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Assistance dog trained to lead blind or visually impaired people around obstacles

Guide dogs (colloquially known in the US as seeing eye dogs) are assistance dogs trained to lead blind or visually impaired people around obstacles. Although dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are red–green colour blind and incapable of interpreting street signs. The human does the directing, based on skills acquired through previous mobility training. The handler might be likened to an aircraft's navigator, who must know how to get from one place to another, and the dog is the pilot, who gets them there safely. In several countries guide dogs, along with most other service and hearing dogs, are exempt from regulations against the presence of animals in places such as restaurants and public transportation.

References to service animals date at least as far back as the mid 16th century. The second line of the popular verse alphabet "A was an Archer" is most commonly "B was a Blind man/Led by a dog". In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 19th century verse novel Aurora Leigh, the title character remarks, "The blind man walks wherever the dog pulls / And so I answered." Guide dogs are also mentioned in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: "Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master! Evidence suggests that dogs may have been used as guides for the visually impaired based on depictions of a blind man being guided by his dog on the wall of a house in Herculaneum, buried when Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. This and other visual depictions indicate that dogs have been common companions for the blind for thousands of years. Additional material evidence would be required to positively assess their use specifically as guides. The first service dog training schools were established in Germany during World War I, to enhance the mobility of returning veterans who were blinded in combat. Interest in service animals outside of Germany did not become widespread until Dorothy Harrison Eustis, an American dog breeder living in Switzerland, wrote a first hand account about a service animal training school in Potsdam, Germany, that was published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1927. That same year, United States Senator Thomas D. Schall of Minnesota was paired with a service animal imported from Germany, who was trained by the owner of LaSalle Kennels, Jack Sinykin of Minnesota. The service animal movement did not take hold in America until Nashville resident Morris Frank returned from Switzerland after being trained with one of Eustis's dogs, a female German shepherd named Buddy. Frank and Buddy embarked on a publicity tour to convince Americans of the abilities of service animals and the need to allow people with service animals access to public transportation, hotels, and other areas open to the public. In 1929, Eustis and Frank co founded The Seeing Eye school in Nashville, Tennessee (relocated in 1931 to New Jersey). The first service animals in Great Britain were German Shepherds. Four of these first were Flash, Judy, Meta, and Folly, who were handed over to their new owners, veterans blinded in World War I, on 6 October 1931 in Wallasey, Merseyside. Judy's new owner was Musgrave Frankland. In 1934, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association in Great Britain began operation, although their first permanent trainer was a Russian military officer, Captain Nikolai Liakhoff, who moved to the UK in 1933.

Important studies on the behaviour and training methods of service animals were done in the 1920s and 1930s by Jakob von Uexküll and Emanuel Georg Sarris. They studied the value of service animals and introduced advanced methods of training. There have also been important studies into the discrimination experienced by people that use service and assistance animals.

Since some schools of thought in Islam consider dogs in general to be unclean, Muslim taxi drivers and store owners have sometimes refused to accommodate customers who have service animals, which has led to discrimination charges against them. However, in 2003 the Islamic Sharia Council, a British organization that provides non binding guidance on interpreting Islamic religious law, ruled that the ban on dogs does not apply to those used for guide work. This is attributed to a willingness to venture outdoors facilitated by a sense of independence. Some blind people claim meeting others and socializing is easier with a guide dog, and people are more likely to offer assistance when there is a service animal present.