Choosing a service dog is a significant decision that involves careful thought about your specific needs, lifestyle, and the dog's abilities. The right match can greatly enhance your daily life, providing both independence and companionship. In this chapter, we’ll explore how to choose a service dog based on your individual needs, the types of training programs available, traits that make a good service dog, and how to ensure the dog’s temperament and personality align with your lifestyle.

Service dogs play a vital role in the lives of people with disabilities, offering independence, support, and companionship. In this chapter, we’ll explore what defines a service dog, how they differ from other types of assistance animals, the various roles they fulfill, and the legal rights they are entitled to in workplaces and educational environments.

In this episode, we take a bigger look on the Public Access test for service dogs.

When it comes to training a psychiatric service dog, the best course of action is to partner with a  professional dog trainer. 

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the many skills that

Proper PSD training serves two purposes: it ensures your service animal displays good manners at all times while in public places, and it also ensures that your service animal is able to perform a specific task or type of work that is directly related to your mental or emotional disability (a requirement for all PSDs).

Service (including PSDs), emotional support, and therapy dogs are three distinct types  of working dogs, so it’s important not to confuse them with one another. If you want to  know how the training, certification, and use of these different types vary, read  our service dog vs therapy dog vs emotional support dog article. Additionally, regularly  spending time with a dog can boost your health in many different ways. 

Here are some questions readers often ask about PSDs. 

A psychiatric service dogs (PSD) is a type of service animal specifically trained to  help people with mental illnesses and learning disabilities. PSDs have the same  legal rights as service dogs that assist people with physical disabilities.