Service dogs and assistance animals provide irreplaceable support to people with disabilities, with their welfare deserving the same serious attention as their training and certification — both throughout their career and into retirement.
Service dog welfare is a welfare responsibility carried jointly by training organizations, handlers, and society — the dogs provide services of profound value and deserve equivalent commitment to their own wellbeing. This means ensuring that work is genuinely matched to each dog's capacity and preference, that rest and decompression time are adequate, that health monitoring is ongoing, and that retirement transitions to secure, comfortable situations. Service to humans should not come at the cost of the serving animal's welfare.