Therapy Dogs vs Service Dogs - Do You Know the Difference?

Thanks for sharing this information Janis, very eye opening.

As a Sheltie owner for 15+ years, I hope that our society learns to understand how important therapy dogs are to their owners. Thanks for raising the issue.

My friend Mikey who has CP and uses a wheelchair says he supports this post very much and thanks you!

Janis Borgueta - interesting. I never thought the association would care to see the difference between the two. Makes sense.

Thanks for sharing something that I was not aware of.

I am seeing more and more folks with the therapy dogs. There is even a website you can log into and get a certificate. I do not think most places try and understand which is which

Great post about a subject many are not fully informed. Thank you for making all of us aware of the distinction.

Thank you for the information. It is a god idea to check out the bylaws of condos before buying .

Local fairhousing center does not see much differnce between the two.  Consumers and property owners that rent are totally confused about their rights to protect themselves against abuse, misuse of these provision under ADA

I kind of always lumped the two categories together in my head, but I've never (yet) had a buyer with a therapy or service animal so never had to do the research. Thanks for sharing this information!

Now I do Janis Borgueta ! Thank you for the K-9 distinction!

Thanks for this informative and relavant post! I have a dear friend with a service dog and am very aware of the laws about them. However, I too lumped therapy dogs and service dogs together. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Another issue is that there seem to be so many "fake" service jackets available. This is a huge issue. 

We have a rescue Chihuahua that is a certified therapy dog.  Liz takes her to the local hospice, senior center and VA hospital for visits to help the patients and family.  Bunny the Chihuahua has quite the range of outfits to wear to brighten everyone's day as best she can.  Fortunately we live on some acres of our own with no HOAs, so we don't have to worry about someone saying we can't have dogs or cats.  Bill

Although I haven't come across this here in my area since condos are few and far between, this is still a good reminder for me to do the research ahead of time in case I do ever run into this situation!

Interesting post.  Just recently I heard of acouple who wanted to purchase in a no pet development and tried to pass of their dog as a therapy dog.  There is more to a therapy dog than just the name.

The world is definitely leading toward going to the dogs...

I know the difference. I feel that some abuse the notion of a therapy dog. Pretty much anyone can get a doctor to write a letter supporting a need for a therapy dog … just as pretty much anyone can get a doctor to write a script for medical marijuana. 

In the rental world at least here in Oregon you cannot deny an applicant due to a therapy animal even if you have a NO PET policy.   You may request proof from their doctors but as Kathleen Daniels   mentioned this is easy to get whether it is for pot or pets.

My office manages a senior apartment building. I do know the difference. You've written a great post here. In our case we allow service dogs and in my state the restrictions seem to be very lax. A service dog can even be a dog that gets an elderly person out to exercise. At least that's how I see it...or maybe my broker is a soft person that bends the rules for his tenants of this building. 

Great information, Janis, as I would guess that many people use these terms interchangeably. I would guess that many would also forget to ask what a building or condo association allows.

Thanks for sharing. This will serve as a great tool to those with this particular need!