SSD Dutch Picks Up a Dime

At SSD's holiday party on December 2, 2009, we played a game called D-O-G. Dogs and their handlers divided into two teams. A dog from the first team performed a skill or trick, and a dog from the other team had to perform the same trick. If the dog from the second team could not perform the trick, that team received a "D." The object of the game is to NOT spell the word "dog."

Before this video was taken, SSD Gideon challenged the other team to pick up a U.S. quarter. The video picks up with SSD Dutch's response to the challenge. Instead of picking up a quarter, he picked up a dime - a much smaller coin! If you look closely, you can see the small dime on the floor before Dutch picks it up and hands it to his partner.

Picking up a dime is more than just a cool trick. SSD Dutch is demonstrating some of the finely tuned skills that service dogs have. Service dogs can be trained to pick up loose change, retreive a cordless phone, open the refrigerator and retreive a bottle of water, empty the dryer, turn lights on and off, and much more! Susquehanna Service Dogs specially trains each dog depending on the particular needs of the dog's human partner. If that person needs the dog to hand a credit card to the store clerk at a grocery store, we will train the dog to do it. Someone who may have needed family or friends to help them go grocery shopping can now do it on their own, with the assistance of a service dog.

With their special skills, service dogs change the lives of their partners.