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What Services do Service Dogs Provide?

Highly trained service animals work for their owners with physical or psychiatric disability. There are different types of training as there are different types of work that the service dogs provide. These dogs assist their owners or masters to ensure that they can go on with their routines and activities without any incidents or problems. Above all, the service dogs must ensure their owner’s safety and health as it can become a life or death situation.

Below are just some of the tasks service dogs can do for individuals with disability or impairment, according to the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners:

Service Dogs Basic Tasks

  • Answers when someone’s at the door by pulling a lever.
  • Brings or retrieves stuff to its owner, such as the mail, medicine bottles or any other items.
  • Barks, summons or alerts someone in the other room, for the owner who cannot get to them.
  • Helps his owner get around, or get up from his seat, or climb the stairs at the home or in public establishments.
  • Be his owner’s steady support, in case he experiences an imbalance while doing activities.
  • Carries medicine and other provisions for his owner in a specialized back pack.

Service Dogs Tasks During Emergencies

  • Brings the phone to his owner to call 911 or a relative.
  • Knows how to bark at a speaker phone to signal for emergency.
  • Interrupts or tags its owner during a trigger or psychiatric occurrence.
  • Alerts other people when its owner is in distress.
  • Leads other people to its owner, who could already be down on the floor after an episode or a suicide attempt, especially in cases of depression and mood disorders.
  • Alert its owner in cases of fire or burglary attempts.
service dog tasks

Service Dog Tasks

Psychiatric Service Dog Services

Psychiatric service dogs provide assistance to people with mental health disabilities navigate through life. Similar to other service dogs, psychiatric service dogs are trained to assist their handlers by performing these tasks:

  • Guide a disoriented handler – for people on medications or in the middle of a disassociated
  • Provide tactile stimulation for anxiety attacks, panic attacks, etc.
  • Identify hallucinations – for people who experience hallucinations
  • Search a room – for people with PTSD who are hyper-vigilant
  • Interrupt and redirect – for people with OCD who may self harm themselves

Psychiatric service dogs can provide tremendous benefits for their handlers, outside the services they provide, so that the handlers can lead normal lives. Caring for a dog requires the handler to get out of the house and forces them to interact with the outside world. The simple act of having to get out of bed and getting fresh air can reverse the symptoms of depression in people. Emotional support animals can also provide these benefits to their handlers. Service dog and emotional support dog handlers report greater self-esteem due to the independence that they experience with their service dog or emotional support dog. Remember, in order to qualify for an emotional support dog you need an emotional support dog letter from a licensed health care professional.

Training for service dogs could take weeks and will depend on the tasks they have to learn and perform. Because of these tasks, the law, through the Americans with Disabilities Act, acknowledges that persons with disabilities or impairment need their service dogs at all times. Establishments and businesses are expected to recognize and afford individuals with service dogs the access or accommodation.

If you are experiencing any type of discrimination due to your need for a service animal, please contact the ADA.

Click on the links to get your service dog identification card or emotional support animal identification card.

| Service Dog

About the Author: The writing team at Service Dog Certifications is made up of folks who really know their stuff when it comes to disability laws and assistance animals. Many of our writers and editors have service dogs themselves and share insights from their own experiences. All of us have a passion for disability rights and animals.

12 comments

  1. Carrie says: April 11, 2019

    I am going to be moving out on my own soon . And have.many health problems my daughter told me about how a service dog could help me in case I need help. I have heart trouble , anxiety attacks ,panic attacks, and pass out trouble and other health trouble . How to about get a dog to help .

    Reply
    • Sara says: June 4, 2019

      Go to your doctor and talk to them about it, a service dog could definitely help you.

    • Hannah says: August 24, 2019

      My therapist said a service dog would help with my asperger’s syndrome because I get bad anxiety at times and I sometimes loose track of what I am doing and might almost walk into traffic. I also can get flighty and I can be prone to emotional meltdowns so the dog can look for the signs. I plan on rescuing my dog and training it myself once I get the right books and tips. Can you be willing to tell me what books I need to do so? Please and Thank you.

    • Sepiso LaTanya-Marie Ililonga says: June 18, 2019

      I am on social security disability and my previous canine just died on 6-13-2019 and I am interested in having my new canine be a psychiatric service dog. Is it possible for my psychiatric service dog to also be a theraputic pet and an emotional support dog as well since I have mental health issues? Also by having a psychiatric service dog would my canine then be permitted to be in psychiatric hospitals with me? I usually opt not to go to hospitals because I don’t have anyone to care for my canine. I would like to know the best way to aquire a psychiatric support dog BEFORE choosing my “new” canine so that my canine can be a support dog. I already train my canines to use indoor facilities such as Out Pads since I have been diagnosed bi-polar schizophrenic and sometimes due to depression my canine and I remain indoors for days at a time. Do I have to have my canine crate trained to be in a mental institution with me. Is a psychiatric support dog allowed to sleep in the same bed with its human. Do ambulances allow support dogs inside if I ever need to be transported via ambulance?

    • Allo says: August 1, 2019

      A psychiatric service dog isn’t an emotional support dog or therapy dog. It’s a service dog. It has to be trained to preform tasks that help mitigate your disorders, they aren’t there just because their presence is calming they have a job to do. If you have a service animal that has passed all the required tests then yes they will be allowed to go with you everywhere. The ADA makes sure of that.

    • Anonymous says: August 21, 2019

      Hi, I have a psychiatric service dog.
      -For psychiatric hospitals, it depends on their rules and regulations. If you have a doctor’s note or “prescription” for the dog, that is something they should accommodate per the ADA rules and regulations. However, if they have rules where you only go outside at certain times, they may not allow the dog even though it’s trained to use potty pads, mainly because the staff there isn’t regularly taking out the trash or whatnot. So if you find yourself in a position where you have to be taken to a psychiatric hospital, make sure it’s one that accommodates a service dog appropriately.
      -Yes, the dog can go in an ambulance with you.
      -Acquiring a psychiatric service dog can be done a few ways. You can select a dog and train it yourself, or you can go through a dog training program for psychiatric service dogs, where they charge a fee and train the dog with you to have it task appropriately for your needs.
      -Yes, your dog can sleep in the se bed as you. One of my dogs tasks is nightmare interruption, which is hard for him to accomplish if he’s crated from across the room.

    • Tyjon says: December 17, 2019

      you need to get what you need

    • kk says: November 20, 2020

      I have a begel and I am trying to make her a seves dog

  2. Mia Stewart says: May 28, 2019

    I like how the article explains that service dogs can be a steady support for someone who has balance issues. My grandmother occasionally becomes imbalanced and falls on the ground and hurts herself. Having a service dog might help her stay balanced and not hurt herself by falling.

    Reply
  3. Angela Waterford says: June 11, 2019

    I’m glad to know that highly trained service dogs can do various tasks. My brother needs a medical service alert dog that can retrieve things for him. Thanks for letting me know that our dog can be trained to alert us if he’s in distress, so I’ll take her to a training service so she can become his medical assistant.

    Reply
  4. CAMILLE snow says: June 17, 2019

    Two young people park themselves and their two untrained dogs at our local Sheetz station for hours and tell everyone that they are training these dogs. They walk the dogs in and out of the store interfering and bumping into people. These people take up one of 5 picnic tables that are provided for paying customers, they fill the dog’s water bowl from the human drink station and allow the dogs to lay in the pathway of human trafic. Now my complaint is I do not believe that these people are truthful and they are doing a disservice to your origination. Thank you

    Reply
    • Mamasays says: September 20, 2020

      You are allowed to ask them to leave and may get assistance from law enforcement. They need to train them where they are not a nuisance to the public.

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