About the Dogs

Social Therapy Dogs

Therapy animals are not legally defined by federal law, but some states have laws defining therapy animals. They 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 work with a health-care professional as part of a treatment plan. Dogs that do visitation are also commonly called "therapy dogs". Neither of these usually has access to public places.

This can be confusing, because sometimes people call 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.