It’s a Dog’s Life!
Soon, we’ll be arriving at the dog days of summer. I always envision a tongue-lolling lab at poolside. Then I remember the dog days have nothing to do with our fur friends, and everything to do with the celestial calendar. The dog days mark the reappearance of Sirius, the dog star, which rises and sets with the sun each day. It’s a very bright star, easily seen in the dark.
Despite that inconvenient truth about the derivation of the name, we still can use the upcoming dog days as a great excuse to talk about our dogs. Most especially, about dogs that have jobs: not all the animals that live among us are pets.
Some are working animals that are key to their owners’ welfare. One of the most familiar of those is a guide dog that assists someone who is blind. These dogs are allowed into apartments, stores, restaurants, airplanes—in fact, pretty much everywhere.
But hey—your upstairs neighbor is not blind. And that’s no German shepherd she’s got in her apartment. Can it possibly be true that her fluffy dog, “Blossom,” is a service dog, as your neighbor claims? Or is your neighbor just trying to circumvent the building’s “no pets” policy?
To take the easy part of the question first—sure! Blossom could easily be a service dog. There are no breed or size requirements.
What is required? First off, your neighbor has to have a disability which qualifies her to have a service dog. And then, the dog she has must have been trained to help her—specifically her—with the tasks she needs help with.
Types of service dog include:
1. Guide dogs, which help people who are blind to navigate streets and use public transportation.
2. Hearing dogs, which help people who are deaf, alerting them to sounds like a doorbell or telephone.
3. Mobility dogs, which can open doors, retrieve items, or push buttons for someone. They may also help steady someone whose balance is poor, or help support them as they transfer from a bed to a chair.
4. Medical alert dogs, which let someone know of an impending medical issue, such as an oncoming seizure or plummeting blood sugar.
5. Autism service dogs, which help a person control negative behaviors.
6. Psychiatric service dogs, which help people who suffer from a variety of disorders, including PTSD. These dogs enable people to more comfortably go about daily activities.
By the way—in specific situations, a miniature horse can be an ADA-compliant service animal. So maybe you should be grateful Blossom’s a fluff-ball!
Another possibility: Blossom might be an emotional support animal (ESA). Those differ from service dogs in a variety of ways. For one, it’s a far less demanding job: Blossom needs to provide comfort to your neighbor, but not much else. She doesn’t have to be trained to assist your neighbor—and only your neighbor—with specific tasks.
Your neighbor does have to have been prescribed an ESA by a licensed mental health professional. She also must have been diagnosed with a disabling mental illness that can be helped by an ESA. For example, Blossom might help your neighbor better manage her anxiety or depression.
If she’s an ESA, Blossom has a few of the privileges that accrue to service dogs: she can live in otherwise pet-prohibited housing, and she can fly with your neighbor. She does not have the access a service dog would have to stores, or restaurants, or workplaces. The building management and airlines can also require paperwork proving your neighbor’s need for her ESA—something it cannot require of a service dog’s owner (or of the dog).
Blossom also—by the way—doesn’t have to be a dog: ESAs come in many forms.
Maybe Blossom is a therapy dog? If so, she shouldn’t be living in a no-pets building: therapy dogs don’t fall under any of the federal laws which provide special rights to service dogs and ESAs.
Which isn’t to say that therapy dogs—and their owners—don’t perform a great service. These are the dogs (and people) who volunteer at libraries, schools, hospitals, nursing facilities, shelters, hospices, funeral homes—you name it! They provide comfort and pleasure to a person or group of people, often in distressing situations.
Service dogs, ESAs, therapy dogs—lots of different dogs (or other animals), with very different laws impacting where they can—and cannot—be. But wherever they are, they deliver lots of love, as well as service, support, and comfort to the people in their lives. May we do the same for them. ▼
Marj Shannon is the editor of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth.
Photo by Courtney Mihaka on Unsplash