I just received an email from someone named Lizzie who could use some help – I thought I would open it up for the rest of us as I don’t have much experience in the legalities of companion dogs in different states than I reside.
Lizzie writes:
I have depression, fatigue, and many more illnesses. My dog Little Girl helps me and my mom in so many ways. My mom has COPD and now lung cancer. The other day my mom was asking for help and I was sound asleep. Little Girl (LG) started barking and having a fit, until I got my feet on the floor and asked what was wrong. Then LG stopped having a fit. To mom and myself she is very special. I would like to be able to take LG any place that I go. LG has been to a nurce home once and LG loved it. I live in KY and we had an Ice store where the electric was out of days. Mom and me had to go to a shelter and leave LG with a friend. We missed her and she missed us. I had several panic attack while I was at the shelter. I really think that LG would have helped me through them. What typed of Companion Dog training do I need to get for LG. I want to make sure if something like that happens again that I can take LG with me without being stopped with the no dogs allowed rule. Please help me.
So in summary Lizzie needs help in finding out what training is necessary to have a companion dog. She lives in Kentucky.
For Everyone:
I’ve replied to Lizzie’s email with this post so that she can get better help than I can offer, and so that this help will also be available for others to read in the future. If you can offer assistance please reply in the comment section.
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First a companion dog cannot go everywhere she goes in public places. Not even a emotional support animal could do this. The law that covers emotional support animal are DOT and FHA in which doesn’t need specific task training but one needs a prescription from a medical professional! Again ESA are only covered by Fair Housing Act and the Dept. of Transportation (ie Air). Unless her own state has this benefit as well for emotional support animal.
Only service dogs are allowed to accompany a person with disabilities out in public buildings. This would fall under the ADA. A service dog is an individually trained animal that performs specific tasks that benefits the individual with a disabilty. Alerting only doesn’t qualify a dog to become a service dog.
But before a dog could even be trained as a service dog one has to make sure the dog has the right temperament to be out in public under various stressful situation. Second thing is to be able to sit down and write down the various real tasks that this dog must do. If the dog is for her mother then the dog is not for her and visa versa. It’s hard to have a dog become a service dog for two people and it doesn’t really fall under such laws that I am aware of.
Being there isn’t much as to what her needs are exactly it’s hard to say if she needs a service dog or just an emotional support animal or neither. First she would have to fall under the definition of disability and second the dog has to be trained as a service dog in order to have the dog accompany her. Probably not what she is looking for however without knowing more of what she needs her dog to do it’s hard to help. Again though companion dogs aren’t covered under any law and the only places they could go is pet friendly places.