What is an Emotional Support Dog?

The job of an emotional support dog is just that: to provide emotional support in the form of affection and companionship to an individual suffering from a mental or emotional condition such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder/mood disorder, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorder, or phobias.  Unlike a service dog, an emotional support dog is not required to perform any specific task or to have any training beyond that required to behave politely in public.

                When a person meets the criteria, there are federal laws that protect his/her right to live or travel with an emotional support dog.  One of these is the Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA), which allows an emotional support dog to live with them, even when there are no-pet policies in place.  The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) allows an emotional support dog to fly with its owner in the cabin of an airplane without having to pay any additional fees.

                Though emotional support is an important service, it does not make an animal a service dog.  A person with a disability has the right to be accompanied by a trained service dog into most places of business.  This right is not extended to the emotional support dog.  Does that mean that a person with a mental or emotional disability is not entitled to this accommodation?  Certainly not.  Remember that an emotional support dog requires no specific training.

                If a mental or emotional condition is severe enough to be considered a disability, a person may be assisted by a psychiatric service dog.  A service dog (more about them in a future column) is one that has been trained to perform specific tasks for its handler.  In the case of a psychiatric service dog, these tasks might include counterbalancing or bracing a dizzy handler, waking someone who is heavily medicated and sleeps through alarms, doing room searches or turning on lights for a person with PTSD, blocking someone in a dissociative episode from wandering into danger, or leading a disoriented handler to a designated person or place.

                Confused?  I certainly was when I began my research.  Simply put, a dog is born with the skills to provide emotional support: they love unconditionally and give both affection and companionship freely.  My favorite explanation involves taking emotion out of the equation and asking if a robot could do the task at hand.  A robot can’t love but one could be built to perform a task that you are incapable of.  If a dog is trained to do that task for its disabled handler, it is considered a service dog.

                Another source of confusion is the many emotional support and service dog registry services I encountered during my research.  While a landlord is justified in requiring documentation to prove a tenant requires a service or emotional support animal, no central registry exists or is required.  There are many companies that will register an animal and provide a certificate or identification badge but this, in itself, doesn’t make an animal a legitimate emotional support or service dog.
            

Rebecca is the President & Executive Director of The Ethel Fund Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to changing animals' lives by providing assistance in times of catastrophic veterinary need.  To learn more, please visit http://www.ethelfund.org or https://www.facebook.com/TheEthelFund.  You may contact Rebecca at rslindeman@ethelfund.org.

Phil Balko is the proprietor of Photography by Balko and donates his talents to the Ethel Fund Inc. as well as other community organizations.  To see more of his work, visit http://philipbalko.com/. You may contact Phil at inquiry@philipbalko.com.