Service and Therapy Dogs in American Society: Science, Law and the Evolution of Canine Caregivers

You have lost a limb in combat and have recently acquired a dog trained to retrieve items for you and to help you move in and out of your wheelchair. Can you take the dog into the cabin of an airplane to fly with you? If your pit bull is a pet that has learned to alert you to oncoming seizures, can you move into an apartment building despite the fact the building s management has adopted a policy excluding pit bulls? You have a dog trained to protect your autistic child from running into traffic. Are expenses for the dog deductible for federal tax purposes? You want to obtain a service dog and you hear that a nearby prison has a program under which inmates train dogs. The cost for a prison-trained service dog is much less than what you would pay to a breeder that trains service dogs. Should you consider getting a dog trained by a prisoner?

This is the first book to look at the dramatic growth in the functions and numbers of service and therapy dogs and to describe how scientific and social acceptance is changing the laws that apply to these dogs.

John J. Ensminger is an attorney, writer, and
skilled dog advocate. He is a widely known and
requested speaker on tax law and financial issues,
the U.S.A. Patriot Act, and most recently on the
law and science of skilled dogs. He has been the
Chair of the Banking & Savings Institutions
Committee of the American Bar Association Tax
Section, editor in chief of the Journal of Taxation
and Regulation of Financial Institutions, an
adjunct professor, and a legal advocate for mental
patients civil rights. John and his dog Chloe are a
therapy dog team and regularly visit hospitals,
eldercare facilities, schools, libraries, and a cerebral
palsy institute. He reports on legal and scientific
issues affecting skilled dogs at doglawreporter.blog spot.com. John lives with his wife Joan
in Stone Ridge, New York, and Phoenix, Arizona.