Audio Descriptor: A bespectacled man is seated in a wheelchair that is connected to a breathing ventilator. He moves around a sunlit garden.
Shalom: As a wheelchair user, I've always been intrigued by how Seeing-Eye Dogs can empower the lives of the blind and visually impaired. However, I didn't know that there are other types of Assistance Dogs that can benefit someone like me with severe mobility impairments. My name is Shalom, and I hope for a Mobility Assistance dog to assist me.
Audio Descriptor: Montage of Shalom’s childhood photos.
Shalom: Soon after birth, I was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive muscle degenerative disease. When I was little, I could still play with my peers. Then when I was six years old, I started losing the ability to walk, and had to use a manual wheelchair. A couple of years later, when the degeneration progressed, I switched to a motorized model.
Audio Descriptor: Shalom is positioned in front of a wall of his achievements, speaking to the camera.
Shalom: Due to my mobility issues, health conditions, and psychosocial challenges associated with muscular dystrophy, as well as all my frequent hospital visits, my mother and my migrant support worker, who are my caregivers, can experience prolonged caregiver anxiety and significant physical strain.
Audio Descriptor: Shalom is at his computer.
Shalom: Looking for a solution to help alleviate my caregivers’ chronic fatigue and stress, I typed Assistance Dog in the online search engine, and the link to K9Assistance’s website appeared in the first entry. Knowing that K9Assistance will be providing different types of Assistance Dogs, I was overjoyed. I was one of the first individuals to express interest with K9Assistance for a Mobility Assistance Dog in Singapore.
Audio Descriptor: Series of animations on the ways that Mobility Assistance Dogs help provide support to their disabled handlers.
Female Narrator: Mobility Assistance Dogs provide help for day-to-day living. These amazing dogs are trained to assist in daily movements and tasks that are physically challenging. This gives their handler an additional level of physical support and social-emotional benefits.
As wheelchair users don't always have the strength or mobility to open doors, a Mobility Assistance Dog can help the handler pull open a door with a tug rope, or press the button on an automatic door. Beyond doors, a Mobility Assistance Dog can also open customized cupboards and refrigerators.
Mobility Assistance Dogs are also trained to help the handlers retrieve a ringing phone or dropped items. As disabled individuals have a spectrum of abilities for daily activities, the Mobility Assistance Dog will be trained for their future handler’s specific needs. Outside the home, Mobility Assistance Dogs are trained to press buttons on traffic lights, elevators, and automatic door openers like those found at disabled toilets.
Mobility Assistance Dogs and their handlers have a special bond as the relationship is symbiotic. They depend on one another for day-to-day support and care. When the handler cares for the dog by feeding, grooming, or playing with it, the dog is motivated and happy to play its part in the partnership to support the physically disabled person. All types of bona fide Assistance Dogs, including Mobility Assistance Dogs, are extremely well-behaved in public.
Assistance Dogs that K9Assistance provide are international-accredited and extensively trained for up to two years. To uphold their excellent behaviour and assistance skills, Assistance Dogs from K9Assistance will undergo a Yearly Public Access Test.
Audio Descriptor: Shalom is smiling at the camera.
Shalom: With the help of a Mobility Assistance Dog, it can empower me with mobility to lead an active life, leaving isolation behind and taking an amount of burden away from my caregivers.
Female Narrator: Help Shalom and others like him in the disabled community get their own Mobility Assistance Dog. Assistance Dogs make the impossible, possible!
