[MR] Therapy Dogs vs Service Dogs

[Denise Keppel]

<<Which reminds me, something to note...."Therapy Dogs" are not covered
by the ADA.  You are not entitled to bring one to an event.  To assume
that it's okay and that you will bully the autocrat into letting you
stay because fluffy is your therapy dog and therapy dogs are required
to be allowed is not an assumption that I would recommend making this
coming year.>>

Per http://servicedogcentral.org/content/node/74 and  http://servicedogcentral.org/content/node/75

A therapy dog is an individual's pet which has been trained, tested, certified and insured to work in hospital, nursing home, school, and other institutional settings.  Dogs used for emotional support, that are not task-trained, are called emotional support animals. They are not service dogs. It is important to make a distinction between ESAs (emotional support animals) and PSAs (psychiatric service animals), because PSAs are task-trained just like other SAs and are not there solely to provide emotional support. Therefore, PSAs meet the requirements of the definition of "service animal." 


IOWs- unless you want to specifically question each person who brings a dog to an event and demand proof that the dog is a psychiatric service animals (therefore demanding that said person reveal that they have an actual psychiatric imparement) you may want to rethink that.

We are a society of people who attempt act nobly.  Perhaps the simplist and kindest thing is to believe the said gentle who states that they have a service dog.