Service Animals for Arthritis

Released Oct. 27, 2026 

PODCAST OPEN: Thank you for tuning in to the Live Yes! With Arthritis podcast, produced as a public service by the Arthritis Foundation. You may have arthritis, but arthritis doesn’t have you. Here, you’ll get information, insights and tips you can trust — featuring volunteer hosts and guest experts who live with arthritis every day and have experience with the challenges it can bring. Their unique perspectives may help you — wherever you are in your arthritis journey. The Arthritis Foundation is committed to helping you live your best life through our wide-ranging programs, resources and services. Our podcast is made possible in part by the generous financial contributions of people like you. Now, let’s listen in. (MUSIC BRIDGE) 

Trina Wilcox: Hello, and welcome to the Live Yes! With Arthritis podcast. I'm Trina Wilcox, your host for this episode. I was finally diagnosed with JRA, as we called it, when I was 6 years old. And I love working with the Arthritis Foundation. And if you've ever seen a service animal working out and about, or you're simply curious about service animals, this episode is for you. We're going to explore all things related to service animals, including what qualifies as a service animal, what qualifies someone to have a service animal, how to get and train them, and how can a service animal improve and enrich your daily life with arthritis, and so much more. So, I've got someone to help me, a very seasoned expert, Kara Dingess, PhD. Welcome. 

Kara Dingess: (laughs) Hi, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

Trina Wilcox: Good. Kara is a licensed psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at Tulane Center for Autism & Related Disorders. You specialize in the evaluation and treatment of children with developmental disabilities, chronic illnesses and significant medical conditions. Her clinical interests center on positive psychology coping mechanisms, the use of service dogs and the impact of developmental disabilities on children and their families. Beyond her clinical role, Kara is a devoted volunteer and national Advocate. She has served as breakout session speaker, panelist and a 2025 keynote speaker at the Arthritis Foundation's JA Family Summit, and the mental health director for JA camp in Colorado. Locally, Kara is a driving force in Louisiana's JA community. She was diagnosed with systemic idiopathic juvenile arthritis, also at 6, and has been participating in Arthritis Foundation events over the last 20 years. Welcome to the podcast. You've got a great résumé. Just tell me a little bit about your experiences with arthritis. 

Kara Dingess: Yeah. Guys, if you didn't know after all of that, I have arthritis. And I like volunteering with the Arthritis Foundation. Yeah, I was diagnosed when I was 6, and I grew up in and out of the hospital. And when I hit 15, that's when everything kind of just went wacky and we threw on psoriatic arthritis into the mix. And I got involved in camps. In my time in college, started getting involved in volunteering with the Arthritis Foundation, because I was pursuing my degree in psychology. And so that opened the door for me to be able to help in a lot of different ways. I'm a psychologist here in New Orleans, that's my day job. And then in the off time, I like going to help out with all the family events around town and then nationally. It fills my cup to be able to give back to the community that has supported me for so many years. 

Trina Wilcox: I love that you've taken the things you've learned and dealt with and found a way to help others figure it all out, too. So, thanks for doing that. So, when it comes to animals, many of us have had pets, but what exactly is a service animal? 

Or what qualifies one to become one, I guess? 

Kara Dingess: To give our listeners just a little bit of a background on service animals: I myself had a service dog. Her name was Adele. If you're familiar with JA family events over the last few years, you've probably come across Adele and myself at some of those events. She was raised by a family. Her organization is Canine Companions. So, I will often speak about Canine Companions, because it is what I am familiar with. However, there are a lot of other good resources I'll talk about. So, what is a service animal? The Americans with Disabilities Act, I'll refer to it as ADA, they qualify a service animal as a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or other mental health disability. 

That is the definition of what ADA qualifies as a service animal. The language that they use doesn't necessarily specify how a dog should be trained, or who should train that animal, so that other individuals that don't necessarily have the resources to go to an organization like I did, they are able to train their own dog to meet whatever task or whatever goal to meet that disability and however they need help. And so, ADA is very gray in that sense. 

Trina Wilcox: Dogs automatically come to mind. 

Kara Dingess: What is interesting about ADA is: Back when they first started this, this kind of policy, they were allowing miniature horses to be used. Now, I did a little digging before this episode, because I remember there being some changes within ADA. And so yes, miniature horses used to be considered a service animal. Their language is also very gray. I'm not sure if some places are still considering miniature horses as service animals. I think the blanketed statement is that it is mostly dogs. 

