Welcome to Module 6, Service Animal 101. This module will cover the basics about service animals and their protections within the United States. When we're talking about service animals, they can only be two things. Service animals may only be a dog or a miniature horse, though it is important to note that miniature horses are not always covered under legislation and are currently being phased out of the term service animal. Service animals must be allowed in all spaces, including private businesses, unless it severely impacts somebody's safety. When you're discussing with somebody whether an animal is a service animal, you may only ask two questions. Number one, is this a service animal? And number two, what tasks is it trained to perform? Please note that while we are discussing tasks, we are not discussing an individual's disability. There's a lot of common misconceptions when it comes to service animals, so let's cover a few. Firstly, there is no diagnosis, registration, specific training, or paperwork that is required in order for a dog to be considered a service animal. This means that there is no need for an individual to get a note stating that they do have a disability in order to have a service animal. There's also no standard for harnesses or labeled gear for service animals. While it is most common to see dogs have a vest or a leash that labels them as a service animal, this is not required or enforceable. For example, some individuals may have a service animal that the task it is trained to perform is to get help or get another individual when something happens. Having a leash or a harness would innately get away and get in the way from this task, and so that is not enforceable by law. As noted, when we are discussing service animals, you cannot ask about what the disability is that an individual has or if they are classified as disabled. You may only ask about what task the animal is trained to perform. When discussing tasks, it's important to note that emotional support animals, or ESAs, do not have the same legal protection as service animals, as emotional support is not classified as a task. However, it is important to note that individuals with emotional or intellectual disabilities still can have service animals that are trained in specific tasks. For example, some service animals are trained to provide deep pressure therapy, which is often used when an individual has an anxiety attack. While this could be a task, this is not emotional support and therefore does classify that animal as a service animal. Typically, a lot of people have questions when discussing service animals and the laws around them, so let's answer a few. First question is, is there a certification for service animals? The answer is no. There is no basis for certification or a certain certification that an individual may get for their animal to be considered a service animal. Question two, is there any specific training or tasks that a service animal must go through? Once again, the answer is no. While some individuals may use a company or an organization that formally trains animals to become service animals, service animals also may be self-trained. Service animals are highly, highly individualistic, meaning they are trained specifically for their handler and their owner and their disability. This means that there is also no set of basic tasks that a service animal may have to know in order to be categorized as such. Tasks can vary widely from things like, as we discussed, heat pressure therapy to medication retrieval to seeing eye dogs, which help people with blindness navigate the world. Are service animals allowed in health spaces? The answer is yes. Service animals must be allowed access to any public or private space as long as it does not impact some severely impacts the safety. For example, while a service animal would be allowed in a doctor's office, a service animal would not be allowed in a sterile site such as a surgical room as it could severely impact somebody's safety. Finally, can you ask someone to remove their service animal? Yes, there are some cases in which you can ask somebody to remove their service animal from the premises, but those are nuanced considerations. For example, if a service animal is causing a disturbance or acting in a way that is causing a disturbance as in excessive barking or trying to bite, you can ask an individual to remove that animal. However, it is important to note that some service animals' task trained is to bark in order to alert the individual, their individual, or the public to notate that something is going wrong. Service animals can still sometimes be confusing, so in this module we have also linked and have some documents to further resources to truly understand the laws and regulations around service animals. In our final module, we will discuss suggestions for the future.

service animals

legal protections

public spaces

emotional support animals

safety regulations