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.