Trina Wilcox: Are there some breeds that are better than others when it comes to these service dogs? 

Kara Dingess: It depends on the organization. A lot of organizations will use retrievers, like Labs, Golden Retrievers, crossbreeds. Some use shepherds, German Shepherds. But again, given ADA's openness in the language that they use, you can train your own dog at home to meet whatever tasks and perform whatever task that you're needing it to perform for your disability. Some say retrievers tend to be more reward-driven. And they're happier to do those jobs, so that they're easier to train. But any dog, as long as it is trained to perform that task, can be a service dog. 

Trina Wilcox: Why would someone need it to be, I guess, certified — or go through and meet those requirements? 

Kara Dingess: It depends on their specific tasks that they need. And what's very interesting, too, is that ADA, the language that they use, and this is the statement I'm going to keep making — because legally, the language that they use is very open — there's not a specific documentation that's required. You don't have to have a card, just like you would a driver's license, like there's no need to whip out your card and be like, "Ah, this dog is certified." Some organizations will give you that. If you go through an organization like Canine Companions, which is what I did with Adele, they have a very structured program that the dogs go through. They're bred out in California, and then they get sent to puppy raisers until they're about 8 weeks old. And then they go to what I refer to as puppy college, where they go for about a year and a half, two years, to learn those advanced commands. 

And then Canine Companions has like a two-week training where individuals like myself would go, we would learn how to handle or how to kind of give those commands, and we would be matched up to a dog based upon our need. And that is how Adele and I got matched. And then we graduated. I had to take two tests to be able to manage her out in public. And then she got to come home with me. And so, I was given a card that stated, "Hey, Adele is my service dog." But in the eight years that we were together, I never had to show that card. Businesses may ask for one, but you are not required to show them one. I think that is kind of a false understanding of service animals. If you live in a city that requires, like, certain vaccinations and certain things for your animals, you have to do all of that. You still have to take care of the animal as you would your pet. But when it comes down to an actual certification, that's not necessary. 

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Trina Wilcox: What about emotional support animals and therapy dogs? Are those synonymous or not? 

Kara Dingess: No, they're not. There are some really, really good resources on Assistance Dogs International. It's a great website I highly recommend. If you have any interest in pursuing a service dog or different types of dogs, which I'll talk about here in just a second, Assistance Dogs International is a great website to go get that information from. Canine Companions also has some really good education on their website as well. So, an ESA, emotional support animal, is an animal that provides that emotional support to an individual with a mental health condition, an emotional disorder, just by being present. 

ESAs, they don't receive the same training. They have different laws regarding their public access, which service dogs are allowed nearly pretty much everywhere. There are some rules to that, there are some exceptions, but ESAs have different public access laws. A therapy dog is a pet dog that's trained to provide affection, comfort, love and interaction in many different settings. So, there is a difference between those two. 

Trina Wilcox: OK. 

Kara Dingess: Yeah. Like therapy dogs, think of, like, if you're in an airport and you walk around and you kind of see some retired individuals walking around with their pets. They're there to provide that love and support with nervous travelers. That would be more of a therapy dog. ESAs are not covered under ADA. And so, again, they don't have the same public access rights. 

Trina Wilcox: OK. So, we've got three different words that we're using when it comes to… 

Kara Dingess: We do. 

Trina Wilcox: Emotional, therapy and service. 

Kara Dingess: And depending on the organization, there are even a few different... There are more terms that can be used depending on the individual's needs. Like Canine Companions, they do hearing dogs. So, dogs that will alert, that are specifically trained to alert their individual who is hard of hearing or who is deaf. You have some medical alert dogs, so dogs that are trained to kind of sense, like diabetic alert dogs, or if there are certain allergens in the air. There are different terms that are used. Those two that I just gave you would be considered service dogs. They would fall under ADA's protection. 

Trina Wilcox: And where was the website to get that information again on knowing the differences? 

Kara Dingess: It's Assistance Dogs International. And Canine Companions has a really good chart. I'm holding my hands up as if our listeners can see what I'm talking about. (laughter) They have a chart that has the differences between all of the dogs and whether or not they're covered by ADA, whether or not they can go certain places and kind of what their training is. 

Trina Wilcox: OK. Now, what would actually qualify the person, the individual, to have a service animal? 

