10 Types of Emotional Support Animals
The concept of having an emotional support or service animal is still taboo for many people. They are not ready to accept the fact that animals can help humans in so many ways. We need to get that the concept of emotional support animals is logical and makes sense.
Many people find dogs very friendly and consider them as their best friends. You need to know that these canines can read our facial expressions and body language. They can also feel the distress a human around them is going through.
When it comes to getting an ESA, many people have no idea about the procedure and are unaware of the terminologies like ESA letter.
Here we will discuss all the types of emotional support animals and how a person can legally get such an animal.
- Hospital/Recovery Therapy Dogs
Many hospitals across the world and specifically in the U.S., have pet therapy sessions. These sessions are a significant part of their daily operations. In hospitals, victims of horrible accidents come in daily. Many of them suffer from post-traumatic effects. To help them in this regard, they are made to interact with the therapy dogs.
- Patients With Mental Illnesses
A therapy known as Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is proved to help patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Particularly dogs, known as humans best friends, help to fight people with such conditions.
Human and animal interaction’s low demands proved to reduce anxiety more effectively than other traditional therapeutic methods.
You need to know that not just dogs, but cats, hamsters, and many other animals are used in AAT sessions. All these cat breeds animals are certified esa and have an authentic emotional support animal letter.
- Post Disaster Therapy Dogs
Therapy dogs’ services are often taken to help the victims who have witnessed a terrifying event and have post-traumatic stress disorder.
These dogs are very much the same as therapy dogs use in hospitals. Such emotional support dogs are not as such trained for a particular purpose. The dog breeds used for this purpose are
The golden retrievers are one of the most commonly used post-disaster therapy dogs.
- Pups in Prison
The concept of allowing dogs and norwegian forest cat in prison is now being practiced in many prisons and jails across the world. Different prisons partner with varying shelters of animals for dog training programs.
These programs work in such a way that the prisoners work with the dogs. They socialize with them and teach the necessary obedience skills to them. The dogs are then adopted through their original shelter.
Such programs help in dog adoption and help the prisoners stay motivated and do something productive.
- Reading Therapy Dogs
Therapy dogs that are trained to listen to kids read books are helping reluctant readers develop confidence. This is a fun and creative way to motivate children to the library and make a reading habit.
The kids enjoy the company of the dogs. Also, dogs love to be around kids. This friendly environment helps children fight anxiety and overcome insecurities.
- Wartime Companionship
Deployment in a war zone is the most challenging time for the soldiers. In such situations, the governments usually arrange dog companionship programs to keep the soldiers motivated and relieved from the stress.
These animals not only help our heroes in the war zone, but they also help them readjust to life back home after combat.
- Post-War Companionship
As mentioned earlier, the war zone companion dogs assist the wounded and emotional support for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders and depression.
In most cases, former soldiers often experience the trauma of the war zone they had just come from. This stress makes them fall into depression, which slowly leads to some serious mental illnesses.
Many dog shelters provide trained emotional support animals for such soldiers to help them get back to everyday life. Such sufferers can keep these dogs for as long as they want. They only need to get an official esa letter for housing, since pets are not allowed in many residential areas.
- Juvenile Detention Center Therapy Dogs
We have seen that most of the teens in detention centers have been through trauma and painful relationships before entering such centers.
In such cases, the therapy dogs are brought in to provide teens with unconditional empathetic non-verbal, and much-needed emotional support. The kind of unconditional love dogs can provide to them is a total game-changer in such conditions.
- Air Travel Stress and Anxiety
There are so many people out there who stress out quickly when they have to do air travel. The PUPS (Pets Unstressing Passengers) program at LAX is easing air travel in a variety of ways. Emotional support animals and their handlers roam through the departures levels in the gate areas of each terminal. If they see a passenger waiting for a flight, in a state of distress, they communicate with the person in a friendly way. The ESA with them provides them comfort, whereas, the handler offers them airport information.
- ESA in Colleges and Universities
There are many colleges and universities that allow students to bring along their therapy dogs. They just need to carry an official emotional support dog letter with them to avoid any lame restrictions.
For students, the stress of an academic career is greater than any other stress in the world. To help them avoid this stress, the educational institutes are now introducing this concept of bringing along the pets for emotional support.
You may get your hypoallergenic dogs certified as an esa dog. You just need to get an official letter for it. Getting that letter is no big deal. In case you have no idea about what that letter looks like, look for an esa letter online and you will understand the concept right away.
Related Resources:
StepWise Guide To Become A Responsible ESA Dog Parent
Useful Advice For Pet Dog Owners