High Plains Association of Service Dog Advocates

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Those who live with in the world of the disabled have their own lingo or slang and use a lot of abbreviated acronyms for things common to us, but which are almost a foreign language for others. Listed on this page are some of the more common terms, especially those used by canine teams, that High Plains Service Dogs would like to share with the non disabled members of our communities.

SD
Service Dog The most common of the Assistance Animals, is the Service Dog. Service dogs are called on to carry out a multitude of specific tasks. Most are related to mobility impairments. Mobility trained service dogs perform a wide variety of tasks including, the retrieving of dropped articles, fetching requested items, assist with manual wheel chair movement (Note, the dog is an assistance device, not an engine for mobility needs.) bring telephone receiver, carry messages, carry items, and assist with laundry chores. Mobility Service Dogs carry out a very long list of other possible duties, such as assist their handler with ambulatory needs such as bracing against falls, or counter balancing unsteady gait movements; we affectionately refer to these dogs as a cane with a brain.
HD
Hearing Dog; alerts handler to certain sounds, such as smoke alarms, door bells, crying infants and other common in home noises. Outside the home, these dogs may be trained to alert their handler to common sounds such as strangers walking up behind them, the sirens of emergency vehichles on the road ways, or other incidents.
GD or LD
Guide or Leader Dogs, assist those with ADA qualifying visual impairments. In addition to guiding their handler in safe passage of common areas, these dogs can be trained to pick up dropped articles, fetch their own harness equipment or other tasks. These are the most widely known and oldest group of assistance animals. Consult the Seeing Eye Foundation, Guide Dogs for Independence or other sites specific to these dogs for more information.
Seizure response or other Medical alert and response dogs.
American Academy of Neurology, media contact; view news release. The live link to press release # 434 is no longer active. Please research this article through the Academy archives. Medical Assistance Dog or Medical Alert Dogs, carry out very specialized tasks. New evidence points out that before any one is assigned a Seizure alert dog, full brain scans for EEG activity must be conducted. More common in this group are the seizure response dogs, which are not able to sense an incident before it occurs; instead these dogs go into action to assist their team mate in safely getting through the incident.These response dogs save lives. Other medical dogs alert to problems with CPAP devices or other life threatening conditions.
PSD
Psychiatric Service Dog. Handler is a person who has a substantial impairment that affects one or more major life activites. These dogs are highly trained to perform a task, or tasks, which directly mitigates their handler's very serious disability. True PSDs are actually quite rare. These dogs are not to be construed as emotional support dogs. PSDs are highly trained to perform specific tasks; not nuzzle or lick their owner to make them feel better, which are things that emotional support dogs are commonly known to do.
AD or AA
Assistance Dog or Assistance Animal; any animal task trained to mitigate severe life limiting permanent disabilities. The five groups of Assistance dogs mentioned in this table are included in the general category of Assistance Animals.
SDIT
Service Dog in Training, these may be very young dogs experiencing different social enviornments up to older veterans either refreshing their current duties or learning newly required tasks.
QPWD
Qualifying Person with Disability. Disability is permanent and substantially life limiting in one or more major areas. Definition is stated in the Civil Rights Act of 1992, The Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA. Most every state in the Union also has a definition of qualifying disabilities written in to their own state constitutions.
ADA or ADA civil rights law
The Americans with Disabilities Act, enacted by Congress then signed in to law by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. This act has been redefined and those changes can be found in the official government's web site for the ADA portals. A link to the site is included in our links page.
The ABs or an AB
An able bodied individual, or one without permanent substantial life limiting disabilities.
SCOTUS
Supreme Court of the United States, Our court of last appeal, supposed to be unbiased by politics.
ESD or E.S.D.
Emotional Support or companion animals. These are NOT covered under the ADA. They are under HUD FHA and FAA guidelines. Have NO right to public Access by their owner with the single exception of Airline flights.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SERVICE DOG period. Attempting to pass an ESD off as an assistance dog is a crime.
HUD, FHA, and FAA Federal Government level
Federal Departments or Administrative Agencies.
Housing and Urban Development, Federal Fair Housing Administration, Federal Aviation Administration.
Quad, para, Tri, hemi
Quadraplegic, all 4 limbs affected, para two limbs usually used for leg references, Triplegic, has just one functional limb. Hemi, total paralysis or near total paralysis of one side.

THERAPY DOGS, There are two types of these worker dogs; Visiting Therapy dogs, and Adaptive Assistance Therapy Dogs. Contact agencies such as the Delta Society or Therapy Dogs International for information regarding these canine visitation teams.

Therapy Dogs. Therapy Dogs are becoming a common site in hospitals nursing home facility and other community related facilities. Therapy Animals may include a wide variety of animal species, with the dog being the best known and most common. These Dogs are NOT SERVICE DOGS. The person on the other end of the lead has no rights for public access except for the one institution that has requested the team's visit, and only during the time frame of this request. Misrepresenting a Therapy Dog as a Service Dog means that the handler of such a dog is committing fraud, a federal and state crime.

There are dozens more of these terms especially the slang words.
Rehab units have a large vocabulary specific to their patrons. Psychiatric facilities have theirs, wheel chair users have theirs, and so on. Included in this list are some of the most common cross disability specific abbreviations.

Dispelling a common myth or misunderstanding.

A Service Dog is only a Service Dog when it is working with the handler whose specific life limiting disabilities it has been specifically task trained to mitigate. A Service Dog in the hands of any person other than the one person whom it has been specifically trained for, is no longer a working assistance dog. The dog would then be nothing more than a highly trained pet, or in the case of the untrained dogs, an untrained pet. The same goes for any other type of assistance animal. It is the fact that these dogs are specifically trained to perform those tasks which mitigate their handler's life altering substantial disability(ies), that make them an Assistance Animal. Until the dog is task trained to mitigate a QPWD specific disabilities, it is not their service dog. It is not a service dog at all.

It is the person who has the right of access with his or her assistance animal. The animals are considered medical equipment. The dog no matter how well trained, or behaved, is only granted right of access by viture of the trained tasks it carries out that are mitigating for that one human's substantial life altering disability.


Caution; there are kennels selling dogs they are referring to as Service Dog/Companion Dog. A dog not specifically task trained to mitigate the disabilities of a specific qualified disabled person is not a Service Dog! the advertisements state that the dogs are NOT task trained. THEY ARE NOT SERVICE DOGS and CAN NOT BE LEGALLY USED BY A QPWD as his or her Service Dog since they lack specific tasks for mitigation training.Perhaps that is the legal reason why you will find these animals listed as Service SLASH companion dogs, these dogs are also not being sold to the government as potential Police K-9, also known as Service Dog. Be very careful where you place your money when you are searching for an assistance animal. Know your laws AND the terminology of the Assistance Dog Field.

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