Kara Dingess: With ADA, it's about the medical necessity. Their language is very gray. What does that mean? It could be a physical disability, it could be a medical alert. If there's diabetes, alerting the owner to that. It could be if an individual is blind or deaf. If there is that medical necessity that's there. There's Guide Dogs for the Blind, Canine Companions. There's Four Paws or a variety of different organizations out there. 

Trina Wilcox: How do these service animals help someone with arthritis specifically? 

Kara Dingess: I'm going to talk about my own experiences because I lived it with Adele for eight years, and I didn't actually know that an individual with arthritis would be able to qualify for a service dog until I started doing some digging. And I was like, "OK, with my arthritis, there's some mornings that it's hard for me to get up and move around. It's hard for me to walk. It's hard for me to bend down and pick up things that I drop, open drawers, open doors." And so, Adele was trained to do all of those things. She knew so many different commands. And then I believe at the end of the day, it was like over 40 or 50 different commands, and she was able to help me take off my socks on days that I couldn't reach my feet. 

She would open up drawers for me if I had a hard time with my hands that day. I had, like, a little tug rope that I would put on the drawer, and so she would open up the drawer for me and then push it closed. The same thing with the refrigerator. She could open up the refrigerator, get me a bottle of water, bring it to me. And there are a variety of different tasks that she would help physically, when I was flaring. And that really provided a sense of not only comfort, but independence, especially when a lot of times with this disease, it kind of takes away that sense of control from us, and it takes away that sense of independence. And by having Adele there, especially as someone who lived alone… I lived three hours away from my family because I was in college, and so my mom wasn't able to immediately get in the car and get to me. 

And so, by having Adele there when I was sick, there was that sense of comfort and that independence that came with this disease and her being able to help me through that. How can a service dog help someone with arthritis? Outside of those physical tasks that I just mentioned, it's knowing that you're not alone in this disease, and having somebody there with you throughout that flare or throughout the day, when you kind of feel like nobody gets it. Adele was able to provide that unconditional, positive regard and that love and comfort while also helping me, taking off my socks, you know, or bringing me a blanket. 

Trina Wilcox: And what kind of dog was she? 

Kara Dingess: A Lab-Golden cross. She looked a little bit more Lab than she did Golden Retriever, but Canine Companions likes to do the crossbreeds. Even though she passed away about a year-and-a-half ago, I still have her Instagram live. It's Adele underscore CCI (Adele_CCI). We posted videos about some of the tasks that she was able to do for me. 

Trina Wilcox: From your experience, do the medium to larger size dogs work better because they can have higher reach and things like that? They're a little bit stronger than a smaller dog. 

Kara Dingess: Yeah, because of the physical aspect to them. They're able to reach those counters. Some dogs will have special harnesses. So, if an individual is in a wheelchair, they are able to pull that individual, so the individual doesn't have to use their arms to push themselves. A bigger dog has to be able to do that. You can't do that with a small dog. And so, they're able to do things better than smaller dogs are because of their size and their strength. 

Trina Wilcox: How long did you guys have to work together? And did you have to continue your education throughout the years? 

Kara Dingess: This differs by organization as well. So, Canine Companions: I did not have to pay a dime for Adele, and they're one of the few organizations that are free. Now, their wait list is longer because of that, but the quality of training that they give their dogs is absolutely amazing. Adele was at puppy college for two years, and then I had to take a public access exam so that I knew how to handle my dog in public. With Canine Companions, they did yearly follow-ups. They were making sure that Adele was still meeting my needs. They were making sure that I was still handling her appropriately. And then they were also just making sure that I was taking care of her and that she was in good health. And I know certain organizations differ in that way. Some may follow up every few years. Some, you may have to check in with them more regularly. If you also go about training your own dog, ADA allows you to train your own dog, if you go through that process, there isn't necessarily a follow-up there. It's just like, "Hey, is your dog behaving? Is your dog doing what you need it to do?" And then it's kind of like, "Go live your life." 

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Trina Wilcox: What was something really unexpected that you didn't even realize was such a benefit and such a game changer with your relationship with your dog? 

Kara Dingess: What I didn't expect was the level of a bond that you form with your service animal. And this wasn't something that I explored until after she had really passed away, because that was such a hard moment in my life. Because you have somebody that is there with you 24/7 and is able to see you at your lowest, in a flare. At the time, I wasn't with anybody. Now, I'm married, I have a partner who's great and who is there for me all the time. But at that time, I didn't have anybody, and my family was so far away. It's the level and that depth of the bond that you have with your dog, and knowing that they're going to be there and they're going to help take care of you in those moments. 

