Support Dogs

In Ontario the law does not protect the rights of people to own support dogs. A support dog is a dog that has legal ‘pet’ status, but is taught tasks and behaviors that will help mitigate a disability, give assistance/relief to a primary caregiver, and does not have a doctor’s note stating the dog is ‘required’ for public access.

The fact that Ontario law does not protect rights does not mean that it is illegal to own a dog as a support animal, or that they do not exist. It just means the laws to protect pets in Ontario are sufficient to protect support animals.

It does not mean that you cannot train a dog to do the same tasks as a service dog. It does mean that your dog does not have specialized training for public access.

We use the term ‘support dog’ to make it easy to differentiate between a srevice dog, and a dog trained to offer support at home, or where pets are allowed.

We will help you train your dog as a support animal, but we do not place the puppies we raise as support animals in homes. A service dog that washes out may be placed ‘as a trained pet’ in a home.

If you take our classes without a doctor’s note, you may not enroll in any public access class. There is no law requiring training, but training can substantially expand your dog’s tasks and abilities.

There is no such designation as a registered or certified support dog in Canada. Anyone telling you such is committing fraud. No law defines a support animal, or requires it to be certified or registered.

There are housing laws in Ontario that protect your rights for ‘all’ pets. There is no need to make extra laws for support animals.

As of 2019 all dogs are allowed on restaurant patios.

There are laws coming into place soon that will outline fines for taking a fake service dog, or a supportt dog, into public, or representing it as a service dog.

We will not help you train a support dog to protect you or offer guarding duties.

If you are still interested please view our ‘how to train a service dog page‘