Service Dog Information

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The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. If they meet this definition, animals are considered service animals under the ADA regardless of whether they have been licensed or certified by a state or local government.

Service animals perform some of the functions and tasks that the individual with a disability cannot perform for him or herself. "Seeing eye dogs" are one type of service animal, used by some individuals who are blind. This is the type of service animal with which most people are familiar. However, there are many different kinds of service animals that assist persons with many other kinds of disabilities in their day-to-day activities. A few examples include:

Alerting persons with hearing impairments to sounds.
Pulling wheelchairs or carrying and picking up things for persons with mobility impairments.
Assisting persons with mobility impairments with balance.
Alerting persons with seizures.
Condition signal assistance.

Please never pet, talk to, or in any other way try to interact with a service dog while they are out in public. It can cause the dog to become distracted and not to do a good job for their disabled partner, and this could have disastrous results. While these dogs are cute and friendly, they are working dogs and should be treated as such.

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Site Last Updated: Feb 28th, 2008