What Is Considered A Service Dog?

What is considered a service dog, and how do you know if you’re eligible for one?

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act 2010 (ADA), a service dog is one trained to perform a specific task. These tasks help a disabled person with their disability.

Any dog breed can be trained as a service dog. The range of tasks they can be taught to perform are as unique and individual as the people who need them!

What Defines A Service Dog?

To answer the question “what is considered a service dog”, we must look at the definition. A service dog is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with disabilities.

The tasks are specifically related to their handler’s disability.

Disability is defined as:

“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.”

These definitions all come from the ADA. This makes them part of federal law. So, now we know what is considered a service dog, what rights do they have?

Service Dog Rights

Service dogs can go with their owner into any place open to the public. The only questions staff may ask are:

“Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?” and “What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?”

They can’t ask about details of the disability, require any documentation about the person or the dog, or demand a demonstration!

People cannot ask service dogs to leave public premises unless they are out of control. Or unless they aren’t toilet trained.

Dog allergies or phobias are not a reason to turn away someone with a service dog.

Companies also can’t change disabled people extra for their service dog to access places with them.

What Is Considered A Service Dog?

For many, the first mental image of a service dog is a Labrador Retriever.

But the ADA has no rules on which dog breeds can become service dogs. Labs suit the role because they are easy to train and enjoy working closely with a human handler. They are often calm and confident around new people and in unfamiliar situations.

But all kinds of dogs can become service dogs. For example, small breeds like Miniature Poodles are often successful hearing dogs.

Hearing dogs don’t need to be strong enough to stop their handler in their tracks. Or to pull them out of a chair.

And being small can make them easier to travel with.

Types Of Service Dog

As of 2016, there were around half a million service dogs working in the United States.

Let’s take a look at some of the tasks they’ve been performing!

Seeing eye dogs

Seeing eye dogs are service dogs for blind and visually impaired people. They’re the best known type of service dog. And they’re often the most easily recognizable too.

Guide dogs for blind people may wear a brightly colored jacket while they’re working. But there is no legal obligation to wear anything which identifies them as a service dog,

They also wear a distinctive rigid handle. This helps their handler to better receive information from their dog.

Tasks for Seeing Eye Dogs

Common tasks for seeing eye dogs include:

• Navigating busy sidewalks and obstacles.
• Stopping at kerbs, steps, and specific doorways.
• Judging height, and stopping their owner from bumping their head.
• Blocking their handler from walking into an unsafe situation.

But guide dogs owners report that the benefits don’t stop there! They say that having a guide dog with them also boosts their confidence, and makes new situations less intimidating.

It also acts as an icebreaker for conversations.

Hearing dogs

Another well-known type of service dog is one supporting a person with deafness or hearing loss.

Service dogs for deaf people are trained to recognize and alert their owners to important sounds. Such as:

• Doorbells
• Alarm clocks
• Smoke alarms
• Someone calling their owner’s name.

Service dogs for people with physical disabilities

There are many ways that service dogs can give specific help to people with physical disabilities.

For example:

• Helping people maintain balance and direction whilst walking.
• Picking up dropped items or mail from the floor.
• Opening doors.
• Turning lights on and off.
• Protecting someone having a seizure, or seeking help for them.

Large dogs can even help their owners to lift themselves from sitting to standing.

Psychiatric service dogs

Service dogs for psychiatric disabilities are one of the less well known types of assistance dog.

In fact, people with “invisible” illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report that there is a lack of awareness about psychiatric service dogs.

This sometimes leads to awkward misunderstandings. Such as unkind comments and businesses trying to deny disabled people their legal right to have their service dog with them in public places.

In fact, service dogs can be trained to provide life-changing support to people with mental health disabilities.

What These Dogs Do

Such as:

• Reminding them to take medications.
• Interrupting flashbacks and dissociative episodes.
• Providing tactile grounding by licking.

So next time you see a dog wearing a service dog vest, don’t assume that the person with them will “look” disabled.

Or that they need their dog any less if they don’t!

Autism assistance dogs

One of the most recent ways service dogs have been trained to work is as autism assistance dogs.

Tasks autism assistance dogs might perform include:

• Sitting on their owner’s feet, to providing tactile grounding.
• Blocking children with autism from leaving the house.
• And prompting their owner to recognize important sensory input, like alarms.

Many people with autism report that their dogs provide social support and make social interactions easier. They also reduce feelings of stress and anxiety just by being there.

In this sense, they act like both a service dog, and an emotional support dog.

Are Emotional Support Dogs Service Dogs?

No, emotional support dogs and service dogs are different.

Service dogs perform specific tasks for their owner.

But emotional support dogs work just by giving their company. Emotional support dogs have some special legal rights. But not as many as service dogs.

Do Service Dogs Need A Certificate?

No, service dogs do not need a certificate.

In fact, the Department of Justice specifically warns against paying for your service dog to be on a register or certified in some way.

Are Service Dogs Pets?

Service dogs are more than just pets. But when they’re not on duty they also enjoy all the perks of being special family members.

Service dogs live at home with the person they’re helping. And also enjoy the same close emotional bond which pet dogs have with their families.

When they’re not in “work mode”, they do normal pet stuff instead. They nap and play with their family, and provide companionship.

Foster Families

Some service dogs even spend their puppyhood with their forever family. Undertaking their training with them when they’re old enough.

But it’s more common for foster families to raise service dogs. For a specialist agency to train them before they move in with the person they’re going to serve.

When they’re old enough to retire, some service dogs stay on with their disabled person, alongside a new service dog.

Others go to live with a friend or family member of their disabled person.

And the remainder are rehomed for an honorable retirement via the charity which trained them.

What Is Considered A Service Dog? Summary

Do you now know what is considered a service dog? A service dog performs specific tasks to help a person overcome their disability.

They have special rights in law to accompany their owner into all places open to the public.

Have you ever met an extraordinary service dog?

Tell us about them in the comments box down below!

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References & Further Reading

• U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Service Animals.
• U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Frequently Asked Questions about Service Animals and the ADA.
• O’Haire, 2013. Review of current evidence and future directions in animal-assisted intervention for children with autism. OA Autism.
• Rintala et al, 2008. Effects of assistance dogs on persons with mobility or hearing impairments: A pilot study. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development.
• Schoenfeld-Tacher et al, 2017. Public Perceptions of Service Dogs, Emotional Support Dogs, and Therapy Dogs. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
• Whitmarsh, 2005. The Benefits of Guide Dog Ownership. Visual Impairment Research.