Frye book opie en

Is there a difference between a therapy dog and a service dog?

Hi! my name is Opie.

I once was a service dog in training, but now I am a therapy dog.

Do you know the difference between a service dog and a therapy dog?

That’s ok; a lot of people don’t!

Why don’t you sit down next to me and I’ll explain the difference 

A service dog helps someone for medical reasons.

That person can be in a wheelchair, and their service dog helps them pick up dropped objects on the floor, open and close doors‌

turn lights on or off, gets the phone and brings it to their owner‌, because the person in the wheelchair has a hard time doing these things on their own.

Other service dogs help people that have either diabetes, or seizures. A dog can sense when something is about to happen before the person even knows it! So they will alert the person that it’s time to take their medication or lie down.

And sometimes, service dogs help autistic children or veterans.

You see, a service dog goes on to help ONE person with a visible or invisible disability with their day to day functioning.

A service dog is trained to accomplish certain specific tasks to help their handler.

For example, Eva is trained to alert her owner by placing her paw up on her owner’s knee (and scratching it) when she detects anxiety.

A therapy dog on the other hand, is a mild mannered, attention loving, family pet, who goes on to visit MANY MANY people in his job.

They can either visit the sick at the hospital or the lonely at a nursing home.

Ooooh ear rubs – my favourite! A little bit to the left, no, to the right! Aaaah, right there!

They can visit Universities during exam time‌

or go to school and be a reading buddy to a child.

A therapy dog helps llllots of people in little ways, whereas a service dog helps one individual in a BIG way. That’s the main difference between a service dog and a therapy dog. But we all have a job to do that helps people along the way.

Another difference is that because service dogs helps someone with a disability, service dogs are seen kind of like medical equipment, similar to crutches or a wheelchair‌ something that the person relies on to help them get around.

In order to do that, service dogs have to accompany the person everywhere.

For that, they have the right to accompany their owners in public places where normal dogs wouldn’t be allowed – in stores, restaurants or airplanes for example.

Therapy dogs do not have the right to be out in a public place where other dogs are not allowed, EXCEPT

BY INVITATION ONLY. So, if we are out to do a reading activity with kids, then we can enter the library or school because they invited us to be there.

It is veeeery important when you see a service dog out in public, not to touch them or distract them when they are working.

Because they are considered medical aids, would you walk up to someone on crutches and start patting and talking to their crutches? NOOOOO!

The same goes for a service dog. It is important that they not be distracted while they do their jobs because their owner depends on them to be focused and to help out.

Now that you know the difference between a therapy dog and a service dog, will you tell your friends and parents about it?

Reading is PAWsome!