PonderEthereal

You must have a diagnosed disability to use a service dog. Once that is established, the first, maybe obvious step, in this whole process is deciding whether or not a service dog is a good fit. You can do that by giving some thought to what a service dog is capable of and whether that would make an improvement to your quality of life.

Do you Qualify For a Service Animal?

To use a service animal legally, you must have a diagnosed disability. The Justice Department has this to say about qualifying disabilities under the ADA :

To be protected by the ADA, one must have a disability or have a relationship or association with an individual with a disability. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.

Although cities, counties and states might have other definitions of a disability and I am not recommending anyone ignore or break their local laws, the federal government ultimately wins out over local law.

What Can a Service Animal Do?

Service dogs can perform a huge variety of tasks. Here are some of the big headers :

• Being a surrogate set of eyes
• a surrogate set of ears
• physical tasks such as pulling and pushing things
• sensory things such as sensing the onset of a medical condition like a seizure or a panic attack
• safety things such as safety checking an area, being observant of an area or keeping a watchful eye on a wandering child
• Emotional things such as interrupting self destructive behavior, interrupting a depressive episode or breaking social isolation

Is a Service Dog Right For You?

The first thing you might set about doing is doing a little research about service dogs to determine if it’s even something you are able to or willing to deal with. Service dogs can be a lot of work. Most people know what they see in public and there are some things about a service dog that I had never considered before.

Service dogs require quite a bit of training (think 6mos to a year before they are ready) as well as testing in order to be used responsibly. They need to be properly groomed and kept healthy - even more attentively than a companion dog might require. Their days are filled with work (happy work, hopefully) and they need a strong body to keep up. And although they make some tasks easier or manageable, they add a whole new list of outing considerations.

Here are some great pages with information on deciding if a service dog is a good fit for you and your life.
Service Dogs of Virginia : Is a Service Dog Right for You?
Eagles’ Wings : Is a Service Dog Right for You?
A Breeder’s List of Considerations
Delta Society Considerations
Canine partners of the Rockies Pre-Adoption Considerations
Puppies Behind Bars Considerations List
Service Dog Central : How do I get a Service Dog?

How Would a Service Dog Help You?

The next thing that would be helpful is deciding what sort of tasks a service dog might assist you with and create a list. Here are some excellent articles on service dog tasks and how they might assist with different disabilities.

Assistance Dog Tasks
MORE Assistance Dog Tasks
The Difference between a Service Dog and an Emotional Support Animal
Psychiatric Service Dog Task List

If it appears that a service dog could be a good fit for you, next up is Choosing or Using an Appropriate Dog.