Dogs have always been a man’s best friend, but service, emotional, and therapy dogs provide amazing services to assist owners with special needs. These dogs are specially trained to assist their owners with disabilities of all types.

Service dogs help by performing a function for a person that is limited by a disability.  Types of service dogs include the following: Guide Dog, Hearing Dog, Mobility dog, Medical Alert Dog, and the Psychiatric Service dog. http://dogcapes.com/trainers.html gives a list of Service dog training sites by state.

Emotional support dogs helps people with emotional problems by proving support. These dogs help their owners with comfort and alleviating their emotional stresses. These dogs are known for the abilities to assist with anxiety, depression, mood disorders, panic attacks, and many other psychological conditions. The Fair Housing Amendment and Air Carrier Access Act protects emotional support dogs. These dogs are basically household pets, and as such require no special training, certification or registration. However, the designation of emotional support dog is only applicable to dogs which have been prescribed by a licensed mental health professional. The mental health professional must document the need for their client to have an emotional support dog, which is typically done in the form of a letter.

The third type of trained dogs are therapy dogs. These trained dogs provide comfort, affection, and support for those in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, hospices, and many other areas. These dogs visit all types of healthcare facilities including veteran, psychiatric, and children hospitals. Recently, they have being used to calm pre surgery anxiety as well as assist patients with depression. These dogs work with their owners to improve the lives of other people. The AKC gives a comprehensive list of Therapy dog sites close to your region.

If you are thinking about training your dog, there are steps you need to take ensure proper registration. The first thing is training your dog to perform specific duties. The training can be complete by you or a professional. Most training takes six months to a year or over 120 hours to properly train a dog. To ensure the law covers you, it is a great idea to have your dog pass a public access test. It appears from our research that this test is checklist that you should ensure your dog can do. Also, you should record your dog taking and passing the exam for legalities.

After training, you will want to register your dog with the Official Service Dog Registry. Now that you have trained and registered either your service dog, therapy dog or emotional support dog, you need to know how you are covered in day-to-day life.  Federal law prohibits any discrimination against breed, size, age, or training level of any of these dogs. Not all types of trained dogs are covered in hotels and airlines or allow you to travel with your dog. It is good practice to call 48 hours ahead to inform them of your traveling companion. Always travel with ID and registration, in the event that an establishment were to ask for paperwork. Please note, it is illegal for someone to ask for paperwork and ID, but it saves you time.