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If you’re the proud owner of a Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD), you might be wondering whether you can bring your four-legged companion to work. Thankfully, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides PSD handlers with a broad range of legal protections, including the right to bring a legitimate service animal into the workplace.
However, there are conditions involved, and some employers may be exempt from the Act. To clear up any confusion, we’ve put together this comprehensive PSD workplace guide. Read on to learn the legal definition of a PSD and the ADA rules regarding service dogs in the workplace.
What Is a Psychiatric Service Dog?
Before we start looking at the work-related legislation, it’s essential to understand the definition of a PSD in the eyes of the law.
A PSD is a specific type of service dog. Therefore, the ADA grants a PSD the same legal protections as any other service dog, including guide dogs for the blind or assistance dogs for the mobility impaired. Under the ADA definition, service dogs are “dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.”
There’s no ADA requirement for service dogs to be professionally trained. Indeed, many people with disabilities train their own service dogs at home, as professional training tends to be expensive.
However, a service dog must be trained to perform specific tasks that assist a person with a disability, thus improving their overall quality of life.
A PSD, as the name suggests, must be trained to assist someone with an ADA-recognized psychiatric disability, including (but not limited to) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). If your psychiatric condition appears in the American Psychiatry Association’s DSM5, it will be covered by the ADA.
What Tasks Does a Psychiatric Service Dog Need to Perform to Qualify?
The tasks a PSD will perform depend on the disability of its handler. We provide a few examples below.
- Providing tactile comfort during distressing situations
- Nuzzling the handler to mitigate panic attacks
- Awakening the handler to interrupt a night terror
- Comforting the handler during a PTSD flashback
- Providing deep pressure therapy to reduce stress
- Stopping a handler from scratching themselves
- Guiding the handler home when in a dissociative state
- Fetching the handler’s medication
This list is only a sample of some of the tasks a PSD may perform—there are many other possibilities.
While the top PSDs are trained to perform numerous tasks (some can follow up to 90 commands), there’s no minimum task requirement under law. Therefore, if your animal has been individually trained to perform at least one of these tasks to assist with an ADA-recognized disability, it qualifies as a legitimate PSD.
What’s the Difference Between a Psychiatric Service Dog and an Emotional Support Animal or Therapy Dog?
Now we understand the legal definition of a PSD, it’s time to examine how it differs from an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) and Therapy Animal. There’s quite a bit of confusion regarding these three distinct types, and it’s worth understanding the relevant legalities.
While PSAs have been specially trained to perform specific disability-related tasks, ESAs provide emotional support through their very presence. Therapy animals, on the other hand, are household pets that have undergone training to comfort people in places like hospitals and schools.
The three types vary substantially in their purpose and receive distinct legal protections.
| Psychiatric Service Dog | Emotional Support Animal | Therapy Dog | |
| Performs specific tasks to help manage a disability | YES | NO | NO |
| Has undertaken training | YES | NO | YES |
| Has undertaken individual training to perform specific disability-related tasks | YES | NO | NO |
| Cannot be denied access into public accommodations | YES | NO | NO |
| Cannot be denied access to a rental property with a no-pet clause | YES | YES | NO |
| Must be allowed access onto an airline at no extra fee | YES | NO | NO |
| Needs to be registered or certified | NO | NO | NO |
| Can accompany its handler into the workplace | YES | NO | NO |
As you can see, a service dog, including PSDs, is the only animal the ADA protects in the workplace.
Psychiatric Service Dogs in the Workplace
If your animal qualifies as a PSD under the aforementioned criteria, an employer must make “reasonable accommodations” to allow the dog to accompany you in the workplace.
Furthermore, an employer cannot refuse to hire or fire a person due to their disability or the obligation to accommodate a service dog.
Under the ADA, there’s no obligation for a person to disclose their disability or their need for a service dog during the recruitment process or while undertaking their work. Of course, if you want your PSD to accompany you at work, you will need to tell your employer so they can make the necessary accommodations.
Work-Related Tasks
An employer may ask how the dog helps you undertake work-related tasks.
A service dog only receives legal protections in the workplace if it assists the handler with work-related tasks in some way. If, for example, the service dog is only needed at home, then the employer isn’t obliged to allow it in the office.
However, if the service dog performs tasks that aid you at work, you have the legal right to bring it with you (under certain conditions). Examples of how a PSD could help a worker with a psychiatric disability include:
- Providing deep pressure therapy during stressful situations
- Reminding the worker to take their medication
- Mitigating panic attacks through nuzzling
Again, these are only a few examples—there are many ways a PSD can help people with disabilities perform better at work.
Service Dogs in the Workplace: Exclusions
While an employer must make “reasonable accommodations” to allow a service dog in the workplace, they are under no obligation to make unreasonable accommodations.
Undue Hardship
Essentially, if accommodating a service dog creates undue hardship (i.e., it’s excessively expensive), the employer can choose to deny the animal entry or refuse to hire the employee. The precise financial cost to qualify for undue hardship isn’t defined; each case would be decided in a court of law.
Nonetheless, consider the following examples:
- If there’s plenty of room to keep your service dog under the desk, that would most likely be considered a reasonable accommodation.
- If accommodating a service dog requires renovating a workplace at a considerable expense, that would likely be considered an undue hardship.
Undue hardship also covers the practicality and safety ramifications of allowing a service dog in the workplace. A service dog accompanying a chef in a busy restaurant, for example, would raise a hygiene issue, while a PSD in a hospital setting would get in the way of essential workers. In both these situations, the employer could legally deny the request to accommodate a service animal.
15 Employee Rule
ADA protections only apply to businesses with more than 15 employees.
Any company smaller than that is free to prohibit service dogs in the workplace or refuse to hire staff due to a disability.
Preferred Accommodations
An employer isn’t required to provide the worker with their preferred accommodation when another reasonable solution is available.
For example, if the worker wants a private office to obtain more space for their PSD, the employer could deny that request and offer to allow the PSD to sit under a desk in an open-plan office instead.
While the ADA mandates service dogs be allowed in the workplace, they won’t necessarily afford the handler any special perks.
Disruptive Behavior
An employer is legally allowed to deny a PSD access to the workplace if the animal exhibits disruptive behavior.
Disruptive behavior includes barking, biting, lunging, urinating, and defecating, among other things. The handler is responsible for ensuring a PSD has the opportunity to relieve itself in an appropriate place.
For this reason, it’s essential to train a PSD to behave appropriately in a workplace setting. Ideally, a service dog should have undertaken at least 120 hours of public access training.
Requesting an Accommodation
If you want your employer to accommodate a PSD in the workplace, you’ll need to lodge a request. It’s best to put your application in writing so you have a record for future reference.
Write a formal letter to your employer that outlines your disability and how it affects your work. Explain how bringing a service animal into the workplace will help mitigate your disability and aid your performance, going into detail about the specific tasks the animal can perform.
Next, outline how you’ve trained your animal to behave in a public setting and how you plan to ensure the workplace remains quiet and clean.
When assessing your application, the employer may ask for documentation to verify your need for a service dog, the tasks it performs, and its training. These questions cannot be asked at other times, such as during the recruitment process.
Bringing a Service Dog into the Workplace: Final Thoughts
The ADA mandates that any business with 15 or more employees must accommodate a service dog in the workplace if it doesn’t cause undue hardship.
Therefore, if you’re living with an ADA-recognized psychiatric disability, there’s a good chance you could bring your PSD into work with you. Draft a formal application letter and send it to your employer today.