Service Dogs and Fibromyalgia

• Walking assistance: Big dogs can help the person to prop up and maintain their balance on those days where the pain seems too much to bear while walking around the house or outside.
• Motivation: When the pain of fibromyalgia seems overwhelming, service can give others the means to focus on other tasks, such as feeding and caring for them, which can provide relief from its symptoms. If anything, the fact that dogs must be cared for provides the motivation to get up and feed/walk them.
• Exercise: Like dogs, people also benefit from a few minutes of physical activity every day. The need to walk the dog serves as a good pretext to abandon the comfort zone and get some daily exercise.
• Social improvements: Everyone loves a good dog, and odds are that most strangers that the person will run into will want to interact with the furry friend. A service will more often than not be a good icebreaker for casual conversation and will prompt the affected person to make new friends if he or she so wishes.
• Household assistance: Besides fetching stuff, service dogs can be trained to help with the smaller tasks around the house such as interacting with light switches, answering the door, and opening or closing doors.