service dog

English

WOTD – 3 December 2025

Etymology

There are many kinds of service dogs (sense 1.2), providing many valuable services. Service dogs are not pets, so if you see them in public, you can help them by not trying to treat them like a pet, even though they are cute; they are on work duty.

From service (noun) +‎ dog (noun).

Pronunciation

Noun

service dog (plural service dogs)

  2. A dog which serves people by helping them with activities of daily living, with search and rescue, or with other (non-draft and nonfarming) tasks.
    Hypernyms: working dog < assistance animal, service animal < working animal
    Synonym: assistance dog
    1. (law enforcement, military) A dog which assists the work of military or law enforcement officers.
      Hyponyms: police dog; rescue dog
      • 1959 August 6, Walter R. Fletcher, “Specialty Club German Shepherds' Best Friend”, in New York Times, page 23:
        The German Shepherd probably is the top all-round service dog. He had an enviable record with the K-9 Corps during World War II.
      • 1991 March 20, “Dog tracks, bites suspect in burglary”, in The Press-Courier, USA, retrieved 5 Dec. 2011, page 11:
        A suspected burglar was tracked down by a police service dog and bitten early today.
      • 2008 May 16, Pfc Alicia C. Torbush, “Service Dogs Retiring”, in Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System, retrieved 5 Dec. 2011:
        Dago, a retired Army service dog, served as a bomb detecting dog with the 28th Military Police Detachment at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska for eight years.
    3. (chiefly Canada, US) A dog which assists a person who has a physical disability or a mental disability such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
      Synonyms: aid dog, (UK) assistance dog, helper dog
      Hyponyms: guide dog, hearing dog, hearing-ear dog, seeing-eye dog; support dog
      • 2007 April 18, Rita Healy, “Echoes of Columbine”, in TIME‎[1], archived from the original on 26 January 2012:
        A spinal cord injury will confine him to a wheelchair for life. […] He has a service dog and lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment, although there are relatives nearby.
      • 2011 June 11, Robin Finn, “Sunday Routine: Jessica Walter”, in The New York Times‎[2], archived from the original on 18 September 2023, retrieved 5 Dec. 2011:
        Reggie was a “release” from Guiding Eyes; he kept leading his trainers into light poles, so he was deemed temperamentally unsuited to be a service dog.

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