A highly trained dog, Sully can perform a number of commands, including opening doors and fetching items such as the phone when it rings.
I can see how a service dog could be really helpful to an elderly person, especially a very frail elderly person.
Besides opening doors and fetching the phone, such a dog could alert caregivers if the elderly individual falls or gets into some sort of distress.
I deal with older people on a daily basis. Most who have dogs have undisciplined, ill-mannered, overprotective little ankle biters who won’t shut up barking and/or literally try to bite anyone touching the owner. If, that is, the dog is not so grossly overweight from being overfed that it can barely move.
I’ve come very close to being bitten several times despite being cautious. Once I nearly got my hand bitten by a toy poodle. That sounds like a joke but if it had bitten my right hand and broken the skin it would have probably put me out of work for several days. I was not amused. I was less amused by the owner who told me three (3) times before that happened that the dog would not bite me.
My own parents, now both deceased, had a similar nasty little beast. I cannot tell you the depths to which that animal was despised by the rest of the family.
I suspect that one reason few elderly people have service dogs is that they tend to treat their dogs like stuffed animals rather than real animals which need ongoing training and discipline (as I once read a trainer describe). Service dogs are trained to be non-agressive even when provoked, but the training does have to be maintained.
I’m a service person to my dog: I wait on her “hand and foot” and love every minute of it.