Service animals are defined as animals that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.
For more information about the ADA, please visit ADA.gov or call the toll-free number.
ADA Information Line 800-514-0301 (Voice) and 1-833-610-1264 (TTY) Monday through Friday to speak with an ADA Specialist. Calls are confidential.
Therapy animals, provide affection and comfort to members of the public, typically in facility settings such as hospitals, assisted living, and schools. These animals have a special aptitude for interacting with members of the public and enjoy doing so. Therapy animal handlers volunteer their time to visit with their animals in the community.
While therapy dogs provide an invaluable service during their visits to hospital patients, family and staff, the laws and protections granted to service animals do not apply to therapy dogs. Therapy dogs do not have any special privileges outside the facilities they visit.
Service Dogs work for the disabled individual. Therapy Dogs work with the Public through Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI) such as Animal Assisted Therapy(AAT) and Animal Assisted Activities(AAA).
While we try to match up as many individual Animal Assisted Intervention requests with the appropriate Therapy Dog Handler Teams, our main focus is to provide free Services through our Public Programming. For specific Animal Assisted Activities in Wellness, check out our events, coming soon, or reach out.
We try our best to honor specific requests for certain Therapy Dog/Handler Teams, but if you do experience a different Team, refrain from expressing disappointment in front of the Therapy Dog while in session. It really hurts their feelings!
No, we do not train Therapy Dogs. Instead we believe in the trust and unique bond every potential Therapy Dog develops with their specific Handler while training together, in order to pass their evaluation test, get certified and confidently work with the Public.
We will be offering a 4 session Therapy Dog Training Workshop (coming soon), so future Handlers can get the process started and learn how to teach their "Therapy Dog in Training" basic obedience skills like Sit, Stay, Down and Come.
We do not currently service any animals, just Humans. Unless specified at events, we do not allow pets. *Please let us know if you require your Service Animal for your session.
Yes, there are many ways to Volunteer with us! Whether it's to Volunteer at one of our wellness events or share your expertise, we'd love to hear from you.
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