Service, Working, Therapy & Emotional Support Dogs

Dogs have supported and protected humans for thousands of years. Some dogs act as highly trained service animals, others earn their keep as working dogs, while therapy dogs and emotional support animals offer comfort. Although people often use these labels interchangeably, the jobs these dogs perform and the legal rights they receive are quite different. This guide explains the major categories, traces how breeding shaped the modern working dog, and celebrates the many ways dogs improve our lives.

What Do Service Dogs Do?

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), service dogs are individually trained to perform specific tasks for someone with a disability. Examples include guiding blind handlers, alerting deaf people to sounds, retrieving items for wheelchair users, interrupting self-harming behaviours in people on the autism spectrum, or recognizing the onset of a seizure or panic attack. Because their work directly mitigates a disability, service dogs have wide public-access rights: restaurants, stores, public transport and most other spaces must allow them and cannot charge extra fees. Handlers must keep their dog under control (usually on a leash or harness) and can be asked only two questions: whether the dog is required because of a disability and what tasks it has been trained to perform. Dogs in training are often called future service dogs; their access may vary by state, but the goal is to socialize them to real-world environments before they work independently.

Working Dogs

“Working dog” is an umbrella term for canines trained to perform practical roles that help humans. These include search-and-rescue dogs that locate missing people, explosive-detection dogs that alert handlers to dangerous materials, cancer-detection dogs whose noses can identify volatile chemicals associated with disease, and allergy-alert dogs trained to detect trace allergens. Herding, hunting, tracking and police dogs also fall under this category. Because they are usually on the job, working dogs should not be distracted by strangers.

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Schutzhund: A Demanding Working-Dog Sport

One specialized discipline within the working-dog world is Schutzhund, now formally called IGP. Developed in Germany as a standard to evaluate German Shepherds, the sport tests dogs in three phases: tracking, obedience and protection work. The German word “Schutzhund” literally means “protection dog,” and the sport assesses mental stability, scent-tracking ability, endurance, courage, trainability and the willingness to work. Although many breeds compete today, the goal remains to identify dogs with the intelligence and nerve required for police or protection duties. Schutzhund thus differs from the broader category of working dogs: not every working dog is a Schutzhund competitor, but every Schutzhund competitor is being tested for high-level working traits.

Breeding for Purpose: How Predatory Behaviour Became a Job

Deliberate breeding shaped the diversity of modern dogs. As people selected for particular skills, they modified the ancestral predatory sequence (stalk → chase → capture → kill → dissect). Some breeds retain early steps—stalking and pointing—without finishing the hunt. For example, bird dogs were bred to “freeze” and point at hidden birds, and retrievers were taught to carry game gently without destroying it. Herding breeds like Border Collies and Corgis use a modified prey drive to stalk and chase livestock without harming them. Terriers, bred for vermin control, retain the kill portion of the sequence. Selective breeding also lowered the prey drive in companion breeds such as the Bichon Frise, Maltese and Pug, making them content to lounge with humans rather than chase small animals. This purposeful breeding resulted in the wide range of specialized working and companion dogs we know today.

Modern Working Dogs & Companion Dogs

Some breeds still do the jobs they were developed for. Livestock guardians patrol pastures; police and military units employ German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois; and search-and-rescue teams rely on Bloodhounds, Labs and other scent hounds. At the same time, millions of descendants of these breeds now live as pets. The difference between a working dog and a companion dog isn’t simply breed—it’s function. Companion dogs provide company and may know basic commands like “sit,” “down” and “heel,” but they aren’t trained to perform a specific service. All dogs deserve training and exercise, but only those performing a defined job count as working dogs.

Therapy Dogs & Their Role

Unlike service dogs, therapy dogs are not trained to assist a specific handler. Instead, they visit hospitals, schools, hospices and nursing homes with their owners to provide comfort and affection. Good therapy dogs are calm, enjoy being touched and stay relaxed in new environments. Because they simply offer companionship, they have no special legal access rights under the ADA; their ability to enter public spaces depends on the policies of the institution they visit. Organizations such as the Alliance of Therapy Dogs screen animals for temperament, and many require passing the AKC Canine Good Citizen test.

Emotional Support Animals & Assistance Dogs

Emotional support animals (ESAs) comfort people with anxiety, depression or other psychological diagnoses. They are prescribed by a mental-health professional rather than trained for specific tasks. Because their role is simply to provide companionship, ESAs are not considered service animals under the ADA. They have limited rights—primarily reasonable accommodation in housing under the Fair Housing Act—and airlines are no longer required to transport them. The term “assistance dog” sometimes includes both service dogs and ESAs: service dogs perform defined tasks for a person with a disability, while ESAs provide emotional support through their presence.

Facility dogs are another category: these highly trained dogs work with professionals in hospitals, rehabilitation centers or courtrooms to assist clients. They remain in the facility where they work and do not have broad public access rights.

Celebrating Every Dog’s Purpose

Whether your goal is to have a polite family pet, train a high-drive protection dog, compete in dog sports or rely on a service dog to navigate daily life, every role deserves recognition. What matters is matching a dog’s temperament and abilities to a job, providing proper training and ensuring that both handler and dog enjoy the work. From Schutzhund competitors to gentle therapy dogs and lap-loving Pugs, dogs enrich human lives in countless ways. And if you’re wondering how many families share their homes with these companions, consider this: as of 2025, around 68 million American households share their homes with at least one dog — representing just over half of all U.S. households.

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