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Service dogs assist their partners in day-to-day activities, providing their human companions with greater independence and a higher quality of life. Each dog is trained to meet the needs of people with disabilities, whether by retrieving objects that are out of their reach, pulling wheelchairs, opening and closing doors, turning light switches on and off, barking for alert, finding another person, assisting ambulatory persons to walk by providing balance and counterbalance, or a myriad of other tasks.

Dog Requirements
Not every dog is cut out for this special line of work. Service dogs must be intelligent, willing workers, large enough for the task—for instance to comfortably fit in a harness to guide a blind person—yet small enough to be easily controlled and fit comfortably under restaurant tables and on buses and other forms of public transit. They also must be able to ignore all distractions while doing their work. The most commonly used breeds include Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, and German Shepherds, due to their temperament, intelligence, versatility, size, and availability, although other breeds are also used. Service dogs can be identified by a backpack or harness. Although proof or certification is not required, many organizations that train service dogs give their human companions some sort of ID for the dog.

Service Dogs are either rescued from animal shelters or bred in selective breeding programs and raised by volunteers for the first year to year and a half of their life prior to their formal training. Training most often takes place at a training center, although in-home training has become increasingly popular. Dogs are generally provided to owners with disabilities at little to no cost since training organizations are generally funded through private donations.