Understanding Different Types of Assistance Dogs
I hear the names used interchangeably when referring to assistance dogs. Misinformation and lack of understanding can cause lots of issues for the public and for people utilize specific types of assistance dogs. Each type has a specific function, and specific legal rights. As a service dg trainer, I received lots of calls asking about a service dog, but after some conversation we found the person was wanting to make their dog a therapy dog instead. Not sure what the difference is? Thats okay! We will dig in so you have a better understanding.
Types Of Assistance Dogs
There are 3 common types of assistance dogs.
Emotional Support Animals
Therapy Dogs
Service Dogs
Each of these have a function, and each have different legal rights. The first step in understanding legal rights is to understand The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), and The Fair Housing Act. Its a little dense, but stay with me.
The Americans with Disabilities act
This is a federal law passed in 1910 to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination in many areas of life. A disability under the ADA is defined as,
“a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment. The ADA does not specifically name all of the impairments that are covered.”
Disabilities can not always be seen, they can be mental and physical, but even physical disabilities may not appear as obviously as we would think.
The ADA also covers service dog laws, and allows service dogs. Service dogs under the ADA are defined as,
“dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.”
Fun fact, a mini horse is also recognized as a service animal under the. ADA. With this definition the service dogs training and tasks must be directly related to the person’s disability. Animals whose only function is to provide comfort or emotional support also do not qualify under that ADA.
One of the biggest parts of the ADA is giving qualifying service dogs public access. This means they are allowed to go into most places regardless if they are dog friendly or not such as restaurants, movie theaters, etc. However, there are some limitations to this as well.
Find out more at the following links:
Air Carrier Access Act
Service animals being allowed on airlines is not decided by the ADA but by the US Department of Transportation. Under the ACAA a service dg is defined as,
“a service animal means a dog, regardless of breed or type, that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Animal species other than dogs, emotional support animals, comfort animals, companionship animals, and service animals in training are not service animals.”
Typically, each airline requires anyone who wants too fly with a service animal to fill out a DOT form for approval. Some European airlines require service dogs to be certified through Assistance Dogs International (ADI) or International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF). Please don’t try to falsify these, they do check!
Find out more info here:
The Fair Housing Act
This was amended in 1988 to prohibit housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin. This includes private housing, housing that receives Federal financial assistance, and State and local government housing. Under this law, assistance dogs are defined as the following,
“An assistance animal is an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person’s disability. An assistance animal is not a pet.”
This law basically requires owners of housing facilities to make certain exceptions in their policies, and on theme with this topic, make exceptions for pets as it pertains to people with disabilites.
Find out more info here:
Okay, now that we are through the dense stuff, what does this mean regarding different types of assistance dogs??
Different types of assistance dogs
Emotional Support Animals (ESA)
Function: ESA’s function is to provide emotional, cognitive, or other similar support to a person with a disability to assist them in managing the symptoms of their disability. Couldn’t that make them a service animal? Yes, but remember what defines a service animal is that they are specially trained with a task to mitigate that person’s disability. That is a conversation you should have with your doctor. Just because an ESA is not a service dog that doesn’t mean it can’t help. Also remember, an ESA is not considered a pet.
Rights:
They are covered under the Fair Housing Act: you do not have to register you ESA, there are some documentation you can provide to the housing owner.
They are NOT covered under the ADA
They are NOT covered under the ACAA
They do NOT have public access
Training: ESA’s are not required to have any training, with that said if the dog is found to be a safety issue the housing owner may be able to fight an ESA and ask you to remove it.
Therapy Dogs
You know when you are at a hospital or in college and one day there is a cute dog that everyone gets to pet? Those are therapy dogs!
Function: These are pets that have been certified to visit public or private places to provide comfort and joy to people who need it. Example: In college after a tragic incident, or during stressful exams, some institutions will have therapy dogs on campus for the students. Who doesn’t love petting a dog?! Remember, these dogs are pets trained to provide a service, not for a disability. If you have an ESA and want to be certified as a therapy dog you can.
Rights:
They are NOT covered under the Fair Housing Act
They are NOT covered under the ADA
They are NOT covered under the ACAA
They do not have public access: however, some therapy dogs are allowed in certain spaces if they are providing pet therapy. You have to be approved by those places beforehand, and most places only go through specific organizations for this service.
Training: Therapy dogs do typically need to go through training before providing this service. As I said above most institutions go through therapy dog organizations such as Therapy Dogs International. These dogs need to be well behaved, and well socialized to be successful in these places.
Service Dogs
Function: I know I said it before, but I’ll say it again. Service dogs are used to mitigate a person’s disability. This could be a seeing eye dog, a dog alerting their handler to a sound, retrieving something for a person who has mobility issues, maybe its grounding a person who has high anxiety, or PTSD, it depends on the disability. There are a lot of things service dogs can do. Consider service dogs like medical equipment, that is how important they are to their handler. Also, as I said before mini horses are recognized as service animals in the US.
Rights:
They are covered under the Fair Housing Act
They are covered under the ADA
They are covered under the ACAA: some airlines, mainly in Europe, require certification through ADI or IGDF
They have public access: With this, there are still some limitations with their public access , and there are circumstances where a service animal may be asked to leave, you will find more in the ADA FAQs
Training: Service dogs do need to be trained. Not only for their task(s), but they also need to be well behaved in public, and under control at all times.
In Conclusion
I know that was a lot, but i believe understanding these subtle differences are extremely important. **getting on soap box real quick. If you are thinking about making your dog an assistance dog, please do your research. In terms of service dogs, I hear a lot of people say “I want to take my dog everywhere with me”. I do too. But that doesn’t mean I should or need to. Having a fake service dog can do damage to real service dogs, and handlers. There is already a bit stigma regarding service dogs, and ESA’s, when a fake assistance animal causes issues, it affects those that truly have a need for them. So please be respectful. **off soap box
If you have any questions please feel free to ask. If you would like more information on the laws for service dogs I would be happy to write another post.
Please subscribe and follow my socials for more!
Happy Training!
