The Difference Between a Service Dog, a Therapy Dog, and Emotional Support Animals.

Free trained service dog candidate with enrollment of training from Balanced Obedience. Fill out the prospective owner form for more information.

Service Dogs

Service dogs are individually trained to perform a task or tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability. Tasks include retrieving, leading, pulling, providing balance, or alerting. In some instances, dogs may be trained to address psychiatric issues. Service dogs can accompany their owner/handler to almost every business or venue that serves the public.

We offer service dog training.

Therapy Dogs

Therapy dogs are trained to provide comfort to persons in retirement homes, nursing homes, hospice settings, and hospitals. They also visit disaster areas to provide affection and comfort to persons experiencing extreme stress, depression, and grief related to a time of great tragedy or loss. Additionally, therapy dogs are becoming more and more widely accepted for use in schools and other educational or therapeutic settings that work with children with special needs. Therapy dog teams do not enjoy the public access rights of a service dog team.

Emotional Support Animal

An emotional support animal is a term associated with a pet that provides therapeutic benefit to its owner through companionship and affection. Emotional support animals do not perform the duties associated with a service dog and do not enjoy the public access rights of a service dog team.

We DO NOT offer emotional dog training at this time.