The first thing used to determine if someone qualifies for a service dog is their need. Your disability determines who is eligible for a service dog. A lot of people born with disabilities qualify differently than those that developed a disability later on. If you have a mobility disability (such as needing a wheelchair), you would qualify for a different type of service dog than you would if you had diabetes. In many cases a doctor may need to sign off on a person’s qualifications in order to be determined eligible for a service dog. For example, I had a psychiatrist and a therapist for my PTSD and they signed off for me to get my service dog. In addition, I got a letter from my hearing impairment doctors.

The second thing to consider once you’ve determined that you may be eligible for a service dog is: do you want to have a service dog? It will be with you 24/7. You really have to make sure you have the budget for it. There are different levels of government assistance through social security that can support someone in attaining and caring for a service dog, and some types of aid that seniors may qualify for.

I did not qualify for government assistance, so I had to determine my budget for getting a service dog. What could I afford?

From there I had to decide if I was going to get a service dog that was already trained – which would be more expensive. For example, my untrained puppy cost $5,000. The cost of a trained service dog, at around 2 years old, can be about $40,000! Even though I saved money by getting my service dog as a puppy, over the last two years, I’ve spent over $20,000 on all the training, food, medical, insurance, and more that I needed to train and care for my dog. And there will be more costs to come: he’s currently trained to support me with my PTSD, but still needs training to help me with my hearing impairment.

Sometimes people think a service dog handler needs to prove their dog is a service animal by showing off documentation or having the dog perform a task. That’s not how this works. Once you have gone to your doctor and let them know you want to get a service dog, they will write you a letter stating that you qualify to have a service dog. That’s all you need.

Anyone that asks for any more documentation for your service dog doesn’t know the law. When getting proper documentation, most doctors and therapists do have the service animal guidelines to go over with you. So please note to yourself: it is not appropriate, and it is not law, for someone to ask you to perform a task with your service animal.

First and foremost, depending on your disability, know that there’s a responsibility that comes with this tool. You really have to understand how the dog is going to respond to your triggers so you know how to respond to the dog. The reason that Justice Speaks educates is there’s a side to having a service dog that not everyone considers; It gives you a lot of extra attention that you don’t necessarily want. People need to understand that interacting with a service dog distracts it from doing its job. A lot of people will distract you and your dog.

Your relationship with your service dog is a give and take. Learning how to take care of the animal that also takes care of you is a task, and that dog goes everywhere with you, so everywhere you go, you have to be prepared.

For me, the benefits outweigh the cons. Like so many other people, my service dog serves a vital role in my life. I go through my day with more ease because I know if I don’t hear something that I should, my dog will hear it for me and alert me.

What questions do you have about qualifying for and paying for a service dog?

One of the most common questions people ask about service dogs is “how to qualify for a service dog?” Sometimes, when a person has an invisible disability, other people or business owners question their need for one or their right to take their service dog into businesses, airplanes, etc. The ADA has specific guidelines for who qualifies for a service dog, and understanding these qualifications is key to supporting service dogs and their handlers.

The ADA defines a person with a disability as individuals with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. The person must have a record and be regarded as having the impairment, which can include having difficulty hearing, seeing, walking, and learning, as well as a loss of physical or mental functions.

In the past, the ADA defined the disabilities that qualify for a service dog as more visible disabilities like blindness, or ailments like PTSD for veterans. In 2010, the ADA redefined service animals and what they can do, which allows more people access to the support service dogs provide. For example, service dogs are now trained to smell high or low blood sugar levels for diabetic people, and to smell oncoming seizures for those with epilepsy. Service dogs for children with autism and some other mental disabilities help the handler manage the stress of social interactions and increase their interest in different activities.

ADA laws limit the questions a business can ask of a service dog handler to two things:

• Is this dog a service dog?

• What work or job has the dog been trained to perform?

Because those questions are open-ended to so many critical support tasks, more people are able to benefit from the support service dogs provide. For me, I am hearing impaired and have PTSD. When I’m asked those questions, I can answer “yes, it’s a service dog, and its job is to alert me”. I don’t need to explain my personal and medical history to anyone.

