Service and Therapy Animals Pets

3 years ago
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What's the difference between a service animal and a therapy animal?

A service dog focuses on the needs of its handler. A therapy dog works with its handler to focus on the needs of others.

Service dogs assist an individual with a disability. They're trained to perform tasks that the person cannot perform for him or herself. A few examples might be alerting to the sound of a siren, pulling a wheelchair uphill, retrieving an item from a grocery store shelf, alerting to low blood sugar, or guiding a person down the street. Service dogs focus primarily on the needs of their handler.

Emotional support animals, or ESAs, have exploded across the US in recent years, with rising numbers of pet owners getting their animals certified online. Unlike in the UK, ESAs have legal status in the US on a tier below traditional service animals, but the backlash has begun - with critics complaining the system is being abused by regular pet owners who want to take their animals into unsuitable public spaces.

Therapy dogs help individuals in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, schools, and disaster areas. They're usually family pets who know basic obedience and enjoy interacting with strangers. They and their handlers act as a team to provide comfort and assist in therapy. These animals might get in bed and snuggle, play structured games, motivate a person who's had a stroke to do exercises or go for a wheelchair walk in a garden. Therapy dogs, with their handler's support, focus on connecting with the client instead of focusing on their handler.

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