Types of Service Dogs
Service Dogs and Emotional-Support Animals
A service dog is trained to perform one or more disability-related tasks. An emotional-support animal provides comfort through its presence but is not necessarily trained to perform a specific task.
For example, a dog whose presence helps someone feel calmer is not automatically a service dog. A dog trained to recognize an approaching anxiety episode and take a particular action to lessen its effects may qualify as a psychiatric service dog.
Understanding this distinction is important when considering training, housing, travel, and public-access rights.
Service dogs can assist people with many different physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, and neurological disabilities.
Psychiatric Service Dogs
Psychiatric service dogs may be trained to assist individuals living with PTSD and other qualifying psychiatric disabilities. Their work may include interrupting harmful or repetitive behaviors, waking a handler from nightmares, providing trained grounding, leading the handler away from a stressful environment, or responding to signs of an approaching episode.
Medical-Alert and Medical-Response Dogs
Depending on the individual and the dog’s capabilities, these dogs may be trained to alert or respond to particular medical events. Response tasks may include retrieving medication, finding another person, activating an alert system, or remaining with the handler until help arrives.
Hearing Dogs
Hearing dogs help people who are deaf or hard of hearing by alerting them to important sounds such as alarms, doorbells, approaching people, ringing phones, or a person calling their name
Guide Dogs
Guide dogs help people who are blind or visually impaired navigate their surroundings and avoid obstacles.
Every service-dog partnership is different. The appropriate tasks must be based on the individual handler’s disability-related needs—not simply on a standard list of commands
Mobility-Assistance Dogs
Mobility dogs may retrieve objects, open or close certain doors, assist with balance, carry lightweight items, or perform other tasks that help a handler navigate daily life more independently
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