An assistance dog is a dog that receives specialized training to aid an individual with a disability in navigating everyday life. Assistance dogs can be trained by an organization, or by their handler.
'Assistance dog' is the internationally established term for a dog that provides assistance to a disabled person and is task-trained to help mitigate the handler's disability. In the United States, assistance dogs are also commonly referred to as 'service dogs'.
Assistance dogs are not emotional support animals, which are generally not protected by the same laws[1] and typically have little to no training compared to an assistance or service dog.
For a dog to be considered an assistance dog, they must meet the following criteria:
Individual countries and regions will have specific laws and regulations, with these international criteria having broad recognition across the globe.[2] [3]
Assistance dogs have traditionally been trained by charities and other organizations, who then partner a disabled person with a trained dog when the dog has completed its training program. Increasingly, more disabled people are self-training their assistance dogs,[4] whereby the disabled person selects their dog (often referred to as a 'prospect'). There is great variability in the training that any future assistance dog receives, but all assistance dog candidates go through certain stages.
Assistance dog candidates are generally selected with care for appropriate health, temperament, and characteristics. Large established organizations such as The Guide Dogs for the Blind select and maintain their breeding stock to ensure healthy pups with desirable traits.[5]
The first period of a prospect's life as a puppy is normally spent in socialization rather than formal training. Some organizations often use puppy foster parents during the pups' first year, so the prospect grows up in a normal family environment surrounded by the sights, sounds, and smells they will later work in to make them more effective.[6] [7]
Once a puppy is old enough, they will commence their specialist training, which will include training in work and/or tasks. The tasks that an assistance dog prospect will learn all depend on the disabilities that their current or future handler has, and there is therefore almost no limit on the types of tasks a dog can be trained to. These may vary from picking up dropped items and taking laundry out of a washing machine to interrupting self-harming behaviors to providing deep-pressure therapy for an autistic person.[8] At the same time as learning their unique tasks to support their handler, an assistance dog candidate needs to learn how to be well-behaved, and polite and to present acceptably in public. Many owner-trainer support groups recommend following established dog obedience schemes such as the Kennel Club Bronze, Silver, and Gold obedience training programs to gain a high and dependable recognized standard of obedience and behavior followed by the Public Access Test, which evaluates a dog's ability to behave appropriately in public, and in places not normally deemed pet friendly where a person may enter with an assistance dog, such as a supermarket or restaurant.[9]
State and local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that serve the public generally must allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas of the facility where the public is normally allowed to go.[10]
Common examples of assistance dogs include:
Under the Americans with Disability Act, there is no formal certification, or registration required for a dog to become an Assistance Dog. [11]