There is a lot of confusion about what determines a service dog. Most everyone is familiar with guide dogs for the visually impaired. But clearly there are many disabilities beyond impaired vision. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) states that a service dog is a dog that is individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability.

With so many people with physical and other disabilities, there are service dogs trained to do all sorts of tasks. Each dog and handler team are unique, as the disabilities vary and come in many levels. Mobility issues are very common. An assistance dog trained to help an individual perform everyday tasks can grant that individual an element of independence not possible otherwise.

Service dogs include (but are not limited to):

Guide dogs for the vision impaired.

Assistance dogs for the mobility impaired.

Hearing dogs for the hearing impaired.

Alert dogs for medical conditions.