Archive for the ‘Emotional Support Animal’ Category
An emotional support animal (ESA) can help manage your emotional or mental health condition. They provide comfort and affection when you need it the most. But an ESA can’t come with you into “no pets allowed” areas — except where you live — and airlines no longer allow emotional support animals to fly as pets. A psychiatric service dog (PSD), however, can do all the above and more. If you’re looking at your emotional support animal and wondering if it is possible to make it a psychiatric service dog, here’s what you need to know.
Emotional Support Animal versus Psychiatric Service AnimalAn emotional support animal is an important part of dealing with a person’s emotional or mental health condition. An ESA owner possesses supporting documentation — an ESA letter — from a licensed mental health professional indicating the individual’s needs an ESA for their mental health. An ESA does not require any formal training; it just needs to offer comfort to its owner in times of need.
An ESA is safeguarded by federal laws, particularly the Fair Housing Act (FHA), enabling ESAs to live with their handlers, even in housing with policies prohibiting pets. However, an ESA can’t accompany their handler outside the home into places that don’t allow pets.
On the other hand, a psychiatric service dog receives extensive training to perform specific tasks for its handler. Unlike an ESA, a PSD may accompany its owner wherever the public is allowed. These areas include movie theaters, parks, and shopping malls. Federal laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Air Carrier Access Act enable a PSD to reside and travel with their handler, even in instances where pets aren’t typically allowed.
Can an Emotional Support Animal become a Psychiatric Service Dog?It depends. First, only a canine qualifies as a psychiatric service dog. As cute, cuddly, and warm as a hamster, cat, or rabbit is as an ESA, they cannot qualify as a PSD. If your dog is an ESA, it may be possible to qualify for a PSD but it requires significant effort.
Qualifying Your ESA Dog to Become a PSDFirst, evaluate your situation. Are there any essential tasks you need a service dog to perform for you? How could your condition or quality of life improve if this task were done for you? Is this task something your emotional support dog could be trained to do? Is the task needed to assist with your mental health disability?
Then, evaluate your dog. Your dog might be excellent at giving affection and playing catch, but is your emotional support dog eager to learn and easy to train? Can it readily follow commands, be friendly with strangers, and be tolerant of other animals? All service dogs must be on their best behavior, especially in public areas, and not every dog has the capacity to maintain the required composure or perform complicated service dog jobs. Make an honest assessment of your needs and your emotional support dog and decide if it’s up for the task of becoming a psychiatric service dog.
Train Your DogThe primary factor that sets a psychiatric service dog apart from an emotional support animal is the service dog training regarding your emotional or mental health disability. Most service dogs go through months — sometimes years — of daily training to become safe and effective service dogs. For your ESA to qualify as a psychiatric service animal, it must undergo the same training and perform its assigned service dog job.
In addition to training your dog to perform its tasks, a service dog must also have public access training. Public access training ensures that your dog will exhibit the behavior it needs to be a service dog. Because service dogs are welcome to follow their handlers into public areas, they must maintain safe and controlled behavior. Despite performing its service tasks well, if the dog exhibits aggressive or disruptive behavior, a service dog may be asked to leave the area. A service dog can’t do its job if it’s not safe in public. Public access training teaches dogs to exhibit calm behavior, even when faced with crowds, other dogs, noises, or busy streets.
For an emotional support animal to qualify as a psychiatric service dog it must undergo strict task-based and public access training. Obtain a Psychiatric Service Dog LetterA psychiatric service dog letter is authored and endorsed by a licensed healthcare professional and addresses whether a person has a qualifying disability for the purposes of a owning a psychiatric service dog. A PSD letter gives owners peace of mind and documentation regarding their mental health disability. Other optional steps for fully qualified PSD owners include obtaining ID cards, registrations, certificates and other service dog accessories.
Having a Psychiatric Service DogOnce your ESA fully finishes training to become a psychiatric service dog, your new psychiatric service dog can accompany you anywhere the public can go, including areas where pets aren’t allowed.
Emotional support animals (ESA) help individuals to overcome mental health challenges. Other people may only see a pet, but an emotional support animal fulfills the valuable role of supporting the handler in mastering life’s challenges that others might take for granted.
Is an Emotional Support Animal for you?If you have a mental disability — such as depression, anxiety, or other psychological disorder — you may qualify for an emotional support animal. It is well documented that ESAs provide a therapeutic benefit through comfort and companionship. To qualify for an emotional support animal, you need to obtain an ESA letter. Talk to your licensed health care professional or, if your therapist is unavailable or out of state, connect with one through an online service, such as ESA Doctors.
