If you want to board a flying with your psychiatric service dog or service canis familiaris, this article will explain the one document y'all need for all airlines.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Transportation completely updated its rules for assistance animals on flights. The new rules essentially banned emotional support animals from flights but still allow for service dogs and psychiatric service dogs to board, as long every bit their owners employ a newly created federal form.

If you programme to fly with a service dog or psychiatric service canis familiaris, you lot must at present complete and submit the DOT's Service Animal Air Transportation Grade to your airline before boarding. Passengers who can complete this course can board the cabin with their assistance dogs free of charge. Service dogs are as well exempt from size and weight limitations applicable to pets. They are permitted to sit on the flooring and your lap if they are pocket-size enough.

The DOT Form has raised many questions and confused service dog and psychiatric service dog owners who previously did not demand to provide documentation to verify their service dogs.

The DOT Form can seem intimidating at first, only information technology should exist like shooting fish in a barrel for most service canis familiaris owners to complete once they're familiar with it. In this commodity, nosotros will provide a articulate guide and helpful tips on how to complete and apply the DOT Form for traveling with your service dog or psychiatric service dog.

How to Fill Out the DOT'south Service Animal Air Transportation Class

DOT Form - Service Animal Health Behavior Training Form

Basic Information

The first section of the DOT Form asks for bones information regarding the owner of the service dog and the service domestic dog itself. For about people, the name of the handler and "user" will exist the same person.

However, there may be instances where the handler and user may be different, and then ii names are required. For instance, a helper may be transporting a service domestic dog on a flying to its owner.

In this section of the Course you volition also need to provide a written description of your service dog (including its weight) and name. A photo of your service domestic dog is non necessary, and you exercise not need to carry around whatsoever type of ID card for your domestic dog when you travel.

DOT Form - Service Animal Health Behavior Training Form

Creature Wellness

The brute health section of the Class requires yous to confirm that your service canis familiaris has been vaccinated for rabies. You must provide the engagement of the concluding vaccination, and the vaccination must be current. Yous likewise have to verify that your service dog does not have fleas, ticks, or a illness that would endanger other people or animals.

The last part of this section requires the proper name of your service canis familiaris's veterinarian and their telephone number. The veterinarian does not need to sign the form.

DOT Form - Service Animal Health Behavior Training Form

Disability Requirement

The term "disability" has a specific pregnant nether the DOT's rules. A disability eligible for a service dog can exist physical or mental/emotional in nature. Whatever the health condition may be, it must essentially limit 1 or more than major life activities.

  • Physical disabilities are conditions like visual impairment or mobility issues.
  • Psychiatric disabilities include conditions like severe depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, or phobia. A licensed mental health professional can evaluate whether yous run across the criteria for mental health disability under ACAA rules and issue a PSD letter.

Information technology's important to exist truthful near everything you add to this form. The DOT Form is a federal form, and there are potential penalties and consequences for knowingly making misrepresentations. You want to make sure you lot are accurate virtually whether you have an eligible disability.

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DOT Form - Service Animal Health Behavior Training Form

Service Dog Preparation Requirement

To be considered a service dog, the dog must be fully trained to perform a task or work related to the owner'southward disability. The DOT Grade asks for the name of the creature'southward trainer, merely it is completely fine to listing yourself if you trained your domestic dog. This has acquired some confusion with service dog owners, as many service canis familiaris owners undertake training themselves without using a trainer. If you were responsible for training your domestic dog, you would put your proper noun as the trainer along with your telephone number.

The DOT'southward regulations fabricated clear that you do not need a third-party trainer or organization to railroad train your dog or certify that they have been fully trained. The DOT specifically rejected any requirement that service dogs be trained or evaluated by any organization in creating the Class. The DOT believed this would create an undue burden on service canis familiaris owners, many of whom are capable of training their animals without outside assist.

Service dog owners also do not need whatever certification of the training from whatsoever arrangement. A common misconception is that service dogs need to be "certified" in order to be official – that is not untrue. You alone are responsible for confirming that your dog is fully trained.

