Learn About AAT - Difference between therapy pet and service animals

What is the difference between therapy animals and service animals?

Therapy Animals provide people with contact to animals, but are not limited to working with people who have disabilities. They are usually the personal pets of their handlers, and work with their handlers to provide services to people with developmental disorders, psychiatric disorders, physical disabilities, physical illnesses and behavioral / emotional problems.

Service animals include guide dogs for the blind; hearing dogs, that alert their owners to sounds; mobility assistance dogs, which may pull a wheelchair or directly support a person; seizure alert dogs; and others.

An animal is considered a "service dog" if it has been "individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability".