social therapy dogs

Therapy animals are not legally defined by federal law, but some states do have laws defining therapy animals.  Therapy dogs provide people with contact to animals, but are not limited to working with people who have disabilities.  They are usually the personal pets of their handlers, and work with their handlers to provide services to others.  Federal laws have no provisions for people to be accompanied by therapy animals in places of public accommodation that have “no pets” policies.  Therapy animals usually are not service animals.

Briefly, therapy animals frequently work with a family as in home help or with health-care professionals as part of a treatment plan. Dogs that visit agencies, schools, hospitals and homes are also commonly called “therapy dogs”.  Neither of these has access to all public places, and are the guests of the locations they visit.

This can be confusing, because sometimes people call therapy dogs “service dogs”, claiming that they are entitled to that label because they provide a “service” for people.  You can call a dog whatever you like, but the fact is that no federal law (and very few state laws) allow access with that type of “service” dog.

Social Therapy animals likewise have no legal definition. They often are animals that did not complete service animal or service dog training due to health, disposition, trainability, or other factors, and are made available as pets for people who have disabilities.  These animals might or might not meet the definition of service animals, and more often than not have passed Public Access Certification testing.