How Dogs Help People
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By Dejon Coles and Deja Walters
Photo and photo edits by Deja Walters
Have you noticed that some dogs are very helpful to people, like police dogs and firefighter dogs? They have a job to assist people in the community and are called service dogs. Dogs can be our eyes and our ears. I noticed that some dogs that help people can go everywhere even, restaurants. I learned that dogs can sense when a person is about to have a seizure.
Everyday when I walk home from school, I see older people who live at the R. L. Walker House Apartments. They are enjoying their lunch with their dogs next to them. One day I saw an elderly person who was blind with a specially trained dog. The man was playing fetch with the dog. When the man whistled, the dog ran to him.
This winter a policeman named Officer Williams and his dog, Apis came to our school for an FNN interview. When I first saw the dog, I was amazed that the dog could actually come into our school. People were scared of the dog, but once everyone saw how well trained he was they calmed down and were not scared anymore. I remember a student asking the policeman,"How do you control the dog?" He answered that the dog is very well trained. The student asked, "How would the dog know that someone has a weapon?" The policeman answered that "If you have a weapon in your bag, the dog can sniff it out. If someone throws the weapon in the bushes, the dog can sniff it out". Officer Williams said that Apis was an outside dog, so he can sniff better outside.
The police officer did an experiment showing how the dog sniffs to find things. He had a student in the class rub a piece of material with their hand to set their scent, and then he hid it in the bookcase. The dog had trouble finding the material because there was a lot of smells from kids in the room. But he did find the area.
Office Williams is called a K9 officer. Apis goes home with the Officer Williams and protects the family. When you love a dog, the dog loves you too.
You can get more information about service dogs at: http://www.ehow.com/info_8264517_list-jobs-service-dogs-do.html
Dejon Coles and Dejan Walters and are 5th grade students at Friendship Chamberlain Academy.