Service Dogs, Therapy Dogs And Emotional Support Animals - What Are The Differences?

Canines are incredible companions, but not all working dogs have the same job. The term service dog, therapy dog, and emotional support dog often get mixed up, but each plays a special role with different rights, training, and purposes.

In this article, we’ll define each of these types of dogs, and explain the differences between them.

Service dogs

Service dogs are specifically trained to perform a specific task to directly aid a person with a disability, such as a dog who can guide a blind person, a seizure alert task to seek help when their person is not able to, retrieving items that have been dropped, opening doors, or even assisting individuals with autism. There are a variety of tasks a service dog can learn to help their person through their daily lives.

Unlike therapy dogs and emotional support animals, service dogs are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), allowing them to accompany their handlers anywhere that the general public is allowed. This includes public transportation such as buses, trains, and airplanes. Service dogs are also allowed to enter areas that would usually be off-limits for pet dogs.

Service dogs are considered working dogs and can even be considered medical equipment. If you encounter a service dog in public, it is important to ignore the dog so it can focus on performing its trained task to assist its handler.

Given the important nature of their work, service dog training is usually a time-intensive task – it is vital that the service dog performs reliably in a variety of situations. Task training is often complex and requires the dog to learn a series of behaviors based on the requirements of their handler. It is important to pick a dog with the right temperament for service dog work, as the dog will often be utilized in public around constant distractions and novel stimuli.

Therapy dogs

While service dogs are trained for one person, therapy dogs are trained to provide comfort and reduce stress for others – not their handler!

Therapy dogs are often taken to places such as hospitals, nursing homes, schools, courthouses, and even areas of recent disasters. Therapy dogs help reduce stress and anxiety, help bridge social gaps, and have even been shown to lower blood pressure and heart rate levels in stressed individuals. Although many places accept and are happy to host therapy dogs, there are no legal rights for therapy dogs, meaning public places have the right to deny a therapy dog and their handler access if they choose.

As therapy dogs are typically utilized in situations where the intention is to reduce stress, it is important that therapy dog candidates have a calm disposition and solid foundational obedience. Completing the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test is a good starting point for a potential therapy dog, but their behavior and obedience will need to be generalized in the environments in which they will be used.

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs)

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) are animals (not limited to just dogs) that provide comfort and companionship to people dealing with mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, or PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). ESAs can offer comfort during panic attacks, reduce the feeling of loneliness, and even help their owners build routine and stability.

Legally, Emotional Support Animals do not have public access rights like service dogs; however, they may have some housing protections under the Fair Housing Act with a doctor’s letter. Recent changes means that airlines are no longer required to provide Emotional Support Animals with free travel. Dogs and cats are among the most common emotional support animals, with miniature horses, rabbits, and other small house animals on rare occasions.

The main differences between these three types of dogs

Each of these dogs can play an important role in differing contexts, but it is important to recognize that they fulfill very different needs:

Service dogs are task trained to assist individuals with disabilities. ESAs and therapy dogs are not task trained, even if they do provide emotional benefits.
Unlike service dogs and ESAs, therapy dogs do not provide benefits to their handlers – but to other people.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) offers provisions and protections for service dogs – not therapy dogs or ESAs.
Only dogs and miniature horses can be service animals. ESAs can be virtually any type of animal.

Why do the differences matter?

On the surface, the differences between service dogs, therapy dogs and ESAs may appear subtle. However, confusion has arisen among the general public in recent years as a greater number of dogs are seen out in public – with varying levels of behavior. Some of these dogs are masquerading as fake service dogs with vests, which then erodes confidence in the legal protections that are actually necessary for individuals who legitimately require a service dog for their quality of life

It is important that all of us – whether we are business owners, local government representatives, or simply members of the public – understand the differences between these three types of working dogs. Each of them provides benefits in their own way, but knowing the differences helps us respect their roles and better support the people they serve.