September is recognized as National Guide Dog Month, a time to celebrate the aid and intelligence of guide dogs, animals that are trained to lead the blind and visually impaired.

Service dogs are not only trained to help the visually impaired, but a myriad of conditions such as PTSD, epilepsy, and autism. A variety of dogs can be trained for service, but Rodney Routon of Sonrise Helpers Service Dogs in Wellman prefers to train Lankas labradors, “I chose labs because of their demeanor for the kind of people that get our service dogs. Labs are really good for people with emotional, or mental, or physical disabilities. They’re good with families, and children, and people, and animals. So, personally I like labs because I’ve trained a lot of different dogs, and I like training labs the best because they’re easiest to train, actually.”

Routon adds they like light-colored labs the best because you can see their eyes clearly, which makes visual alerts easier to understand, especially when they are out in public. Sonrise Helpers Service Dogs has bred service dogs for people around the country and close to home, such as WCDC in Washington. “I think watching Duke there at WCDC in Washington and watching the people respond to him. And then talking with one of the ladies that works there recently, they have different levels of people there and different levels of issues. And one of the ladies that really has some extreme issues, when that puppy comes up, licks her feet she immediately stops. This one little puppy, that’s what it’s all about for us.”

Routon says dogs are better than any other animal at reading people. According to a 2017 study from the journal Animal Cognition, dogs show a high sensitivity towards human eye contact. Though dogs may not be mind-readers, they are adept to reading human behavior.