Service dogs that help with physical disabilities perform countless tasks such as guiding visually or hearing impaired people, pulling wheelchairs, and providing diabetic alerts when in that location are changes in the owner's blood carbohydrate.

Psychiatric service dogs perform numerous tasks. They include things similar: providing comfort during moments of anxiety or panic with pawing, pressure or licking, reminding handlers to take medication, interrupting psychotic episodes or dissociative events, or providing a buffer against crowds or other triggering threats.

DOT Form - Service Animal Health Behavior Training Form

Fauna Beliefs

In addition to attesting your service dog has been task-trained, you must confirm information technology has been trained to conduct in public. In public areas, your service domestic dog should be under your command at all times and not exhibit disruptive or aggressive behavior like biting, barking, jumping, or lunging at others.

Your service dog should also not relieve itself during the flight or in the gate area (except on flights longer than 8 hours; run into below). You must also attest that to your knowledge, your service dog has non behaved aggressively or caused serious injury to another person or animal.

DOT Form - Service Animal Health Behavior Training Form

Other Assurance

The final section of the DOT Course requires you to recognize that your service creature must exist harnessed, leashed, or tethered at all times while at the aerodrome and during the flight.

You must also acknowledge that if your service dog causes any damage, the airline can charge you for whatever repairs. Finally, yous must acknowledge that you are signing an official DOT certificate. That means if you knowingly make faux statements, you can be subject field to fines and other penalties. Therefore, it's important to be truthful and accurate nigh your health condition and service dog's abilities.

For Flights Longer than 8 Hours

If you are boarding a flight that volition last longer than 8 hours, y'all must complete an additional form, called the Department of Transportation's Service Animal Relief Attestation Form (Relief Class).

The Relief Form is adequately straightforward to consummate. It requires you lot to select i of 2 options:

  1. Your service dog will not salvage itself while on the shipping; OR
  2. Your service dog can relieve itself during the flight without creating a wellness or sanitation issue.

If you select the 2d selection, you besides accept to describe how your service dog will relieve itself without creating a health and sanitation upshot (for instance, using a dog diaper). The Relief Grade also requires you lot to acknowledge that you may be charged by the airline for impairment caused by your service domestic dog.

How to Submit the DOT Forms

Most airlines have an choice during booking to notify them that y'all will be traveling with a service dog. After booking a flight, you volition submit the course either through an online link or to an electronic mail address.

The grade should be submitted at to the lowest degree 48 hours before your flight. If you volume a flying taking off within 48 hours, yous tin usually provide the course in person at the gate when checking in.

For airline-specific guides to flying with a service dog or psychiatric service dog, visit the following pages:

  • Alaska Airlines
  • Allegiant Air
  • American Airlines
  • Air Canada
  • Delta Air Lines
  • Frontier Airlines
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • Jet Blue
  • Southwest Airlines
  • Spirit Airlines
  • United Airlines

Final Thoughts

After submitting the DOT Form to the airline, you lot will be ready to fly with your service dog without any charge. The airline cannot asking any further documentation. If you book a roundtrip flight, the airline can but ask you to complete the DOT Form in one case for that trip (and not for both legs of the trip). Some airlines will keep your DOT Form on file for future travel, and others require the class to exist submitted each time y'all book a flight.

One time at the aerodrome and on the flight, airline staff is non immune to inquire for further documentation. They tin can verify you accept a service domestic dog by:

  1. Request whether your dog is required considering of a disability (you do non have to reveal any specifics about your condition), and request what work or chore your domestic dog is trained to perform (but they cannot request that you have your canis familiaris demonstrate its task).
  2. Observing the service canis familiaris's behavior (i.e., is it well behaved, disruptive, or aggressive).
  3. Looking at physical indicators such every bit harnesses and vests (simply these are non necessary, nor do they qualify your dog to be a service domestic dog).

Remember, as a service dog owner, you accept a right to privacy regarding the details of your condition. Airline staff can never ask that you lot have your dog demonstrate its task, which could be embarrassing or traumatic for the owner.

While traveling, it's also a good idea to keep a copy of your completed DOT Class with you during your travel.

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