Can You Certify Your Dog as a Psychiatric Service Dog?

This is another article I wrote which ended up not being published.

Can You Certify Your Dog as a Psychiatric Service Dog?

Psychiatric service dogs are dogs that have been specially trained to perform tasks that mitigate their handlers’ disabilities. People with a wide range of psychiatric conditions can benefit from service dogs, including people with depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and dissociative disorders. Many people with post-traumatic stress disorder, including veterans returning from war, are also aided by trained service dogs. I have post-traumatic stress disorder and am currently preparing for my own service dog, so I’ve been learning a lot about them.

Many people with psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety find they feel better in the company of their dogs and they wonder how to get their dogs certified as psychiatric service dogs so that they can take their dogs into public places where pets are usually not allowed. Sometimes a person’s pet can become a psychiatric service dog, but not always. There are several factors to consider.

Are You Disabled?

As explained by Service Dog Central, in order to have a psychiatric service dog (or any other kind of service dog), you must be considered disabled under the guidelines established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This means you must have a psychiatric disability that substantially limits your ability to function with regard to major life activities (things like seeing, hearing, thinking, walking, talking and communicating). Simply being diagnosed with a psychiatric condition like depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder or schizophrenia does not mean you’ll meet the definition of disabled under the ADA. Receiving Social Security Disability Insurance or other disability benefits does not mean you’ll meet the definition of disabled under the ADA, either.

I am disabled under the American’s with Disabilities Act guidelines, since post-traumatic stress disorder interferes at times with my ability to think clearly, makes it difficult to concentrate and at times even makes it hard for me to communicate with others. My condition is severe enough that I am unable to work at a regular job and I have had to be hospitalized numerous times. Talk with your psychiatrist or another mental health care professional if you’re not sure whether or not you disabled according to the definition provided by the ADA.

Is Your Dog Trained to Perform Tasks that Mitigate Your Disability?

Service Dog Central explains that in order for your dog to be considered a service dog, he must be trained to perform tasks that mitigate your disability. The specific tasks that mitigate a person’s disability will vary from person to person, of course. Tasks have to be things your dog was trained to do, though, not things dogs do naturally. For instance, many people with anxiety disorders calm down when their dog cuddles them. However, dogs are naturally cuddly; they don’t have to be trained to do this. Therefore it isn’t considered a trained task.

The tasks must be things you cannot do for yourself due to your disability. For instance, you might train a dog to fetch items like a telephone and a drink for you, but this is only considered a task that mitigates your disability if you are unable to get these things yourself. If you are able to fetch these items yourself, then you do not need a service dog to do them for you and having a dog that is trained to do it does not mean your dog would be considered a service dog.

Some of the things my service dog will be trained to do include bringing me medication when I have an anxiety attack, because at those times I cannot think clearly enough to remember to get the medication myself; leading me out of a store or other noisy, crowded place when I have an anxiety attack, because I cannot think clearly enough at those times to get myself to a safe place to try to calm down; and leading me home if I am out and about in my neighborhood and get disoriented, which sometimes happens if I have a flashback.

Certification

There is no national certification program for service dogs and the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require that service dogs be certified in order to accompany their handlers into public places. There are some companies that sell certification kits for service dogs but these are not necessary and do not ensure that a dog is a real service dog. Your dog is a psychiatric service dog if you are disabled by a psychiatric condition and if your dog has been trained to perform tasks that mitigate your disability. That’s all that is required.

However, dogs must have very good behavior in order to accompany their handlers’ into public places where pets are not typically permitted. It usually takes 18 to 24 months to train a service dog for public access. Not all dogs are suitable to be service dogs and your pet dog may not have what it takes. If you want to find out if your pet dog can be trained to be a psychiatric service dog, contact a professional trainer to arrange for an assessment of your dog.

Sources:

Service Dog Central. http://www.servicedogcentral.org/content/node/77. What Tasks Do Psychiatric Service Dogs Perform?

U.S Department of Justice. http://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm. Service Animals.

Service Dog Central. http://www.servicedogcentral.org/content/faq. Frequently Asked Questions.