Working Dogs - Dog walks child to school

In his fine book "The New Work of Dogs" Jon Katz talks about the special relationship people form with their dogs, while also worrying that we are unduly and unfairly burdening our pets with expectations that they can't meet.

Read an excerpt.



What we know is that dogs have an enormous range of capabilities, many of which we poorly understand. I'd personally like to see dogs trained to accompany children to and from school. With 2 in 5 households in America having a dog, this would be not only feasible but a revolution in child care.

This is a no brainer. It is widely reported this year (2005) that dogs are capable of "sniffing out" cancer.

Also reported are dogs' capabilities to help people dealing with:

autism

epilepsy

epilepsy 2

allergies

Is this a simple response/reward sort of thing? something more? Or less? See training wasps in three steps to detect bombs.

To me, it doesn't matter how it works, only that it works at all. Let's get with the program and help our dogs realize their remarkable potential.

category: Working Dogs