Making Your Dog Your ESA (Emotional Support Animal)

Making Your Dog Your ESA (Emotional Support Animal)

Dogs are natural ESAs (emotional support animals) and bring love and joy to people across the globe. If you have special needs which your dogs accommodate, it may be time to make your dog your official ESA.

While there’s no registrar for ESAs, there is a sort of qualification process that includes a letter from a licensed healthcare professional. This serves as proof that you need your friend at all times, sometimes even where pets are prohibited. This is common for illnesses such as bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression.

This is everything you need to make your dog your official ESA:

What is an ESA?

The name pretty much sums it up. An emotional support animal is there to provide emotional support as a means of treatment for a number of conditions, both physical and mental, ranging from arthritis to autism.

An ESA is allowed to do things regular dogs aren’t able to, like live in buildings that don’t allow dogs, or travel in the cabin during your flight in some cases.

Can any dog be an ESA?

While the lines are blurry for ESAs, the general rule is that any domestic animal can be an ESA. Once you can prove the need, and your dog won’t act put in public, then you should have no problems.

Advantages of ESAs

ESA dogs provide more than just love and attention. They also:

  • Reduce stress and anxiety
  • Create a routine
  • Decrease blood pressure
  • Improve mood
  • Treat trauma
  • Reduce feelings of loneliness

Are ESAs service dogs?

While ESAs and service dogs are a great help to humans, they function in different ways. ESAs are there to offer companionship and emotional support and require no special training. Service dogs, on the other hand, are specially trained to improve the quality of life for a disabled person, for example helping blind persons

Making it official

To make things official, get a letter from a licensed physician or mental health professional as proof of your condition. Be sure the letter includes the license number, signature, and date of signature. Note that it is illegal to falsify these documents in some states, and it won’t do you any good in the long run!

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