Assistance Dog featured on First Class Stamp!

There was a certain poignancy this morning as Caesar, my assistance dog brought the post to me in bed ... amongst the post was a first day cover featuring an assistance dog!

The dog in question is Rowan, a fellow Dog for the Disabled (who works assisting Melissa) and he is featured on the first class stamp. Great stuff!

The whole set of stamps features working dogs, the series having been launched to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the police dog. The dogs featured are an assistance dog from Dogs for the Disabled, a mountain rescue dog, a police dog, a customs dog and a second assistance dog from Guide Dogs.

Although in the Year of the Assistance Dog it would have been nice to see a whole set of stamps dedicated to assistance dogs in their own right, I think this set will do a lot to bring assistance dogs more into the consciousness of the general public, and hopefully that will have a knock on effect with regard to access and inclusion for people with disabilities partnered with these fantastic dogs.

Paper talk!

A friend of mine was featured in a newspaper this week with her wonderful assistance dog. It's an inspiring story of how a dog and a person can work together in partnership.

I just wish I could get my head around some of the phraseology though, it always seems to be the same, and rather detracts from the story.

Take the headline for example, the assistance dog is called a pet, which as he is a working dog is rather an insult. Pets, by and large can curl up at home while everything goes on around them, assistance dogs really earn their living. Also, the fact that the reporter used the word tricks to describe Ajs very special and highly trained tasks is rather tacky. The references to Aj as a mutt and pooch are plainly insulting.

What a shame this wonderful dog has been sold short!

I have seen this happen before and have asked a couple of reporters why they do it ... "it's what sells" or some close variation is usually the answer. Are the newspaper reading public really that out of touch that they cannot understand "working dog" instead of mutt and pooch?