Therapy Dogs/Emotional Support Animals/Service Dogs

Since there have been so many people asking me lately for information and not knowing what they were actually talking about because they were using the incorrect terminology, I decided to write this entry to explain the difference between Therapy Dogs, Service Dogs, and Emotional Support Animals; because it matters. There is a huge difference between the 3 things. 

A Therapy Dog is a dog who goes into places to bring joy to other people such as patients in hospitals or nursing homes. Therapy Dogs are there for OTHER people and their sole purpose is to make people other than the handler happy. They often go into hospitals and visit the children's ward, or nursing homes to visit the residents there that were forced to leave their pets behind when moving into the nursing home. Therapy Dogs MUST be certified (usually through TDI - Therapy Dogs International) and must always ask permission from the establishment before entering the building. 

An Emotional Support Animal is any animal that brings comfort to you (the handler) for minor disabilities such as anxiety or depression. They have no public access rights because they are not task trained. They are, however, granted access in rental housing and on airplanes with the note or prescription from a doctor or psychiatrist. And both places are allowed to ask to see the doctor's letter/prescription. The sole purpose of an Emotional Support Animal is to bring comfort and joy to its owner. 

And a Service Animal is a dog or miniature horse that performs tasks for a person with a disability that couldn't otherwise easily do those tasks on their own without the help of the animal; comfort does not count as a task according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (the Federal Law regarding Service Animals). Service Animals are the only ones with public access rights in all places, but the person must have a documented disability such as mobility problems, PTSD, Seizures, Hearing Loss, Blindness, etc. Service Animals are allowed to be anywhere that the handler is allowed to be and the ONLY places that are allowed to ask to see the doctor's letter/prescription are the rental housing and airports. No business may ever ask to see those documents or ask what your disability is.

       And just so you don't fall for their scams, any registration for Service Dogs or Emotional Support animals that you can find online are absolutely fake, money stealing scams. They have no legal bearing and you can literally register ANYTHING including a rock and a paperclip. (It's been done.) And the ADA doesn't recognize any registration anyway, so there's no need to ever pay for a piece of paper saying that your dog is "registered". There is on the other hand a training certificate (a piece of paper that you get from your trainer after the dog has completed training with them). That IS real. There's no "certification", but a training certificate is very real and can go in your documents along with your doctor's letter/prescription. I highly recommend keeping a log of all of the hours that you spent training your dog because that is your proof if you ever end up in court over your Service Dog, whether you're suing someone over a discrimination issue or someone is suing you for "abusing the system". I personally keep a composition book with me any time I'm training and I fill it out daily to keep a log of the hours that I've spent training each dog. But I also keep a copy on my computer just in case I ever lose the book. 

I really hope that this helps you to understand and be able to explain the difference between Therapy Dogs, Emotional Support Animals, and Service Animals the next time you are faced with it in the future. Have a nice day, y'all! 

     

Leave it Training - Sir Lancelot

One of the biggest problems that pet owners have is dogs stealing food.
Dogs often steal food off of tables, or they're the first to pick up the
accidental dropped food on the floor. Service Dog handlers have a
problem with dogs picking up food off the floor and their dog accepting
food from strangers. It's dangerous for Service Dogs to accept food from
strangers. So here is a video to explain and show how to teach dogs not
to steal or pick up food. 


Training the dogs not to steal food off the floor or tables and not to
accept food from anyone other than mom. This is from the beginning. We
haven't gotten to the strangers part yet. But they're learning fast,
that's for sure!

Leo and Lancelot Training

Dual Training is not the easiest training to do. Lancelot has hit that stubborn stage and
Leo is so eager to train, that he doesn't want me to work with
Lancelot. We're working for the rest of the week on getting Lancelot's
drive back, so back to the basics
we go! Ugh. But Leo is doing great! No task training yet, but his basics
are doing very well.

Heel Training - Sir Lancelot

Training Sir Lancelot "heel" at Petco today. Heel is one of the easiest
commands to teach. Basically, you're teaching the dog to come and stand
next to your leg by luring him/her with a treat. Then you work to not
needing a treat, and just use the same hand shape that you were using
before. The more practice with this, the easier it is to solidify. As
you can see, Lancelot picked this up right away and he's doing very
well!

 Meet Gallifrey's Service Dog Training's newest recruit! This is Leo. Leo is a 2 year old, AKC show-marked Harlequin Great Dane, adopted from Chicago, IL. Leo's family was getting rid of him because he has very bad separation anxiety and they couldn't stand it anymore. :( Well, I decided to adopt Leo and add him to my Service Dog Training Program because I am confident that I can cure his separation anxiety and train him to be a mobility/anxiety Service Dog, and give him to someone in need. Be sure to watch for training videos of this handsome boy!! His training is going great so far and I can't wait to share it with you all!

Leo and Sir Lancelot's first meeting ^

 

^  Leo's first public outing - Tractor Supply

STL Zoo Animals' Reactions to a Service Dog

Here's an updated video of Zoo Animals' Reactions to a Service Dog. The St. Louis Zoo's animals are so funny. I love going there just to watch the animals interact with my Service Dog. Lancelot does so well with the zoo animals and I am so proud of him!

Lancelot PTSD SDiT practicing at Petco

     
       Lancelot training at petco. We're trying something new at the end of the video. Apparently he only likes to take things TO me and not FROM me to someone else.. lol. We'll work on it. This is his first time being trained to do it. He did it on his own at the zoo with his water bowl, which was a huge surprise to me. Now I'm trying to teach him to do it on command. After that is mastered, then we will use that command to tell him to "go get ...... and bring it to mom" or "go get ....... and take it to .......".

      We also practiced distraction training and socialization with small animals while at petco. The only animals he was interested in were guinea pigs, ferrets, mice, and fish.  He didn't care about anything else, which surprised me because at the zoo he was pointing at the snakes to show me where they were. We're working on teaching him to point at all snakes to alert me if we ever see one out of a tank..

       His "stay" is also getting GREAT! I walked out of his sight, around a few isles and then back and then I went halfway across the store before he thought he should get up. We're working on not getting up at all unless I tell him to or unless he needs to alert me. More videos to come soon!