OUR ASSISTANCE DOGS
ASA Service Dogs offers placement and training for a variety of different assistance dogs, including service dogs, therapy dogs, and emotional support dogs.
A Service Dog (SD) is a dog that is trained to do work or perform tasks for individuals with disabilities. Tasks are jobs that the dog performs to directly help the disabled person. These tasks serve to mitigate the person's disability.
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In the USA, service dogs are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and are legally allowed to accompany their handler in publicly accessible locations, such as: hotels, restaurants, stores, hospital, beaches, airports, etc.
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There are many different types of service dogs! Here at ASA Service Dogs, we customize the training of each dog to accommodate the needs of each unique recipient.
The types of service dogs ASA provides include:
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Autism Service Dogs​
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PTSD Service Dogs
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Seizure Response Service Dogs
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Psychological Service Dogs (PSD)
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Mobility Support Service Dogs
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Medical Alert Service Dogs
Below are some examples of the tasks different types of service dogs can be trained to perform.
PTSD SERVICE DOG:
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Deep Pressure Therapy (DTP)
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Light Pressure Therapy (LPT)
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Behavior interruption & redirection
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Nightmare interruption
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Crowd control & blocking
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Tactile Grounding
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Carries medications & medical documentation
AUTISM SERVICE DOG:
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Deep Pressure Therapy
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Light Pressure Therapy
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Wakes for school or work
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Carries medications & medical documentation
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Routine setting
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Tactile Grounding
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Provides familiarity and a feeling of safety
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Assists with the development of social skills
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Recipient handling
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Behavior interruption & redirection
A therapy dog team visits patients with the intentions of making them feel better. For example, a certified therapy dog team might visit a hospital, children’s home, or nursing home. Generally, these dogs are trained at service dog training standards because of the importance of safety and control in these environments.
ASA provides trained therapy dogs, therapy dog handler training, therapy dog team testing preparatory classes, and certification.
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Other types of therapy dogs can be found at:
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Libraries ready to provide no-judgement listening ears to children learning how to read.
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Funeral homes offering a shoulder to cry on and grief relief.
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Psychiatry offices calming, redirecting, and comforting patients.
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Tragic events and disaster situations, easing those in a state of panic or overwhelming grief.
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Schools to provide stress relief during testing such as final exams.
Warning: Therapy dogs tend to make people, smile, giggle, and sometimes even laugh out loud!
Emotional support animals (ESAs) are animals that provide comfort to their person. ESAs can be any domesticated animal, regardless of species or breed, and are protected under the Federal Housing Act (FHA). The FHA ensures that individuals who benefit from the companionship of an ESA will be able to have fair access to housing. For instance, individuals with ESAs are exempt from pet related fees and policies in regard to their residence. However, individuals must obtain documentation, usually in the form of an "ESA letter" from a qualified physician in order to qualify for accommodations under the FHA.
While ESAs are not pets, they are not necessarily required to go through any formal training. This is because ESAs do not have public access rights; meaning they cannot legally go into non-pet-friendly places.
That said, it can be beneficial to train an ESA for home-based tasks. ESA's can be trained for individuals that need extra assistance in their daily life but may not qualify for, or do not require, a service dog. For example, someone that has nightmares, nervousness, depression, phobias, stress, and/or panic may benefit from a well-trained emotional support dog.
Well-trained emotional support dogs can help their person regulate overwhelming emotions. They can provide many benefits including: redirection of focus, wake for school/work, routine and responsibility, companionship, medication reminder, familiarity, and can be trained to physically relax and calm the nervous system by performing Deep Pressure Therapy.
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