OTHER READINGS

Ways Dogs Help People

Guide dogs for the blind

Also called seeing eye dogs, guide dogs are trained to lead their owners safely around
obstacles. They also learn "intelligence disobedience," which means they know to
disobey unsafe commands (for example: guiding their owner into the middle of a busy
street). Guide dogs must have beautiful manners for those times when they take public
transportation or visit stores or restaurants. They must also be skilled at staying focused
and avoid reacting to distractions.
Hearing dogs for the deaf
At home, hearing dogs are trained to alert their owners to household noises that are
necessary for day-to-day independence and safety. They make physical contact with their
human and lead him or her to the source of the sound. Hearing dogs provide their deaf
owners with a degree of freedom and independence they wouldn't otherwise have.
Out in public, hearing dogs provide their owners with an increased awareness of their
environment. The deaf learn to pay attention to the reactions of their dog and take their
cues from him. If the dog stops suddenly or turns to look at something, his owner is
prompted to do the same.
Mobility assistance dogs
Mobility assistance dogs perform a variety of different tasks for their humans, for
example, pressing the button to open automatic doors, picking up dropped items, and
bringing out-of-reach objects within reach. Dogs placed with owners who use
wheelchairs can be taught to help pull the chair up a ramp if necessary.
Mobility assistance dogs can also function as a brace for people who have balance or
strength problems, and in properly equipped homes, they can open and close doors, turn
lights on and off, and go to another person in the residence for help.
Therapy dogs
Therapy dogs are gentle, calm companions that do a lot of different jobs. Depending on
their assignment for the day, they may just sit or lie quietly while being petted or
listening to a story a nursing home resident is telling them. Another day, they may go to
school to help children learn about the humane treatment of animals, or to sit with them
as they improve their reading skills.
Therapy dogs work with disabled or autistic children, and in hospital settings, including
the emergency room where stress levels are high. They also visit bookstores, homeless
shelters, senior and nursing communities, hospice facilities, family service organizations,
reading clubs, and rehabilitation centers.

ARTICLES

1. Pet sitting service emerges for Tet holiday in Vietnam

A pet care worker looks after a dog at a pet
hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong
Mai / Tuoi Tre
For VND500,000 (US$22) a day or less, pet
owners in Vietnam who will be away from
home for the upcoming Tet holiday can have their pets tended to by professional pet
sitters.
The recently-emerging service is most commonly available in big cities including Hanoi,
Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, where demand is high.
Tet, or the Lunar New Year festival, is the biggest public holiday in Vietnam observed
around late January or early February, when people celebrate the coming of a new lunar
year.
This year, Tet falls on February 5, with public workers given a nine-day break ending
February 10.
Many Vietnamese people are away from their regular place of residence during this
festive season, either to travel or to visit their family and relatives who live in other
provinces and cities.
This creates a market for the pet sitting service to cash in on.
Calling themselves “pet hotels," these facilities feature air-conditioned rooms designed
specifically for keeping pets, tapping a growing need of city dwellers to have someone
look after their pets while they are away for the holiday.
CCTV cameras are installed in each room so owners can keep an eye on their pets over
the Internet, while veterinarians and pet care workers are available 24/7 to feed, bathe,
play with and provide medical checkups for the animals during the course of their stay.
A regular room, fit for one animal, can set the owner back VND150,000 ($6.5) a day
during the Tet holiday, while a VIP room can cost twice as much.
For large pets weighing up to 40 kilograms, one night’s stay at a pet hotel can cost up to
VND500,000 ($22), according to the owner of a pet hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.
Lower rates of around VND8,000-45,000 ($0.35-1.95) a day are charged for small
animals such as hamsters, hedgehogs, squirrels, guinea pigs and rabbits.
Pet hotels also offer additional services such as grooming and spa for the animals, which
cost an extra VND100,000-650,000 ($4.30-28) per service.
Ho Trung Truc, an employee at a pet hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, said demand for pet
sitting during this year’s Tet holiday has grown 50 percent compared to 2018.
Customer retention remains high at around 80 percent, Truc said.
“We have imported new, modern pet houses that are equipped with automatic air
purifiers and humidifiers,” he added.
2. Hanoi, Da Nang to tighten management of pets

