In honor of International Assistance Dog Week, Palmetto Animal Assisted Life Services (PAALS) is celebrating with a week of activities that throughout South Carolina. PAALS not only trains and partners service dogs with those who can benefit from an assistance dog, but also provides animal-assisted interventions throughout the community.

International Assistance Dog Week was created to recognize all the assistance dogs that help individuals mitigate their disability related limitations. In addition to honoring assistance dogs during their special week, one of the goals is to raise awareness about these very special and highly trained animals. This year International Assistance Dog Week is August 5-11 and PAALS is branching out around South Carolina to spread the word.

On Tuesday, August 7th, PAALS will have an information booth at the Charleston RiverDogs game at 7 p.m. The same night in Columbia, PAALS will be at the National Night Out located in the Woodlands Country Club in Northeast Columbia from 6:30-8:00 p.m. PAALS will be speaking to the Spring Valley Rotary Club at 1:00 on August. 9th. The week will culminate with “Winston”, a service dog in training, appearing on WISTV’s morning show.

PAALS will be offering tours of their training facility to the public on Tuesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. during this week of celebration.

Assistance dogs transforms the lives of their human partners with debilitating physical and mental disabilities by serving as their companions, helpers, and close members of their families. Assistance dogs include Guide Dogs, Service Dogs, Hearing Alert Dogs, Seizure Alert/Response Dogs, and Medical Alert/Response Dogs.