What Is A Service Dog?

By Renee Michaels

Being a Service Dog Handler has made me hyper-aware of the fact that there is a lack of understanding from the public about what a Service Dog actually is and their purpose. So today, I would like to clear up the confusion and hopefully bring awareness to this important subject.

What Is A Service Dog?
First, it’s important to point out the legal definition of a Service Dog, according to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). This is a Federal Law that provides protections to Service Animal Handlers in the United States.

“Service animals are defined as dogs (in some cases, Miniature Horses) that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.”

The ADA goes on to define a person with a disability as someone who: “has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a history or record of such impairment, or is perceived by others as having such impairment.” Does this mean that anyone with a disability should have a Service Animal? Not necessarily.

Who Needs A Service Dog?
A Service Animal is only needed if it can be trained for a task to mitigate the disability. For example, “guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties.”

A Service Animal is not considered a pet, they are working animals and for this reason, they are allowed access to any place the public is allowed, with only a few exceptions. We will cover those in another article.

The Takeaway
Finally, it’s also important to note that there is a difference between Emotional Support Animals (ESAs), Service Animals, and Therapy Animals. I will go into more details about the differences at another time.

For now, keep in mind that Emotional Support is not considered a disability or a trained-task, therefore, ESAs are considered pets and do not have the same rights as Service Animals… Boy, do I have some stories to share about that. Stay tuned!

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