Service dog pics 2017

These are our community’s 2017 service dog photos. You can read the fun captions on the thumbnail pictures, or click on a thumbnail picture to enter a larger “lightbox” pop-out series you can click through (or tap or use keypad arrows to navigate). Enjoy!

A young woman with short, dark hair and glasses smiles and wears a semi-Hawaiian floral shirt and long jean-shorts, as she kneels inside a house doorway holding an over-the-shoulder leash connected to a sitting golden retriever that looks at the camera with an open mouth and slightly extended tongue.

Allison & Ruby kneel on the floor at a door

A young man smiles as he crouches with his Miniature American Shepherd inside a giant red and blue “LOVE” statue in New York City. The “L” and “O” are on top of the “V” and “E” and the whole statue is around 25 feet tall.

Avery smiles at the camera and Béla gazes lovingly at Avery

A young man smiles and crouches with his medium-sized black, white, and brown dog. They are on top of a building, with a large city through the gloomy haze in the background and the wind apparently blowing as the dog's ears are blown outward and both dog and human are squinting even though it's very overcast.

Avery and Béla withstand the wind and rain on the Empire State building

In a picture taken downward toward the ground from a standing position, the person's khaki-covered legs are showing with white shoes crossed and a training pouch on. To the left of the legs is a medium-sized black, white, and light brown dog looking forward, wearing a bright yellow vest and a leash with two large, yellow leash sliders saying “SERVICE DOG” and “IN TRAINING”.

Avery’s view of Béla in her yellow gear

A young boy, dressed in a mummy costume and carrying a plastic pumpkin in his right hand, walks away while looking back over his shoulder. His left hand holds the leash to a large white dog in a bright orange cape with reflective accents, with a camouflage vest over it. Another leash attached to the harness extends toward the camera.

Everyone who wants their mummy is in for a treat when they see Brendan and Gracie

A woman with short, white hair and a nose ring looks a bit worried at the camera in a selfie while holding a small black and tan dog in her arm; he wears a purple collar with a hear-shaped silver tag. There is grass in the background, but the backward white letters on her black t-shirt indicate the picture is a mirror image.

Ouija is never “board” when Bunny has her hands on him

On a basketball court with green grass around it, a tall, slight woman in gray longsleeves and pants sits forward in a wheelchair with her hands on her knees. A black lab sits on her left, also looking at the camera, with its mouth open and tongue out a little. The dog's leash is connected to the back of the wheelchair.

Chanda gains a home court advantage in training Kestrel

Inside a room with wire dog fencing and PVC-framed dog platforms stacked against the wall, a woman in a wheelchair smiles at the camera as she holds a certificate with both hands. A short, green leash appears to be attached either to her wrist or her chair, and it leads to a black lab puppy lying on the faded terra cotta colored floor.

Chanda holds Kestrel’s obedience certificate—if only puppies could read!

A beige Chihuahua sits on a lap in the front passenger seat of a vehicle, looking to the right. The dog wears a fuchsia vest with black straps and collar, with a kelly green and yellow-gold patch silhouetting a dog and person touching noses. Crystal SD is wearing a pink harness with the yellow and green Psychiatric Service Dog Partners patch while sitting on Bunny's lap in a truck.

Crystal knows how to patch things up on Bunny’s lap in the truck

A woman wearing a Green Bay Packers shirt stands in an empty area in a pet store, looking down and holding her right index finger up. She holds a leash in her left hand, connected to a leash splitter. At the ends are two small black and tan dogs wearing Green Bay Packers jerseys as they sit and look up at the woman.

Deanna coaches Maxwell and Jaxson on the mathematical oddity that teams usually punt on the fourth down

By low lamplight, a seated woman with short gray hair concentrates on playing a violin. A medium-sized, long-haired light brown and white Sheltie is attached by leash to the chair, lying on its side sleeping with its harness on next to the woman's feet.

