In the past 30 years the use of assistance dogs for people with various difficulties and disabilities other than blindness and hearing loss has developed enormously, thanks to the inspiration, foresight and hard work of a few key people. Dick Lane, now retired as a vet, has been closely involved in the charity Dogs for the Disabled since its foundation in the 1980s. In this fascinating and authoritative work, based on his own experience, on interviews with users of assistance dogs and from official records, he tells the story of the growing appreciation of the value of dogs to many people, from those with an autistic spectrum disorder (under the recent PAWS initiative) to tetraplegics.