People often associate service dogs with visible disabilities, and are unfazed when they see a service dog with a blind person or a wounded veteran. Service dog handlers with invisible disabilities may receive more questions, but the tasks their dogs perform are incredibly important. 

For example, with diabetes, a service dog can actually smell when a person’s blood sugar is running low before they might think to check their glucose monitor.. For epilepsy, the person actually gives off an odor that the dog can smell, and it will alert the person that they may be in seizure territory. That person can then get to a safe space to protect themselves from injury during their seizure.

I met one service dog that supported a child with a severe peanut allergy. The dog would alert if anyone brought any peanuts into the child’s classroom. They would alert the child, even if it was something as small as peanut oil in someone’s lunch. This dog was an additional support to having an Epipen, and could warn the child before they even realized they were experiencing a life-threatening emergency.

There’s a reason why people can only ask two questions of a service dog handler: is that a service dog, and what task is it trained to perform? People use service dogs to support both physical and mental disabilities, and most people do not want to describe a very personal health issue to strangers. There is no real difference in law between the protections for invisible or visible disabilities and between physical and mental ones. The important part is understanding that all kinds of people have all kinds of disabilities and some use this “tool” that can save their life. Our goal at Justice Speaks is to educate the public’s etiquette so people can respond to service dogs and their handlers appropriately.

Did any of these examples surprise you? What other unique tasks have you seen a service dog perform?

My service dog, Justice, is a huge part of my life. She is trained to perform tasks that are unique to my particular needs. Specifically, Justice is an alert dog: she alerts me of different sounds that I may not otherwise hear. Service dogs provide a variety of tasks based on the needs of their handler. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, service dogs are dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Let’s dive into what that means.

In order for a dog to become a service dog, she must be fully trained to perform a job or task that helps the handler’s disability. I have experienced that it takes a special kind of temperament for a dog to succeed or “qualify” as a service dog. They qualify working dogs in every way, but service dog training can start when the dog is as young as 3 weeks old and last two years, all while high-quality, reputable breeders and trainers test the dog to make sure their job is what the dog wants and is able to do. It’s a big process to go through, and not all dogs qualify.

Different roles meet different needs and require different types of training. Someone who is blind must have a much more in-depth training with their animal, and they won’t be able to train their own animal, like I was with Justice. I preferred to do my own training because it helped me bond with Justice. To successfully train a service dog, you have to learn how a dog communicates, and you have to have an incredible amount of patience. I didn’t realize this at first!

In my training we had a 12 year old girl with a Golden Doodle who was trained to sniff out peanuts for her deadly peanut allergy. We also had a veteran with PTSD who used his dog to help calm him from night terrors. The dog was very docile in the day, but very active at night. Another young girl used her Great Dane for mobility issues. She couldn’t use the lower part of her body and that big dog would help her stand and help her work on muscle building.

There are a lot of misconceptions about service dogs. Here are just a few:

• If a service dog is sleeping, don’t ask to pet it. Even if it looks like it’s not working I can assure you it’s just resting its eyes! Service dogs on duty are always paying close attention and doing their job.
• Not everyone knows that you need to have a visible or invisible disability to qualify for a service animal. I think everyone has to navigate their own healthcare, and if you think your disability qualifies you for a service dog, then it’s time to start talking to a doctor.   
• Service animals are not required to wear vests, nor do they have to have any official licensing. I find it helpful to keep the vest on my dogs, so both the dogs and other people know they are working. It provides a little barrier to the public, who hopefully will recognize and respect the dog’s duties and that they need to be left alone.

Service dogs are an amazing tool for people with disabilities. A service dog provides independence so that their handlers are not dependent on other people to take care of them. Deaf and blind people may use their service dogs to a different degree than others. 

Handlers and their service dogs have basic rights. We get to go into the same facilities, with our dogs, that other people get to go into. We get to attend the same types of services and events that people get to attend. And we get to basically function like everyone else. We get up in the morning and go to bed at night – it’s the same thing! We just have a tool with us to help us do our job.

Understanding service dog and handler rights is a huge part of supporting the disabled community and ensuring the world is as accessible for them as it is for everyone else. Have you ever seen a service dog in action? What were they doing? How did people respond to them?