Is Your Service Dog or Emotional Support Animal Registered?
There are tons of registries out there that promise to certify or register your service dog or your emotional support dog. The sad thing is that these registries are scams.
If you have a disability and your dog has been specially trained to mitigate your disability with hundreds of hours of training, your dog may have the necessary skills to be considered a service dog. The average service dog takes about 200 to -300 HOURS of training to be successful at the required manners in public. A Service Dog must have the best of the best behavior in public including no aggression towards people or other dogs, being invisible to the public in a public atmosphere or plane. Service dogs should never sniff the salad bar, or eat food off the floor. Heeling nicely next to his handler, not pulling is imperative. No service dog should be off a leash in a public environment UNLESS he is retrieving an object out of the reach of a leash. Service dogs should not sniff table, crotches of people or socialize. Their business is to work for their handler, not visit with the public. A really well trained service dog must have exceptional temperament and must not be afraid of ANYTHING including sudden noises, running children, unusually pops or even fireworks.
While an emotional support dog is not required to have the same training as a service dog, his manners must be impeccable in an airport or on a plane. While an emotional support dog does not have to be task trained to mitigate a disability, he should have a loving temperament, but not be reactive to other dogs or people. An ESA must be in control all the time when accompanying his owner. ESA’s are not allowed everywhere. They are ONLY given certain rights to live in public housing, and an ESA is allowed on some airlines.
Supposedly, the “registration” means to many that their dog is “official.” Unfortunately, that “official” status means the dog is only official to that registration which is essentially a way for some business to collect your money. There is no “official” registry for Service Dogs or ESA’s. Some states may have some requirements and it is your responsibility to know if your state does. But, by Federal Law, a fully trained service dogs does not have to be “registered”. Period.
