Service Dogs Quotes

“While our life remains more chaotic than not, we continue to land on our blistered feet, drag each other out of the quicksand, beg for forgiveness as we wander out of the doghouse, and dig for the humor beneath our grief. So our family, four-pawed members included, continues to bound forward celebrating our canine connection and sharing hope with all who need healing.”
― Donnie Kanter Winokur

“Their parents may fill the children’s hours with therapeutic equipment, tutors, drivers, therapists, psychiatrists, and special schools, while what a child wants and needs most desperately is a friend. Often a child longs for a friend despite rejecting everyone who reaches out. Such a child may be convinced to come out of hiding if the proffered playmate is a dog”
― Melissa Fay Greene, The Underdogs

“After a week or so, Puzzle and Jake have clearly got it. Door now means 'the-closest-exit-outside-no-matter-where-we-are." Door also means "and-make-sure-the-human-gets-there-too." I feel a little bad about the Poms, the tragic little overlooked, underestimated Poms, and now that Jake and Puz seem assured about the command, I decide to invite any Pomeranian that wants in on the action to have a go.

We'll have a little fun. "Door," I say in my bedroom, armed with a pocketful of treats. Jake and Puzzle race to the back door and sit, and I follow them readily, but the Poms at first follow me, because I have the treats. I start with them the way I started with Jake and Puzzle. Door means a treat when you get there, not before. A couple of them (Jack and Smokey) figure it out quickly and are happy to run to the door and sit for a treat. On of them (Mr. Sprits'l) would rather scold me from ankle level all the way there. One of them (Mizzen) is a natural. She races to the door and back to me again, there and back to me again, there and back. Hoor! she says, tap-dancing across the wood. She can get to the door and seems to know what the word means, but it's all so exciting she can hardly contain herself. Hoor! Here's the door! Aren't you here yet? Hoor! Let me come back to you! Hey! Look! Over here! Hoor! Here's the door! She is thrilled with Door. She is thrilled with the knowing. She is thrilled with the treats. Mizzen-monkey makes me a little dizzy.”
― Susannah Charleson, The Possibility Dogs: What a Handful of "Unadoptables" Taught Me About Service, Hope, and Healing

“Then she thought: What if I start my own agency? I could train four or five dogs a year, as a small nonprofit, for people rejected by the big agencies.

It felt right and Karen didn’t generally engage in much second-guessing. The moment the idea struck her, she knew it was what she would do next, and that she would start immediately. She would invent a new kind of service dog academy. She would set a standard for compassion and generosity toward potential clients finer than anything she’d been shown when at her weakest. She would find and train service dogs for people in the depth of incapacity, sickness, and suicidal despair – her own state, before Ben had rescued her.

Because of course Ben saved Karen’s life.”
― Melissa Fay Greene, The Underdogs

“People like to say that what they love best about dogs is their loyalty, but the opposite is true. We love dogs’ self-centeredness, and their impression that our lives revolve around them. And it’s undeniable that, no matter what people struggle with day-to-day, there is great solace and pleasure in being able to arrange a dog’s life for maximum happiness.

A well-cared-for dog, a contented dog, convinced that he or she is the center of the universe, is a great sign that you’re doing something right.”
― Melissa Fay Greene, The Underdogs

“Still, nothing prepared the couple for Wendy’s ingenuity the afternoon when Richard was working at the computer and suddenly found himself on the floor. As he later learned, he had suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. “I remember Wendy trying to drag me into the living room, and somehow I got up into my chair there,” he says. “That's when she brought me the telephone.” Wendy is trained to fetch the phone, but only when asked, and what happened next was something her trainer says she never could have taught her; When Wendy saw that Richard couldn’t dial with the hand, she had placed the telephone in, she moved it to the other hand so he could call his wife.”
― Rebecca Ascher-Walsh, Devoted: 38 Extraordinary Tales of Love, Loyalty, and Life With Dogs