ABSTRACT

Assistance dog partnerships present extraordinary opportunities to realize the deepest and most mutually fulfilling potential of the human– animal bond. Assistance dogs support their partners in attaining and enjoying independence in daily functioning. In addition to the functional benefits facilitating completion of daily living activities, assistance dog partnership may also confer direct and indirect psychological benefits. Upon the assistance dog’s retirement, partners must often negotiate emergent challenges to their previously-enjoyed independence of movement, access to communication, and freedom of functioning. The end of an assistance dog partnership through retirement may engender feelings of grief similar, if not exact in nature, to those arising after an assistance dog’s death. Even at the prime of assistance dog partnership, disability-related sequelae may include progressively declining health, underemployment or chronic unemployment, health and stress-related family challenges, and other stressors.