According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service dog is a dog trained to do work or perform tasks to aid with their handler’s disability. Service dogs must be under control of their handler, potty trained, and task trained to accompany their handler in the public.

A service dog works for one person, their handler, to perform work or tasks to mitigate their handler’s disability. Due to this, service dogs are granted public access rights to accompany their handler anywhere the general public is allowed. Emotional support animals main purpose is to provide comfort for their handler, which does not require any specialized training. Emotional support animals do not have public access rights, however they are permitted in certain non-pet friendly housing under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Therapy dogs are specifically trained to aid and provide support to a variety of people and undergo an certification process. They do not have public access rights, although they will occasionally be welcomed into places such as hospitals or schools to provide therapy to the residents.

In the United States, there is no federal registration for service dogs. Service dogs go through extensive training before being considered fully trained, but the ADA states that they just have to be task trained, under control, and potty trained.

All dogs acquired without our assistance are required to go through an evaluation lesson before starting the program. If you already have a dog, we will assess them as a service dog candidate and let you know if they’re suitable for the job!

Ideally, you’ll reach out before you even have a dog! We can assist with selecting a puppy or evaluating older dogs to determine suitability. If you already have a dog in your care, the sooner we start training, the better! It’s never too early to reach out.

At this moment, Cosmic Service Dogs does not have any started or fully trained dogs ready for placement. In 2026, we hope to launch this portion of our program and offer started service dogs for future handlers! Check back in for updates on this program.

In-person lessons typically take place either in a public store or in your home. Depending on the dog’s skill level, we start with easy, pet friendly stores such as Lowe’s or Home Goods to work on public access skills. Locations are flexible based on the dog’s goals and the handler’s needs!

For our program, before graduating dogs to their fully trained title, we have a few requirements that will be visited at age appropriate times. First, service dogs in training must pass all three Canine Good Citizen testing - CGC, CGCA, and CGCU. Then they’re able to take Cosmic Service Dog’s Public Access Test (PAT). Once a dog has passed all of those items, we evaluate where our teams are at with task training. Before graduation, all teams must be able to demonstrate their non alert based tasks in an urban environment. After this assessment, they are considered a full graduated team. This entire process takes one to two years, depending on when you start training with us and what skill level your dog is at.