Pets versus Emotional Support AnimalsOn a general level, pets provide a special beneficial relationship. The Human-Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) has collected scientific evidence, which shows how pets positively influence human lives. Pets can encourage social interaction. Pet owners are more likely to get to know their neighbors and have positive relationships than individuals who don’t own a pet. Pets can contribute to a healthy life by improving physical health, decreasing stress levels, and providing companionship.
Emotional support animals, however, have a very specific and essential task.
Difference between service dogs, emotional support animals, and therapy dogs. An Emotional Support Animal is More Than a PetMore than pets, ESAs are required to serve a vital therapeutic purpose. ESAs allow people with emotional and mental health challenges to accomplish life activities that they would otherwise be unable to do. But, as opposed to a psychiatric service dog, an emotional support animal is not trained to perform a specific task.
Given the importance of the human-animal bond, it’s not hard to imagine how emotional support animals can improve the quality of life for a person suffering from a mental health issue or disability.
Emotional support animals serve a particular therapeutic purpose by helping with emotional and mental health issues.
Mental Health HelpBefore the value of emotional support animals can be explained, the importance of a person’s healthy mental well-being needs to be recognized. Mental health affects a person’s life as a whole. Not addressing these mental health concerns can cause problems at work, school, with friends, or even with family. Ignoring mental health issues can also compromise physical health in the long run by raising blood pressure, increasing heart rate, and causing muscle tension.
Inadequate mental health can leave a person feeling lonely, drained, and defeated, unable to perform daily tasks that others take for granted. For example, a person may experience anxiety, making them unable to travel or be in social situations. Illnesses such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can cause insomnia, causing someone to be unable to obtain adequate sleep. Mental concerns can have a sweeping negative impact on a person’s life.
Emotional Support Dog helps to keep a positive outlook on life. Benefits of an Emotional Support AnimalFor people trying to overcome mental health issues, every little triumph can help on the way to recovery. Emotional support animals can offer support on the path to healing.
Numerous studies have documented how ESAs can be part of the wellness plan for mental health issues and other disorders. Emotional support animals have been essential in helping people manage disorders such as:
Anxiety Depression Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) Agoraphobia (fear of being outside of the home) Aerophobia (fear of flying) General Anxiety Disorder Stress-induced situations Social shyness.Get the Love and Support you deserve!
Anxiety and PTSDAnxiety can be difficult to overcome without assistance. For those whose anxieties include phobias, anxiety can make everyday tasks impossible to accomplish. Emotional support animals are useful for anxiety and specific phobias. The ESAs provide a sense of comfort and safety, enabling patients to face and overcome those phobias. For instances:
Individuals who tend to have anxiety attacks when traveling often feel calmer in the presence of an Emotional Support Animal. Hospitalized patients with serious medical diagnoses have been shown to experience a decrease in anxiety when able to interact with an ESA. In courtrooms, Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals are used to provide victims some security while they are testifying against their alleged assailant.Many therapists utilize Emotional Support Animals for veterans who have PTSD. A Pairing Assistance-Dogs with Soldiers (PAWS) study demonstrated that dogs significantly reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress in veterans. Veterans with Service or Emotional Support Dogs reported improved interpersonal relationships with others, fewer instances of depression, and fewer instances of substance abuse than veterans without dogs.
An emotional support cat offers comfort and healing. DepressionIn the case of depression, emotional support dogs can save a life. In instances of severe depression, a person may be unable to perform daily activities, or they may have feelings of suicide. There is scientific evidence that a human-animal bond can be a protective factor against suicide and depression. An ESA for depression can improve mood, increase sociability, and promote responsiveness to others in cases of depression.
Beyond PricelessAn emotional support animal — a dog, cat, or any other animal — serves a specific and valuable service for the people they accompany. More than pets, ESAs serve a particular therapeutic purpose by helping deal with emotional and mental health issues. Understanding the therapeutic value of emotional support animals can lead to their increased acceptance into society.
If you’re lucky enough to have an obedient, social, and intelligent emotional support animal (ESA) with a calm temperament, you may have a potentially ideal service dog. Training your ESA to become a service dog isn’t an easy endeavor—it takes work and dedication to make an ESA into a service dog, but it can flourish into a rewarding journey in the long run. This article will discuss important points to consider before starting your emotional support dog’s transition to becoming a certified service dog.
