Share This Article
Mental health service dogs play an important role in helping certain individuals raise their quality of life and relieve the symptoms of certain mental health conditions. However, there are important things that you need to understand about mental health service dogs, including the tasks they perform and who might benefit from these dogs, before you can consider adding one to your life. Our article aims to give you all of this information, as well as advice on adopting a mental health service dog, so you can stay totally informed about these helpful working pups.
What Is a Mental Health Service Dog?
A mental health service dog is a service dog that is trained to help an individual manage the symptoms of a specific mental health condition. Mental health service dogs are also commonly referred to as psychiatric service dogs, and they play an important role in relieving unpleasant symptoms and raising an individual’s overall quality of life as they live with their mental health condition.
Who Can Benefit From a Mental Health Service Dog?
Individuals who are struggling with conditions such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, autism, OCD, ADHD, and bipolar disorder, among many other conditions. Mental health service dogs are trained to deal with the specific symptoms of these disorders, as well as provide comfort and emotional support to an individual, relaxing them and helping them to more effectively manage the symptoms of their condition.
Tasks That a Mental Health Service Dog Can Perform
Mental health service dogs are specially trained to perform many different tasks for their owner. Below, we list some of the most common tasks that mental health service dogs are generally taught.
- Turning on lights, opening and closing cabinets, or opening and closing doors at the request of their owner.
- Retrieving important items for their owners such as medication, water, phones, or emergency items.
- Alerting outside individuals that their owner is in trouble and needs immediate assistance.
- Sensing an impending panic attack and providing deep pressure stimulation to calm anxiety, overstimulation, or other overwhelming situations.
- Providing a grounding presence for their owner, interrupting negative behaviors, and redirecting focus to more positive things.
- Checking around corners and clearing rooms for their owners.
- Helping their owners to identify if people and things are hallucinations or real life by greeting people that move into rooms.
- Clearing a path through crowds and providing a barrier between the person and others when out in public, or sitting at a person’s back while they are completing daily tasks as a form of protection.
Keep in mind that your mental health service dog can be trained to complete other tasks or provide support based on your specific condition. Owning a service dog is highly personal, and tasks or service skills may vary away from these core tasks based on individual needs.
Psychiatric Service Dog vs Emotional Support Animal
Oftentimes, there can be a lot of confusion about a psychiatric service dog versus an emotional support dog. While both of these dogs can help individuals manage their mental health conditions and provide a comforting presence, only psychiatric service dogs are trained to complete specific tasks to help their owners. Emotional support animals only provide comfort and support; this earns them a different categorization legally and different public allowances.
Psychiatric service dogs are allowed in any and all areas that their handler is allowed, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Emotional support animals may be allowed in some public places, but this is not as common as with mental health service dogs. However, emotional support animals are given specific provisions when it comes to fair housing.
You can read more about service dogs and their public access permissions here, or understand more about housing and emotional support animals here.
How to Adopt a Mental Health Service Dog
There are several mental health service dog training organizations across the United States that you can work with to adopt your dog. It helps to do some preliminary research on the type of dog you want and which organization trains dogs for your specific condition before reaching out about adopting a dog.
Purchasing a trained service dog will typically cost between $10,000 and $30,000, depending on the organization you are working with, the breed of dog, and the type of training that needs to be completed. You will need to participate in your dog’s training as it is nearing completion so that you know how to properly handle the dog, and your service dog gets used to your presence as their owner.
How to Adopt an Emotional Support Dog
The first step to obtaining an emotional support dog is speaking with your therapist or healthcare provider about a prescription for one of these animals. Your healthcare provider will help you determine if a mental health service dog will benefit you and that you are suitable to care for the animal while it helps you with your condition.
From there, you can obtain a recommendation or prescription for a mental health service dog; you can use this as documentation (ESA letter) for your disability as you apply for accommodation needs in housing.
Can You Adopt an Emotional Support Dog Without Speaking to a Healthcare Provider?
You can adopt a service dog without speaking to a healthcare provider as it isn’t a legal requirement. However, the same can’t be said for emotional support dogs and other emotional support animals. While it is possible to adopt a trained service dog or train your own service dog without the input of a medical provider or therapist, emotional support animals require an ESA letter when it comes to applying for accommodations.
Many landlords will want to see a letter verifying your need for accommodations (this letter is not legally required to state your disability or disclose information about your health issues) before they allow your emotional support dog to stay in the space without extra fees, or permit them in a no-pets-allowed space.
Mental Health Service Dogs FAQs
Can My Service Dog Be Denied Public Access?
Service dogs are rarely denied public access, though this is legally allowable in certain situations. In cases where your service dog is out of control, threatening other individuals or animals, or misbehaving, the property is allowed to ask your service dog to be removed.
You should also keep in mind that individuals are not allowed to ask you what your medical condition is or for papers that verify your need. The only questions that are allowed to be asked about your service dog in public are:
- Is this dog a service animal required due to a disability?
- What work or tasks has the dog been trained to perform?
Any further requests to have the dog demonstrate or inquiries into the type of disability are not legal, and you are not required to answer them.
Can You Train Your Own Mental Health Service Dog?
It is possible to train your own mental health service dog rather than adopt a trained dog from an organization. While this process can be more time-consuming, it might be cheaper if finances are limited. You can also train a dog that you already own to become a service dog with the right tasks.
An online training course for service dogs is the best way to work at your own pace with your pup and ensure they learn the tasks that you need most. In-person training may also help with specialized service dog skills, but keep in mind that professional dog trainers are likely to charge between $50 and $250 an hour on average for their services.
Can Any Breed of Dog Be a Mental Health Service Dog?
Any breed of dog can be trained to become a mental health service dog, though some breeds are more suited for service dog tasks in general. Golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers, German shepherds, and poodles are all prime choices for service dog jobs due to their friendly nature, intelligence, easy trainability, and size that is large enough to provide guidance, support, or pressure therapy as needed.
Obtaining the Service Dog Assistance You Need
Obtaining a mental health service dog can be an overwhelming process, especially if you aren’t too sure where to start but suspect a service dog can make a great difference in your life. The first steps you should take are speaking to your healthcare professional and thinking about which tasks a mental health service dog can help you with. From there, reach out to adopting organizations or begin training a dog yourself to help support you and give you the service dog assistance you need.