Service Dogs and Doctors Letters (US)

One of the most asked questions I see when asking about what is needed for Service Dogs as far as paperwork is concerned. The answer is mixed depending on what the person is referring to. There are also what I refer to as best practices.

American Disability Act (ADA)

The ADA gives us the basic guidelines on what a service dog is defined as, and the basics for public access. The base requirements are:

• The handler must have a disability that is a "physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities".
• The dog must have a trained task that helps mitigate the above disability.
• The dog must be housebroken.
• The dog must always be under control.

So, how is a handler able to prove #1? The easy answer is they do not have to prove it while out in most circumstances. There are only 2 questions that can be asked:

• Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
• What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?

There is nothing within the ADA about having, let alone providing documentation from your licensed medical professional to any person asking to see it. As a matter of fact, the ADA FAQ answers this very well.


While not specifically noting any type of paperwork from a medical practitioner it is obvious that it can not be requested, as far as the ADA is concerned.

Fair Housing Act (FHA)

Many of us rent, live in a Condo type of home or live in a dreaded HOA area. First let me say please, if you are in a condo or HOA environment, do some research on specific laws within your state. May even want to give a lawyer a call.

As for the FHA, they group service dogs and emotional support animals in the same category "assistance animals".

"An assistance animal is an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person's disability. An assistance animal is not a pet."

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This means that what is required for an emotional support animal is also required for service dogs. The handler/owner could be required by the landlord to provide support information, such as a doctor's note (the most common), after making the request for "reasonable accommodations" from the landlord. The landlord is also allowed to call the medical professional to verify this note.

We have a good article on what the doctor's note should look like from Psychiatric Service Dog Partners (Service Dog Letter templates).

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

For those working and wishing to take their service dogs to work. The EEOC works under Title 1, which in short gives them room to ask the handler about anything they want to when approving or denying a service dog team access while at work. Most often the first thing they will ask for is a doctor's note and possible health records related to the need, but can extend to much more specific information. I have seen notes from trainers, training logs, veterinarian info on the dog, and even show-and-tell meetings.

Best Practices

Disclaimer: This is my opinion based on my experiences.

A note from the doctor should be a must, especially if you are like me and have no "visible" disabilities. I also encourage any type of documentation or evidence to show that your team is valid, this would include things like training logs, notes for completed training with trainers, shot records, certificates gained like CGC completion, and even video/pictures showing your dog tasking.

Now, I need to point out that I am not saying that you should have them on you, only filed under "just in case". Here is the reason why:

You might need them, and it is so much easier to pull them out of a file than to have to run down all the information you need.

We all, service dog teams, are just a small public access problem from being issued a court summons. With so many badly trained service dogs out there now and simply not trained pets it has become more common for law enforcement to simply let a judge decide.

I have been on both sides of the bench. Defending my team and proving the (non) validity of other teams. If it can be shown that your team is not valid then you had no right to be there in the first place with your dog, it tends to be a quick case, not in your favor. So how do you show the court your team is legitimate? Having the information, I mentioned above and knowledge of the laws for service dogs, both federal and local works wonders.

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