Answer a few questions based on your PSD needs
Access your 15 online training lessons led by a certified dog trainer.
Receive your PSD training certificate upon course completion
1. We Guarantee Our Training Program Will Work For You.
We believe you should not have to worry about the legitimacy of a psychiatric service dog training program. That is why Pettable offers a satisfaction guarantee – you will be satisfied with your PSD training program within the first seven days or 100% of your money back.
2. Created By a Certified Service Dog Trainer.
Our program curriculum is written and led by a professional dog trainer specializing in psychiatric service dog training, ensuring your pet will have the skills it needs to support your needs.
3. Unparalleled Customer Support
Training your pet to become a psychiatric service dog may be stressful at times, which is why we've invested in a team of support specialists dedicated to making sure you always have access to the support you need.
Our customer service team is available to speak with you 7 days a week from 9 AM-5 PM ET.
Call us: 855-920-0323.
4. Best In Class Legal Support
Our services are fully compliant with psychiatric service dog laws in all 50 states. It is illegal for your landlord to deny your PSD accommodation, outside of extenuating circumstances. PSD's are not required to have a letter provided by a mental health professional for housing or travel rights. We can still connect you with a licensed mental health professional to provide you a PSD letter if requested.
However, some landlords will choose to illegally deny your legitimate PSD letter. In these situations, your mental health professional can provide additional support and verification to your landlord.
5. Evidence-Based & Reviewed By A Mental Health Professional
Our training includes evidence-based methods for supporting mental health disabilities with psychiatric service dog work tasks including deep pressure therapy (DPT) and providing tactile stimulation to support the interruption of panic attacks, self-harm, and other symptoms.
Lisa will help take the guesswork out of self-training your own psychiatric service dog by guiding you in mastering basic obedience training, public access training and personalized psychiatric service dog work tasks. Learn more about Lisa and the PSD training program below!
A psychiatric service dog (PSD) helps alleviate symptoms of a person's mental or psychiatric disability, similar in many ways to an emotional support animal (ESA.) Psychiatric service dogs and service animals are accepted on all airlines (subject to a few rules and with complete paperwork), in all housing units and in all public places.
Psychiatric service dogs and service animals are trained to react to their handler’s physical and emotional state, performing specific tasks to intervene in behavior and ease symptoms caused by a disability – overall increasing their handler’s quality of life. These tasks may include anything from clearing a room for a person struggling with PTSD or performing deep pressure therapy when their handler displays signs of an oncoming panic attack.
Training a Psychiatric Service Dog is certainly no walk in the park, but we strive to make it just as enjoyable through our self-paced, online PSD training program. Here are a few tips that, when paired with each lesson guided by our certified psychiatric service dog trainer, will help bring out your pet’s full PSD potential.
1. Your pet’s health is key
Psychiatric service dog training relies on your understanding of your dog’s body language, which may be impacted if your pet is struggling with a sickness, injury or disease. To ensure your psychiatric service dog can complete training and best tend to your daily needs, bring your pet to the vet for a full check-up before beginning the PSD training program.
2. Go slowly
Just like the rest of us, it takes time, repetition and a few mistakes along the way for your pet to get used to the new skills you are teaching it. Psychiatric service dog training can vary in length based on your schedule, your preferred pace, your dog’s ability not to get overwhelmed and your pet's level of obedience when beginning training. Be sure you are patient with both yourself and your pup to get the best results.
3. Your dog is always learning
Whether your dog is a psychiatric service dog or just a pet, it is always learning. Paying close attention to both your dog’s actions and your actions when around your dog to ensure you are reinforcing positive behavior is key to your dog’s willingness to engage in psychiatric service dog training tasks. Remember, treats are key!
To qualify for a psychiatric service dog, you must have a psychological condition or mental illness for which your dog is trained in a task to assist you. A common service dog task is deep pressure therapy (DPT). Similar to the benefits of a weighted blanket, you can train your psychiatric service dog in DPT to help alleviate symptoms of your anxiety. Any mental or emotional disability that qualifies for an ESA can qualify for a psychiatric service dog, including:
This includes:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Phobias
- Personality Disorders
- Bipolar Disorder
- ADHD
- Schizophrenia
The therapeutic effects dogs can have on humans have been heavily researched, and the impacts they can have on mental health, well-being and longevity are dramatic. Over 74% of pet owners report mental health improvements due to interactions with their animals, and studies have shown that service animal companionship can effectively treat mental disorders like PTSD.
An emotional support animal is very similar to a psychiatric service animal in that they both help relieve symptoms of a mental or emotional disability. The process for qualifying for an ESA or PSA is exactly the same, and while the standards for the dogs are different, the list of mental and emotional disabilities that qualify for a psychiatric service animal are identical.
The big difference between a Psychiatric Service Dog and Emotional Support Dog is the standard of training they need to meet. An emotional support dog does not need to meet any training or behavioral standards, the only requirement is verification from a mental health professional that the animal’s handler would have their quality of life increased by possessing an ESA. Requirements for a Psychiatric Service Dog are more rigid, and the animal must the following criteria:
Psychiatric Service Dog Requirements:
1. Behave well in public
This means your PSD cannot jump on other people, chase other dogs, pee where they're not supposed to, excessively bark or generally disturb others while sticking by your side when in public.
2. Be trained in a task that alleviates a symptom of your mental or emotional disability
A Psychiatric Service Dog must be able to perform tangible tasks that help your disability in some way, whether that means reducing your anxiety, relieving your stress, reminding you to take medication or a variety of other tasks.
Pettable is the best provider because we're committed to making sure the process works for you. That means working with the best and most experience mental health professionals in the psychiatric service dog letter space, as well as providing a guarantee that your letter will work for you. We back all of this up with outstanding customer support, a renowned legal team, and a commitment to making sure you have an incredible experience.
Online Psychiatric service dog training programs can be a convenient and cost-effective option for individuals who prefer to train their service dog at their own pace. Our PSD training program is led by Lisa Gallegos, a certified dog trainer who has helped hundreds of pups and their parents live more peaceful and fulfilled lives together.
After going through our 3 minute quiz to assess your PSD needs, you will receive immediate access to our PSD training program with professional support and guidance on how to train your dog from the comfort and convenience of your home.
At Pettable, we understand at a personal level the positive impact an animal can have on your life.
meet the team
The Dog Owner Scholarship is a $1,000 scholarship that's open to all students who currently or have ever owned a dog. The deadline to apply is December 1, 2022, and winners will be announced on December 15, 2022.
Here at Pettable, we love dogs. We believe dogs are family, and students that have or previously had a dog know how important they can be in our lives. We want to recognize the dog parents in school, so we're offering the Pettable Dog Owner Scholarship to help.
Dogs provide us with comfort and emotional support and encourage us to live active lives and take care of something beyond ourselves. They make excellent companions while in school, and we believe they deserve recognition for all they do in our lives. We encourage all of the student dog owners to apply!
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