A Guide to Service Dog Etiquette
Did You Know?
Why Some Dogs Are Allowed in Public
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service dog must be individually trained to perform a task for someone with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Although often cute, service dogs are on duty and not considered pets.
Why Other Dogs Are Not Allowed in Public
Dogs used solely for emotional support are not, according to the law, service dogs. With few exceptions, they are not permitted into restaurants, grocery stores, malls, etc. Emotional support animals do not perform work or tasks that qualify them as “Service Animals’ under the ADA. The key distinction is that a service dog has been trained to perform certain tasks related to an individual’s disability.
Many Disablities Are Actually Invisible
Please keep in mind that you may not be able to tell if a dog is on duty. Many service dogs perform tasks for individuals with an invisable disability such as hearing loss or PTSD. They may not look like it, but they could be executing a life-saving task. For this reason, it's important to never pet, or soliciate attention from a service dog as this distracts them from the valuable job they are performing.