{"id":7531,"date":"2025-06-24T15:27:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T19:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/?p=7531"},"modified":"2025-06-24T15:27:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T19:27:43","slug":"service-animals-vs-therapy-animals-know-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/2025\/service-animals-vs-therapy-animals-know-the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Service Animals vs. Therapy Animals: Know the Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Service Animals vs. Therapy Animals: Know the Difference\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Service animals and dogs under the Carleton Therapy Dog Program<\/a> are permitted on campus under the <\/strong>Domestic Animals on Campus Policy<\/a> <\/strong>as part of Carleton\u2019s commitment to creating an inclusive and supportive community for students and staff alike. While both service and therapy animals play vital roles in supporting individuals on campus, they are here to fill distinct roles and have different levels of training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Service animals are working animals who function as a vital support system for persons with disabilities in their daily lives.<\/strong>\u00a0They are trained to perform specific tasks to assist individuals with disabilities, such as guiding those who are blind, alerting of an impending seizure, or providing physical\/emotional support.\u00a0 Service animals often wear a harness or a vest as a visual indicator of their function. At Carleton, they can be identified by the registration card worn by their owner\/handler as part of the\u00a0service animal registration process<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therapy animals<\/strong>, on the other hand, provide emotional and wellness support in settings like hospitals, nursing homes, and schools.\u00a0The Carleton Therapy Dog Program is designed to bring positive or \u201cpaws-itive\u201d mental health and wellness supports to the university community.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0The therapy dogs are handled by professional staff and faculty members at Carleton and can be identified by their red vests with the CU Therapy Dog logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basic Guidelines for Interacting with Service Animals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Respect the handler\u2019s right to privacy<\/strong>.\u00a0Never pry into a handler\u2019s privacy with questions about their disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember that service animals are working animals.<\/strong>\u00a0They are on-campus to perform a job and it is important that they are given the space and respect to do that job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always speak to the owner\/handler<\/strong>, not the service animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look for visual indicators<\/strong>\u00a0whether the animal is a \u201cservice\u201d or \u201ctherapy\u201d animal and act accordingly. If you are not sure, ask the owner\/handler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respect the space and boundaries<\/strong>\u00a0of a service animal and its handler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When encountering a service dog team on sidewalks or paths, always\u00a0give them the right-of-way.<\/strong>\u00a0This helps them navigate through pedestrian traffic smoothly. Never walk directly beside the service dog without the handler\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid offering food or treats to service animals<\/strong>\u00a0which will cause unnecessary distractions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Service animals and dogs under the Carleton Therapy Dog Program are permitted on campus under the Domestic Animals on Campus Policy as part of Carleton\u2019s commitment to creating an inclusive and supportive community for students and staff alike. While both service and therapy animals play vital roles in supporting individuals on campus, they are here to fill distinct roles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed","category-newsletter"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7532,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7531\/revisions\/7532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/pmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}