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Psychiatric service dog
Psychiatric Service Dog Assessment
A PSD is a dog trained to perform a specific task that reduces a symptom of a psychiatric disability. That training is what gives it rights an ESA doesn't have.
Free screening
See If You Qualify
- 10 minutes of questions, nothing to pay
- Reviewed by a mental-health professional licensed in your state
- Signed letter within 15 minutes of approval
- Declined? You are not charged for a letter
HIPAA-aligned · no card required
Read this page carefully before choosing this route, because the difference between a PSD and an ESA is not a matter of paperwork tiers. It is a matter of what the dog has been trained to do. If the dog has not been trained to perform specific tasks, no letter from anyone makes it a service animal.
What Counts as Task Work?
The task has to be a trained response to your disability. Examples that mental-health professionals and trainers recognize:
- Deep pressure therapy on cue or on detection of a panic response.
- Interrupting dissociation, flashbacks or a self-harm behavior by a trained physical prompt.
- Retrieving medication, water, or a phone during an episode.
- Guiding you to an exit or to a safe person when you are overwhelmed.
- Blocking or circling to create physical space in crowds, for hypervigilance.
- Room searches or a trained signal on entering a space, for post-traumatic stress.
- Waking you from a night terror, or prompting a medication routine at a fixed time.
What does not count, however much it helps: being present, being comforting, sensing your mood, or calming you simply by existing. The regulation says so in as many words — emotional support, comfort and companionship are not work or tasks.
What the Assessment Covers — and What It Doesn't
A mental-health professional can assess whether you have a psychiatric disability and whether trained task work would mitigate it, and can document that. A mental-health professional cannot assess your dog, certify its training, or issue anything that functions as a service dog credential — because no such credential exists in US law.
So the assessment produces documentation of the disability-related need for task work. The training itself is your responsibility, whether you work with a program or train the dog yourself, which the ADA permits.
Where a PSD Has Rights an ESA Does Not
- Public places. Shops, restaurants, hotels, transport, and most workplaces open to the public, under the ADA.
- Aircraft cabins. Service animals still travel; airlines may require the DOT form in advance, and may refuse a dog that behaves aggressively or is not under control.
- Housing. Same protections as an ESA, which is why we include a housing letter in the PSD fee rather than charging twice.
What You Take On
A service dog must be under your control at all times and housebroken. A business may lawfully exclude a dog that is out of control, and misrepresenting a pet as a service animal is a criminal offense in most states. The standard for public access work is high, and it should be.
Free to begin
Find out whether a mental-health professional licensed in your state supports a letter for you.
Choose the right route
ESA or PSD — Which Do You Need?
An ESA Letter, If…
- The problem you are solving is housing
- Your animal helps by being present
- Your animal is a cat, or a dog unsuited to public work
- You have no plan to undertake months of training
A PSD Assessment, If…
- Your dog performs, or is being trained for, specific tasks
- You need access to public places or air travel
- You are prepared for the training commitment involved
- Your dog is temperamentally suited to working in public
28 CFR § 36.104
The ADA definition of a service animal covers a dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a psychiatric disability, and states that the provision of emotional support, wellbeing, comfort or companionship does not constitute work or tasks. Everything about the PSD category follows from that sentence.
Check us yourself
Don't Take Our Word for It. Verify It.
We haven't published client reviews yet. Real ones, with written consent, or none at all — so here is the harder proof instead.
Look Up the License
Every letter carries the signing mental-health professional's license number, type and state. Every state board publishes a free public lookup.
Check the NPI Registry
Search the mental-health professional by name at npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov. It is a second, independent check.
Call Them Directly
The mental-health professional's own contact details are on your letter. Your landlord can verify with the person who signed it.
Ask Us to Say No
Mental-health professionals are paid for the assessment, not the approval. A provider that guarantees a yes is guaranteeing something worthless.
Why this page is empty of testimonials
A site whose whole argument is our documentation can actually be checked has no business publishing testimonials that cannot. When we have real reviews from real clients who have given written consent, they will appear here.
Licensed provider
The Mental-Health Professional Who Signs Your Letter
Every ESA and PSD assessment is conducted by a licensed mental-health professional. The professional who signs your documentation is identified below, with the means to verify the license.
Licensed provider
Dr. Jonathan Chance Miller, MD
Licensed Physician · Telehealth · ESA & PSD evaluations
An evaluation should feel like a conversation, not an interrogation. My job is to understand what you are living with and document it accurately — or to tell you plainly if an assistance animal is not the right answer.
Related Reading
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Legally Need a Letter for a Psychiatric Service Dog?
No. The ADA requires no documentation, certification or registration for a service animal, and a business may ask only whether the dog is required because of a disability and what task it is trained to perform. Documentation is useful in practice — for airlines, for housing providers and for your own records — but it is not a legal precondition to having a PSD.
What Does the Airline Need?
Airlines may require the Department of Transportation's service animal air transportation form, which you complete and submit in advance. It asks you to attest to the dog's training, health and behavior. It is not a mental-health professional's form, and no one can complete it on your behalf.
Can You Train My Dog, or Refer a Trainer?
We do not provide training and we do not take referral fees from trainers, which would compromise the assessment. Look for a trainer who follows the standards published by Assistance Dogs International or a comparable body, and who will let you speak to previous clients.
Can Any Breed Be a Psychiatric Service Dog?
Under the ADA the category is dogs, without breed restriction. Temperament and trainability matter far more than breed: the dog has to work reliably in public, around noise, crowds and other animals, without becoming reactive.
What if My Dog Is Not Suited to Task Work?
Then an emotional support animal letter is likely the honest route, and we will say so. Pushing an anxious or reactive dog into public access work is unfair to the dog and tends to end badly for both of you.
What Counts as a Trained Task?
A trained response to your disability — deep pressure on cue, interrupting dissociation, retrieving medication, guiding you to an exit, blocking in crowds. Comfort by presence is not a task.
Can You Certify My Dog as a Service Dog?
No, and neither can anyone else: no service dog credential exists in US law. A mental-health professional can document the disability-related need for task work; the training is your responsibility.
Can I Train the Dog Myself?
The ADA permits owner training. What matters is that the dog reliably performs specific trained tasks and behaves appropriately in public.
What Can a Business Ask Me?
Two questions only: whether the dog is required because of a disability, and what work or task it has been trained to perform.
Does a PSD Letter Include Housing Protection?
Yes, a housing letter is included at no extra cost, because the Fair Housing Act analysis applies to service dogs as well.
What Paperwork Do Airlines Want?
Airlines may require the Department of Transportation's service animal air transportation form, which you complete and submit in advance. It is not a mental-health professional's form.
What if My Dog Is Not Suited to Public Work?
We will say so, and an ESA letter is likely the honest route. Pushing a reactive dog into public access work is unfair to the dog.
Talk It Through Before You Commit to Training
The assessment covers both routes. If an emotional support animal letter is the more honest fit, the mental-health professional will tell you and you will be charged the lower fee.