No matter how exciting Elaine’s fiddling, Yvie tends to find it relaxing

In a room with oxblood carpet and wood-paneled walls, a woman with short gray hair wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt studiously plays a violin while seated. Connected to her chair by a black leash is a sleeping Sheltie wearing a vest. A green instrument case is in the foreground and the furniture to the right appears to be covered in other instrument paraphernalia arranged in a way indicating many instruments are in use close by.

While Elaine jams with others, Yvie could use restful covers

A young boy wearing a black jacket and long pants faces a chalkboard and stands on a red, white, green, yellow, and black striped mat. There is a small climbing wall in the background on the right. In the foreground, a large white dog wearing a camouflage harness with multiple service dog patches is lying on the wood floor behind the boy, facing him.

When Brendan is learning, Gracie watches and is ready to help

A large white dog with brown spots on its blocky head wears a Psychiatric Service Dog Partners bandana and a padded red harness in the back seat of a car. The heart-shaped pink tag on the dog's collar reads “Gracie” in a nonchalantly fancy script.

Gracie is ready to be a superhero in her PSDP bandana

A woman wearing a black sweatshirt and with long, blonde hair sits and smiles at the camera while in a crowded stadium with her mostly black lab mix. She leans toward camera with her hand on the dog, who is wearing a purple vest and staring intently at the game's action. The floor down the aisle appears to contain plenty of food trash and the crowd is standing.

Phoenix may be more interested in the hockey game than Heather (at least during the picture)

In front of green bushes and on large concrete pavers, a large, blocky-headed black dog with white patches sits toward the camera wearing a red bandana with white trim. The dog has its tongue extended to the left, licking the chin of a woman crouching adjacent with her hands lovingly on the dog. The woman is thin with long blonde hair, smiling eyes and mouth, and wears fitted red pants, red plaid shoes, and a black longsleeve shirt.

“Phoenix the thief” steals a kiss and Heather’s heart

A small black and white dog with a racquetball-shaped head turns wide-eyed to the camera on the left of the photo, held in someone's arms. About ten feet away behind and to the right, a bald bearded man in a lab coat holds a large constrictor snake with his hands and around his neck while sitting on stadium-style seating inside a carpeted and colorfully lit museum.

Veronica keeps Hestia off the constrictor’s menu at the museum

In a picture taken at lap level, a small black and white dog with a very smushed face lies on the lap of someone wearing a yellow dress at a tableclothed dining table. A black napkin is draped over the dog's head as she calmly looks out from it into the distance as if she had on a cloak.

Jedi master Hestia dreams of a galaxy far, far away, but her mind tricks never get her treats from the table

The sleeping head and shoulders of both a Chocolate Labrador Retriever and a Boston Terrier snuggle on and slightly under some bedding.

“Boston Chocolate” snuggling siblings Jude and Albert show what dreams are made of

In front of a brick fireplace with a snowman decoration, a Chocolate Labrador Retriever looks up to the left at a talking woman with short gray hair and black-rimmed glasses in a burgundy sweater.

Cindy explains to Jude not to worry, that the “Frosty” in front of the fireplace won’t melt

A smiling woman with short gray hair and glasses sits on a hearth with a Chocolate Lab lying under her legs and looking up toward her as she looks down at the dog. Wintry decorations dot the fireplace and its screen.

Cindy teaches Jude where to wait for anyone coming down the chimney with dog treats

Smiling white woman with long grey hair and glasses lies in raised couch donating blood at Red Cross center. Sable German Shepherd Service Dog with red vest lies comfortably next to the base of the risen couch.

Iris helps lower Linden’s blood pressure while Linden’s donation lowers the volume

A doberman with cropped ears pointing up is in a closeup, looking intelligently in the camera but with its tongue hanging long. The background features a white to tan very rocky hill with some dried, crispy plant material at the base and sand all around.

Link stretches and cools his giraffe-tongue during a sandy hike

Lying on the gray-flecked, off-white linoleum of a store in front of a shelf full of spraypaint, a doberman wearing a blue vest looks up toward the camera with earnest eyes.

Link puts his paw down when it comes to stopping spraypaint vandalism

The silhouette of a short-haired woman and her leashed long hair chihuahua to the left of her in a heel position can be seen looking out of a cave-like structure toward a waterfall in the sun, as they stand on a wet wooden walkway behind hip-height bars as may be found at a zoo.