Steps to Making your ESA a Service Dog Determine if you need a psychiatric service dog or a mobility service dog. Make sure that your dog is the right size and or breed for your disability. If your disability is psychological, your dogs size/breed may be smaller than if you required support with mobility. Train your dog to perform a task to aid in your disability. The task doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult, it just has to be right for you. Travel with your service dog out in the world! If you’d like, order a Service Dog ID card for your personal convenience and register online. Register your service dog here. Does Your ESA Have the Qualities of a Service Dog?Before you begin to train your ESA, you’ll need to evaluate their qualities from an objective point of view. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
1. Is your ESA the right breed?Depending on what tasks you’ll need your potential service dog to do, the breed and size matter. Determine whether your ESA is the right fit to perform the tasks you need. For example, a bulk of your requirements might have to do with bracing and mobility, which calls for a larger dog breed. If your ESA is a chihuahua, it will not fulfill the job’s requirements, no matter how obedient or intelligent your small dog is. However, if your needs are psychological a small breed might be the perfect fit.
2. Does your ESA learn quickly?Though an ESA might have the capacity to learn basic commands, a service dog must go above and beyond the typical “sit” and “stay” commands. Because service dogs in training spend so much of their time learning, only exceptionally intelligent, enthusiastic, and observant dogs can maintain the pace needed to become a service dog.
Dogs that are bright and eager to please typically are ideal to become service dogs, as they have the natural desire to pay attention for hours at a time. Service dogs spend the rest of their lives following commands for long periods of time. Asking a dog who doesn’t enjoy performing tasks day in and day out isn’t healthy for the ESA or the handler.
An intelligent ESA that naturally enjoys performing tasks will most likely lead to a happy service dog and handler.
3. Is your ESA social with other people and animals?Emotional support animals aren’t typically allowed in areas that prohibit pets. Service dogs, however, can follow their handlers wherever the public can go. This means that service dogs are exposed to many strangers and animals, and safety becomes a concern. An ESA that’s naturally friendly and tolerant of strangers and animals makes an ideal candidate for a service dog.
4. Does your ESA have a calm temperament?Service dogs have to maintain a calm demeanor, even when their surroundings are loud or chaotic. For most dogs, remaining steady and focused in new or disruptive surroundings is a challenge. They cannot be distracted by others and should not bark (unless barking is part of a task). But if your ESA is naturally calm and doesn’t become agitated, you might have an emotional support dog with the potential to become a service dog.
To make an emotional support animal into a service dog, the dog must meet the requirements needed to perform tasks the handler needs assistance with. Training a Service DogOnce you have confirmed that your emotional support dog has the qualities needed for a service dog, and you’ve determined what tasks you need your service dog to perform, it’s time to begin the training. Training involves two parts:
Teaching the Public Access Test requirements, which determines if dogs can remain in public areas without disrupting their environment. Training for specific tasks geared at addressing the disabilities of the handler. Turning Your ESA Into Your Service DogYou have a number of options when training your ESA. The easiest but most costly option is to hire a professional. Your dog may be away in training for a while, but you’ll have a solid, obedient service dog once the training is complete.
Alternatively, you can choose to train your ESA yourself entirely. This option is the most cost-effective—and most involved—choice. And while it will take up a chunk of your time and patience, the bond between your dog and you, as well as his responsiveness towards your commands, will be stronger.
You can also choose to hire a trainer for parts of the training—like the Public Access Test—and train your dog yourself for the other, more individualized portions.
Whichever path you select, keep a training log to document your dog’s progress. A training log can help hone in on your dog’s strengths and weaknesses and provide proof of training should the needs or documentation arise.
Know Your Service Dog LawsOnce your ESA has mastered all the training needed and has become a certified service dog, they can escort you into public areas like parks, malls, areas where pets and ESAs are not allowed, and on all flights. However, they must apply to the following rules:
A service dog must be under the command of their handler at all times. A service dog cannot display signs of aggression. A service dog cannot disturb the normal functioning of the places they are in.And be aware, an establishment may ask the handler to remove the service dog from the area if the dog is out of control. Each state may also have additional service dog laws, so it’s safest to inquire about the laws for the state you’re in.
Turning an ESA into a service dog is like having the best of both worlds. A person can have their closest healing companion physically assist them with their disability. Training an ESA to become a service dog may take time and work, but the results are worthwhile!
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