Assistance Dogs—What Should We Focus On
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Human-Animal Interactions, Animal Behaviour and Emotion".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2025) | Viewed by 3475
Special Issue Editors
Interests: animal-assisted interventions; companion animals; pet grief
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Assistance dogs are specially trained to undertake a variety of tasks to support individuals with disabilities. There are many benefits of assistance dogs, including their impact on the physical wellbeing and safety of the person as well as on psychological wellbeing and social inclusion.
The role of assistance dogs in society for the blind and individuals with motoric disabilities is widely recognized by the public. However, the use of assistance dogs is expanding into new fields, such as mental illnesses, and thus raises new questions of recognition but also concerns about animal safety and welfare being adequately taken into consideration.
Moreover, there are still areas that remain under-addressed in the field of assistance dogs, e.g., studies on the attachment between the recipient and the assistance dog, its role in the family as such, and what happens when the dogs must retire or die, including possible handler grief.
In this Special Issue, we invite submissions of original manuscripts on all aspects of assistance dogs. We welcome manuscripts from different disciplines to improve the understanding of assistance dogs; the relationship between dogs and recipients, pet grief, safety and animal welfare, the training and certification of assistance dogs (guidelines, what type of knowledge is needed), acquiring an assistance dog as a process of transition, the integration of assistance dogs with rehabilitation, etc. All manuscripts must consider animal welfare.
Dr. Tia G.B. Hansen
Dr. Chalotte Glintborg
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- guide dogs
- hearing dogs
- mobility assistance dogs
- psychiatric service dogs
- human–animal attachment
- assistance animal standards and wellbeing
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