Stray dogs along a street in Hanoi. Photo: Tuoi

Tre
Authorities in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang will start requiring local
residents to register their pet dogs and cats next year for better rabies control, while
those in Hanoi have proposed that local dogs be monitored via microchips.
The Da Nang People’s Committee confirmed on Tuesday they had announced a project
on rabies control among pets, in an effort to completely eliminate the disease across the
city.
Starting from 2019, all ward-level administrations are expected to keep a log of all pet
dogs and cats in the central hub.
In order for this to happen, owners will be required to register their pets with the People’s
Committees of the wards they live in.
They will be responsible for keeping their animals at their homes, ensure environmental
hygiene, and prevent their pets from annoying other residents. Pets should be wearing a
muzzle or be leashed when being taken outside of their house. Effort will be exerted to
ensure more than 90 percent of the pets in Da Nang are vaccinated against rabies within
next year. The figure will be raised to 95 percent by 2020. As part of the scheme,
transporting and slaughtering dogs and cats infected with rabies will be prohibited. In
addition, specialized teams will be tasked with capturing stray dogs and rabies-infected
animals.
In related news, the Hanoi Department of Veterinary Medicine has recently proposed that
dogs owned by local residents be monitored via a microchip. According to Nguyen Ngoc
Son, head of the department, the agency will coordinate with two foreign canine
protection organizations to formulate a detailed plan.
“We want to follow in the footsteps of several other countries. The chip will be implanted
inside the animals or inserted into their collars,” Son explained.
This will help authorities keep track of the dogs’ name, age, location, as well as check
whether they have been vaccinated.
The plan will be funded by the private sector, Son said, adding that it will not be
mandatory.
“We will just encourage local dog owners to join the program,” he stated.
The detailed plan is expected to be submitted to the municipal People’s Committee for
approval in mid-2019.
3. Ho Chi Minh City tenement residents wrangle over keeping pets

Many residents in apartment buildings, particularly old ones, in Ho Chi Minh City
have been increasingly vexed by their neighbors who keep pets which cause
incessant noise and pollute the surroundings with their waste.
The practice of keeping pets in apartments has also marred neighborly ties.
A notice seen in an elevator at Phu Thanh Tenement, located in Tan Phu District, informs
inhabitants of a ban on keeping pets, explaining that the animals often bark noisily and
stain corridors with their feces and urine. The fierce-looking, furiously barking canines
also scare young children out of their wits and pose a menace to minors. Many parents
have no choice but to lock their children in to ensure their safety. The tenement
administrators also ruled that violating households take their pets out of the tenement
without any delay.
Nguyen Quyet Thang, head of the tenement’s D Block, told Tuoi Tre(Youth) newspaper
that its residents have not kept dogs or cats over the past several years.  Two or three new
households who recently moved in, however, have stuck to their practice of keeping pets
and allowed them to run about unleashed, which has triggered strong reactions from their
neighbors.
Similarly, many dwellers at the Khai Minh Tenement in District 3 have also been
exasperated by their four dog-keeping neighbors over the past year. An inhabitant said
they have repeatedly filed complaints at the local People’s Committee, to little avail.
“The dogs are behind many squabbles which have considerably eroded our neighborly
relationship,” that person added.
Vu Trong Hop, deputy head of one of Khai Minh Tenement’s divisions, told Tuoi
Tre that they have tried to talk the dog keepers into sending their animals away, but most
of them insisted they love the canines as much as their own children and thus cannot
simply give up on them.
The owners have promised to keep their dogs in to ensure hygiene and safety in the
neighborhood. Some have even committed to train their dogs into non-barkers.    
N.T.H.P, a dweller at Khai Minh Tenement, keeps four dogs in her apartment.
She said she always makes a point of having her pets vaccinated against rabies every
year, and minimizing troubles they may cause for her neighbors.
 “The tenement management board did not inform me of their rule against keeping pets
when I purchased the apartment. Now that many have voiced their fury, I’m trying to find
my dogs new homes,” she said.
According to Le Duc Thanh, deputy chair of the Ward 8 People’s Committee in District
3, officials have talked to pet-keeping households at Khai Minh Tenement, who then
promised to send the animals away.
The committee has also made clear a regulation released by the district People’s
Committee which bans keeping or allowing dogs or cats to roam unleashed within
tenements.
Meanwhile, other tenements neither ban nor encourage their residents to have pets.
Driven by incessant complaints filed by many residents, the administration board of
HAGL Gold House Tenement, located in the outlying district of Nha Be, regulated that
pet keepers register their pets, vaccinate them against rabies regularly, and not let them
out on the loose.
Dogs must have leashes and muzzles on while being walked in public space and are not
allowed to defecate or urinate in such areas.
Violating households will have their electricity and tap water supplies cut or be fined
between VND200,000 (US$9) and VND1 million ($44).
Nguyen Xuan Truong, head of the HAGL Gold House’s management board, said his
board had earlier banned its residents from keeping pets.
However, as several households insisted on keeping pets, the board finally decided to
reconcile their appeal and responsibility.  
Thuy, a resident, explained that many families find keeping pets a long-standing,
rewarding hobby and even a source of solace which cannot be dispensed with overnight.
However, she admitted keepers should be bound by certain responsibilities to keep
trouble at bay.