Though any animal can make a contribution to its owner’s physical and mental health, service dogs usually are trained to help with specific tasks like guiding and balance. For some of them, however, improving their owners’ mental health is the service they provide.

Since the 1990s, dogs have been trained to help people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They wake their owners out of nightmares, nudge them if they start to drive too fast, look out for them in crowded rooms, or warn them if someone behind them gets too close. Dogs’ sensitivity to the moods of humans – something that’s been bred into them for hundreds of years – equips them for these jobs. According to the AW2 (Army Wounded Warrior) blog, dogs have even been known to sense seizures, nightmares or flashbacks in their owners before they started.

On a more everyday level, dogs give simple companionship and a calming presence. They also can get their owners up, out of the house, and following a daily routine.

The U.S. military has taken up this idea and now is training dogs for the job and assigning them to combat veterans with PTSD. It’s a careful process that involves matching the dog to the person. Some veterans, instead of getting their own dogs, spend time with ones that are brought to them by their handlers.

In a twist on this story, one Marine veteran brought home a dog he’d found as a stray puppy in Iraq – and was told by a vet that the dog had PTSD. This brought him to question his own behavior with the dog and to realize that they both needed help.

It seems even when they’re suffering themselves, dogs can point the way for humans.

“No pets – service animals only.” We see variations of these words on signs everywhere. They sound pretty straightforward, but sometimes there’s confusion over exactly what they mean.

In the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) sets the rules for service animals, their owners, and the people who deal with them. This law says, among other things:

• A “service animal” is defined as any “animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability”. They don’t have to be officially licensed or certified – so business owners can’t ask for proof that they’re really service animals. They can’t ask for proof that the owner is really disabled, either.
• Businesses have to allow disabled people to bring their service animals in with them – though only in the places customers normally go. (Nobody wants a dog in a restaurant kitchen after all.)
• The animal’s owner, not the business, is responsible for its behavior while they’re there.
• However, the owner can’t be charged extra for bringing the animal in, even if it makes more work.
• Service animals and their owners can’t be segregated from other customers. The flip side of this is that they’re not entitled to special seating or free pet food either.
• If the animal is a threat to people’s health and safety, it can be kept out.
• Does this mean people with allergies to pets are entitled to an animal-free environment? The jury is still out on that one.
• If the animal is kept out, the owner is still legally free to come back without it. Of course, the owner may be physically unable.
• A service animal can be kept out for causing “a fundamental alteration to the nature of the business” – which sounds extreme, but could be just something like a dog barking at the movies.

More information is available here.

There are disabilities that make a person need the help of an animal – and disabilities that require a person to stay away from animals. At least, that will be true if the Canadian Transportation Agency decides to count allergies as a disability.

The question has come up because of Air Canada’s and WestJet’s recent decisions to allow small pets in the cabins of its planes. The CTA is looking into complaints against the two airlines and may end up ordering them to put all animals except service animals back in the cargo bay.

Of course, fur is fur, and service dogs are just as likely to set off an allergic reaction as plain old pet dogs and cats. So, what should be done if an allergy sufferer books the same flight as someone who can’t get around safely without a guide dog?

The Canadian Lung Association suggests the allergy sufferer should have a choice between staying on the flight with the animal or switching to another – at the airline’s expense. There’s no word yet on how the airlines feel about this. Probably they’ll have to accommodate the disabled passengers, even if they lose money by it – and probably they won’t be willing to lose money to accommodate passengers who simply prefer to have their pets with them.

Also, this would give priority to the service dog and its owner. Maybe that’s an unspoken admission that being blind, deaf, or unable to balance is worse than being allergic to animal fur and, therefore, deserves more consideration. Yet, in the United States, a business legally can keep a service animal out if it threatens the health or safety of people or even if it’s disruptive (as when a dog barks during a movie).

It’s going to take time to think this one through.