture a stoic lab or German Shepherd striding down the street guiding someone, picking up items and generally making sure the person with the disability never needs to ask anyone for help. On the other hand, people using other adaptive methodologies such as canes, crutches, or wheelchairs are often thought of and portrayed as less independent and more reliant on other people.

The main difference between a service dog and an inanimate adaptive device is that inanimate devices are much less prone to overtly embarrassing behavior. While a person using crutches might be a bit embarrassed if they drop one and need help picking it up, that embarrassment is much less than your dignified service dog deciding during a job interview that it would be a good time to fart and lick his crotch.

Is a person with a disability fundamentally less dignified if they don’t have a service dog? Of course not! Let’s imagine two people, both with exactly the same disability, working at exactly the same job and having exactly the same hobbies, interests and life situations with one exception; one of these people gets a service dog. Is the dog user suddenly more dignified than the other person? Does having the dog make that person more worthy of respect or give that person more self-respect than a person making the exact same accomplishments without a dog? If this was the case, everyone would have a dog!

The dignity of a person with a disability comes from their self-esteem and their accomplishments, regardless of the adaptive tools they choose use to reach these goals. A dignified person may choose to use a dog, but an equally dignified person may choose not to. The use of a service dog, like the use of any other adaptive methodology, is a matter of personal choice and does not affect the dignity of the user.

--Tiffany Huggard-Lee 10:14, 19 December 2009 (CST)