Most people see what is and never see what can be

According to the American Disabilities Act, “Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability.”

Therapy dogs are dogs who receive different certifications to go with their owner to volunteer at places like schools, nursing homes, community events or hospitals in order to help provide comfort or improve the lives of those they are visiting. Different than service dogs who have their one specific person, therapy dogs work with many different people to provide psychological or physiological therapies. They provide love when someone needs it the most.