Legal Compliance Standards: Ensuring that the certification process adheres to legal compliance standards.
Good Neighbor Clinics conducts the certification process by licensed physicians, providing individuals with confidence in the legitimacy of their Service Animal Certification.
Documentation and Registration: Gather the necessary documentation and follow the user-friendly certification process provided by Good Neighbor Clinics.
Providing all your supporting medical documentation in addition to your Registeration, Qualification Documentation and Certification documents that you have obtained through ServiceAnimal.us, these documents may be referred to in your clinic’s record, further documenting your possession of and utilization of a Service Animal.
Conclusion: Certifying your Service Animal with Good Neighbor Clinics is a straightforward process, ensuring that there will be ample legitimate documentation of your condition/s. The individuals with disabilities and their trusted companions, having been legitimately certified by a licensed physician, can navigate the world with confidence and recognition. For more information on the certification process and the collaboration with www.ServiceAnimal.us, individuals can connect with Good Neighbor Clinics at: 310-304-0911.
Service Dog Scams
Support Animal
vs.
Service Animal
Service Dog Scams - How to Avoid Getting Scammed
It is extremely important that you educate yourself about the ADA regulations, and the laws of the State in which you reside as they pertain to Emotional Support Animals, and Service Animals. ADA recognizes a dog, and under certain circumstances a pony as a Service Animal only. Depending on your State Law, you may be able to have a cat or other animals as an Emotional Support Animal. There is no Federal protection for Emotional Support Animals although, most likely, there are such protections at the State level in most of the States of the USA. Federal Aviation, Transporation and Housing laws have regulations that are mre broad and include Emotional Support Animals, and most State laws recognize Emotional Support Animals in addition to the Service Animals. Psychiatric Service Animals which are considered extremely legitimate differ from Emotional Support Animals. However, in certain circumstances, Emotional Support Animals could be very similar to Psychiatric Service Animals in functionality, but Psychiatric Service Animals may require certain professional evaluation by a mental health professional or physician and appropriate professional documentation and certification may be required.
Based on the current ADA Federal Law, you can train your own Service or Emotional Support Animal. No Certificate or Registration is required. These are documents are not on any governmental legal capacity, and usually are not required, however, they could be occasionally of benefit in certain circumstances. They are usually provided as a PDF file that can be printed out, or they are an image file. The above mentioned Certificates may be available for purchase as a hard copy as well which seem much more presentable and attracive if placed in a frame.
Qualifying for a Service Dog with Professional Documentation by Going to a Licensed Professional.
Qualification Document
How to Avoid Getting Scammed? What to Look For?
Training:
There are legitimate platforms like ours, that specialize in offering online dog training information for various purposes. However, there are also “Schools” that claim to train your service dog, or provide virtual training for your service dog. As a consumer, you might have difficulty in discerning which training “school” is legitimate and which one is not.
There are many dog training entities that are professionals and can help you train your dog learn the skills you need your dog to have. However, there are many outfits online that purposefully use misleading or fraudulent tactics to deceive online consumers.
If you learn what to look for, it is not very difficult to find companies that run scams for service dog training “schools”. Here are a list of several tips on how to spot scam service dog training schools. Here are several red flags to look for, when you are doing your due diligence, to look for a legitimate dog training school. If a training institution claims to be an official “School” ask for their accreditation, curriculum, faculty or student outcomes and then make sure you real as many of their online reviews as possible. If they are reluctantant, unable or unwilling to provide any of the above, it may be a sign that they are a scam. Generally if they are attempting to make their emblems and logos seem similar to a government logo or the seal of some gornment agency or somehow misrepresent their services, you should be cautious. When they are an online institution and fail to provide a legitimate physical or contact information, this should serve as a red flag and be a concern to you.
Registration
As stated before, according to ADA, there are no registration requirements in the United States for your Service or Support Animal. All documented Registration although often beneficial, are elective. Hence if an online site represents the registration process as a requirement, this is obviously not true. Be aware of sites selling subscriptions, licenses or other “required” recurring monthly or annual things. All these are of no specific legitimacy and are not in any way required in the United States.
Certification:
As stated before, according to ADA, there are no certification requirements in the United States for your Service or Support Animal. To have a Psychiatric or other type of Service Aimal, there is usually a legitimate Mental Health or Physician documentation of that condition. There is a legitimate clinic in California, called Good Neighbor Clinics, that conducts such assessment, and documentation. All Certification are elective. Hence if an online site represents the Certification process as a requirement, this is obviously not true. Additionally, almost no sites are ADA or Government Approved online sites. So the self designations that represent a site as being officially designated by a governmental agency are inaccurate, as these designations have no value and are more for marketing purposes than anything else. If a Site is not located in the USA, and does not have a USA address, and does not provide contact information, or support, you have a reason for concern.
Governement Association:
According to ADA website, there are no particular online sites that are ADA or Federal Government Approved nor any private online sites that are endorsed or affiliated with the ADA, or the Federal Government. So the self designations that represent a site as being designated by or affilated to any governmental agency are not representing the truth. These self-designations are inaccurate, as they have no legal value, and are for marketing purposes only.
Off-Shore Online Sites:
Be extremely cautious about providing any of your personal information on any offshore website. These sites maybe attempting to obtain your personal information for fraudulent reasons, such as identity theft. Obviously this concern is not limited to the Service Animal industry.
There are many paper-mill offshore online sites. If an online site is not maintained, and managed by a team in the USA, and does not have a USA address, does not provide contact information within the United States of America, and does not have a fluently English speaking American customer support team, you may have a reason for concern.
Service & Support Animal License?
There are no lincenses required for service dogs. Apparently there are fake service dog licensing websites that sell their licensing service as a required annual renewal subscription. There are obvious scams.
Important Points?
Be careful to not purchase a service dog registration from a fake “official" service dog registry as there are no official online sites. There are no "Required" registrations. There are no lincenses required for service dogs. Apparently there are fake service dog registration websites that sell their registration service as a required annual subscription. There are sites that may try to sell you insurance in case your certification, registration or license is accidentally expired due to lack of payment or other reasons. Service dogs may not necessarily be covered by a medical insurance. Obviously, it goes without saying, regardless of the industry, online or not, you should always be very careful about the claims any business makes, educate yourself and pay very close attention to what a business is trying to sell you. You should contact legitimate pet insurance companies to learn about service dog health insurance whether standard pet insurance or a customized private insurance plan. Please, note that service dogs are considered “medical equipment”! They are not just considered pets. Any insurance plans that cover Service Animals are most likely going to be much more expensive compared to standard pet insurance. You may wish to investigate this information very carefully ahead of time, contacting several competitors, obtaining various quotations and doing your duodiligence, before contacting your own pet insurance company.
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