Maddy and Spider-man find a calm, cool place to hang out behind a zoo’s waterfall

In a car seat and on a red blanket, two small mostly black dogs with tan markings lie against each other while looking at the camera. They're both wearing red collars with silver and brass jingle bells, plus fuzzy red sweaters with fuzzier white trim.

Maxwell Smart and Jaxson T mingle with jingle bells on, hoping they’re on the way to holiday treats

Two small mostly black dogs with tan markings stand and sit on a collection of very yellow leaves as they look off-camera to the right.

Max and Jaxson fall yellow with worry autumn will leave them too soon

From the floor of an airplane's bulkhead seating, two small Miniature Pinschers with service dog gear on look up at the camera with wide eyes and proportionally large, raised ears.

It’s easy for Max and Jaxson to fly well when their ears double as wings

Sitting on the floor facing outward in the back of a stationary ambulance with open doors, two women in non-EMT attire rest their feet on the platform bumper. The woman on the left has a black lab across her lap, while across the lap of the woman on the right is a medium-sized white dog with large brown markings.

Don’t panic: It’s not an emergency, it’s just Kyrie, friend Leigh Ann, and dogs Mijo and Tao educating folks at a fire department station

In the grocery section of a Walmart, a woman with long brown hair wearing a black sweater looks a the camera with a small, contented smile. Her sweater says “In my darkest hour, I reached for a hand and found a paw”. The young woman leans a hand on a small, hip-height refrigerated box and holds a leash in that hand that's attached to a harness and shoe-wearing doberman that's lying with its face to the side against the floor.

Nicole doesn’t need horseshoes for luck; with Link, dog shoes help this team get what it needs

With trees blurred in the background, a smiling middle-aged woman with long brown hair wears a plaid shirt, jeans, and sunglasses as she kneels on the mostly dirt ground with each hand on the back of a different Australian Shepherd. The dogs sit flanking her, wearing red head collars, leashes, and harnesses, looking toward the camera but past it.

Patti, Izzy, and Micah happily commune with the forest floor

Amid grass with a dense treeline about ten feet back, a woman with long brown hair wears sunglasses, jeans, and a longsleeve light gray shirt with pale pink flowers printed on it. She kneels between two sitting Australian Shepherds, her left hand on the one with darker brown markings as the dogs look left with tongues hanging out of open mouths. Both dogs wear red head collars, harnesses, and leashes.

Patti, Izzy, and Micah are a tremendous trio in front of a treeline

A black lab mix wearing a purple service dog vest sits on the concrete floor in a row of burnt sienna and salmon colored hockey stadium seating. The dog looks with earnest steadfastness directly at the camera with glassy brown eyes. A few crowd members' backs are visible in seats behind the dog, and they are dressed in cold weather attire.

The hockey ice may be frozen, but Phoenix gives a stadium stare that melts hearts

With concerned eyes, a golden retriever in a red vest looks up from her lying position on the floor toward the off-camera photographer on the dentist chair. The bottom twenty inches or so of the plastic-jacketed chair are visible, then the dog is at the bottom on short carpet, and behind the dog are some partly open vertical blinds letting in dappled sunlight through some plants.

Ruby knows the drill—er, routine—at the dentist

With the camera pointed downward between two colorfully sandaled feet, a golden retriever in a red vest looks up with an expression of casual but sincere attention from the striated black rubber floor of what appears to be a bus with a yellow bar and bulkhead panel immediately behind the dog.

Ruby is prepared for compact postures pertinent to paratransit

A golden retriever lies on the wooden floor of a home with a toy basket in the faded distance. The dog wears a blue vest, its almost plaintively loving face taking two-thirds of the photo space as the dog looks slightly back, up, and to the left with head ever so cocked and healthy, young brown eyes toward the camera.

