Pet and Guide Dog Differences

I get asked a lot of questions about what a guide dog can and cannot do versus a pet dog. I figured I go over this a little bit. Above are pictures of Buzz and Beamer who are pet dogs on the left.  Below is a picture of Felice guiding in a store.

The obvious difference is a guide dog works and wears a specially designed harness for their job. They have a bit of a higher standard of behavior while working so they can focus and get tasks done. A pet basically doesn’t have to work and generally is not trained in any special human assistive skills.

Guide dogs while wearing their harness can take cab rides, go on the buss, can ride in the cabin of a plane and ride trains with their handlers. Pets can’t go on public transportation and must ride in cargo on planes and trains.

After looking at the differences how about I talk about some similarities. Guide dogs and pets do have some commonality too. For instances once the harness comes off they can be just a dog. Like the pets they can race around the back yard, chew bones, play with toys and even get into the odd spot of trouble like rolling in anything smelly they can find. Here is Felice munching on a bone next to her buddy Beamer.

Felice was never much for getting into trouble. My other dogs did have a passion for the garbage can. One of them, Kendal, even taught Beamer how to get into small garbage cans.

All of my guide dogs have had an off harness routine too. They get up, get fed, get let out, have some play time, get groomed, they even get the odd treat from time to time just like a pet would. They get involved in what’s going on around the house or they go off and nap in their favorite spot. After all at the end of the day they are dogs!