Ruby’s sincere attention retrieves the feeling in one’s heart like a golden, peaceful sunset that steals you from everyday concerns and puts the world in perspective

A reddish tan dog that is likely a Rhodesian Ridgeback lies in a sphinx down in grass, oriented and looking to the right but a little toward camera. The dog wears a blue vest behind a black leather and metal guide harness with a black head collar on and a leash coming up to the photographer, who has angled the camera at more less than a 45 degree angle toward the ground so that nothing else but grass is in view.

Ryan shows how you can actually feel like you’re back on a ridge, even if you look like you’re down and blue

A red merle chihuahua sits on a carpeted floor in a closed doorway corner, wearing a beige Game of Thrones topographical map vest that has a patch that reads "do not pet" with white text on a red background. The dog is sitting in profile with body pointing to the right, but is looking at the camera with large, long-haired ears perked upward and outward.

Does Spider-man feel like a dire wolf when he wears his Game of Thrones vest?

A white-bellied red merle chihuahua has his eyes closed, sleeping on his back on dark bedding with his paws in the air and front legs cutely bent in a prayer-like position.

When Spider-man sleeps with paws in the air, he dreams of swinging from building to building and being the superhero kind of “rescue dog”

On a light gray futon that sits on a wood floor, a larger black dog lies on her side on top of a smaller, but medium-sized tan puppy's legs as that puppy also lies resting on its side. Both dogs appear to be sleeping with closed eyes.

Tao figured out how to get puppy Deja to stay and settle for naptime

A mid-30s woman with long brown hair and funky glasses wears a very bright pink and orange sleeveless dress as she hold a small black and white dog in her arms. The dog is licking her smushed nose with her tongue and wearing a yellow Hufflepuff-crested vest with a patch that says "service k9 ¾". Contrastingly out of focus in the background is an earthy green fountain as tall as the woman, with cool blue water flowing over among its sections of increasing size.

Hestia’s overflowing with hunger for Harry Potter when Veronica attires her in a Hufflepuff vest

The long, brown hair of a mid-30s woman flows splendidly down her chest and in the wind as she smiles proudly and lovingly at the small black and white dog she holds in her left arm. The woman wears a cap-sleeved oceanically swirled blue shirt, the dog looks off-camera as if studying a scent, and the contrastingly out of focus background contains an overhanging tree that is moderately populated with mostly brown and slightly yellow leaves.

Veronica channels the “mirth of Venus” when adoring Hestia on an autumn journey

Two women sit smiling with arms around each other, the woman on the right holding the harness handle of a large black and white block-headed dog that looks quizzically at the camera. The floor is covered in very low grass-green carpet, the far background looks like an old factory or warehouse with brick walls and old steel steps, and there is a PVC frame right behind the photo subjects that holds up a white dog club banner printed in blue with print showing that says “Train Your Troubles Away”

At the dog club, Karen, Windy, and Thibodaux show how to “Train Your Troubles Away”

Outlined by black and orange paper jack-o-lantern cutouts and fall leaves, a woman and man sit with their dogs as all face the camera. The woman has shoulder-length red hair and wears a cracked doll-face mask, a black choker, an off-white dress with small black bats all over, and lacey black lower-arm cuffs. Her large dog wears a black pinstripe coat with a hunchback and has spottily-whitened black hair on its head and ears where human hair would be. The man on the right wears a country-style bowler-type black hat, suspenders, a longsleeve off-white shirt, and khaki shorts over khakis. He large smile is very goofy and elated and he holds a small tan-faced white dog with outspread legs in his arms and on his lap.

Laughter or fear? This dog club’s Halloween party gives you options, as shown by Windy & Thibodaux and Rob & Jacqueline Bluebia

In a car dealership waiting area, a short woman with short gray hair sits in a chair a little pulled back from a small, white, circular table and leans her head down to the top of a Sheltie's head. The woman has her hands on the dog's sides as the service-dog-vest-wearing dog stands on its hind feet with paws up into the woman's lap. There is a medium-sized, mostly black dog standing in the dark under the table looking toward the woman, and in the top left corner of the background sits a Santa doll in front of a large, dark window.

Special moments are a gift Elaine and Yvie give each other often