I'm not going to say that I took that for granted, because I definitely didn't, but after her loss and then going through my own grief therapy and seeing the community of previous graduates through that organization... That's another thing with Canine Companions: They have a graduate group that you can kind of stay a part of. Having that connection with other individuals who also lost their service animal and seeing just the impact and the hole that's kind of left, I didn't necessarily realize how lost I would be without it. Thankfully, through therapy, I was able to work through that, and I'm doing great now. I think that is probably the biggest thing that surprised me. She did some great things physically for me, again, through flares, bringing me things, being there. But that emotional relationship is like no other. 

Trina Wilcox: Deeply personal. 

Kara Dingess: Yeah. 

Trina Wilcox: You've kind of touched on going into public with your dog, but were there any issues that you ever had that you can share and how you handled them? 

Kara Dingess: I have so many (laughter), way more than we have time for. You asked me about a certification and stuff. And so, when you're out in public with a service dog, businesses are allowed to ask you two questions, only two. They are allowed to ask you, "Is this a service animal? Is this service animal required because of a disability?" That's the first question. The second question is, "What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?" Businesses are not allowed to ask you, "Hey, what's wrong with you? What's your disability?" They're not allowed to ask for medical documentation, or an ID card, or a... They're not even allowed to ask you to have the dog demonstrate the task. 

While out in public, you run into a lot of different situations. The first kind of silly example I will give you is (laughs): I was out at a restaurant. It was after a college class. I walk in with Adele, and a staff worker comes out from behind the counter, and they get on the floor at eye level. And they're trying to offer her French fries. Adele was a professional. She kind of just looked at me and looked at this person, like, "Why is this person at a restaurant on the ground?" The person was, like, "She wants some fries." I was, like, "Well, she can't have any. Thank you so much, but she can't have any French fries. She does not get human food." And the manager came out and they were, like, "Don't pet the dog unless you wash your hands." And I'm like, "Nobody's allowed to pet her." (laughter) "I'm just here to get food. We're not going to pet Adele. Thank you, though." 

If they came up and they asked to pet Adele, I always viewed that as an opportunity to educate them on service dogs in general. So, I would allow them to pet her if they let me talk about the rules with service dogs. We always want to look at the owner first, we want to acknowledge that person, we want to respect the boundary, and we want to ask if we can pet. And then I always saw that as an opportunity to educate. Not all service dog owners are like that. Some like to keep their distance. And so, it's always polite to ask first if you want to interact with a service dog. 

And so, the second example that was a little bit more serious, and the only time I've ever been given pushback, I was with my family at a bakery in Georgetown. I was in town for a conference. I wanted to grab something for lunch and the owner was, like, "No service dogs are allowed." And I was, like, "Actually, we are." You have to ask for permission to go into certain churches, which separation of church and state; that tracks. Service dogs are not allowed in certain areas of a hospital, like NICU, SICU, PICU, because of the sterile environment. Outside of that, service dogs are pretty much allowed anywhere. They have pretty open public access. And the owner kept giving us a lot of pushback. "No, you're not allowed. We're not going to serve you." They weren't going to budge. After receiving such pushback, I was like, "I'm not going to fight this. I have the right to do so, but if you're not open to being educated on what service dogs are…," I didn't want to make a scene. I didn't want to kind of make this a thing. 

We ended up leaving the bakery, not buying anything. After the fact, I reached out and emailed some material for them to read on. So, that one was a little bit harder of a situation. I do want to mention, back to the certification thing, with airlines and with certain housing, they may require documentation as far as, like, you know, vaccination records and stuff like that. The Fair Housing Act has a lot of good information on this.  

There is an Airlines Act as well that you can look into, because they're trying to crack down on service dog fraud. I have mixed feelings about it because I'm in support of that, like, definitely want to crack down on some service dog fraud, but it also may hinder someone's ability to be able to do those certain things. And so, if you're flying with your service animal, definitely look into it. 

Trina Wilcox: So, you should carry your certifications and things like that with you when you go out? 

Kara Dingess: I always did just because it made others feel better. However, you're not required to show anything. Here's the other thing: We're always taught that service dogs are always going to wear vests, but actually, ADA does not require service animals to wear a vest, ID tag or a specific harness. If you get your dog through a certain organization, the organization would require you to have that vest on. That's another kind of misconception that's out there, a service dog has a vest on it, and that's actually not true. Per ADA, especially if you train your own dog, you don't have to have a vest. Now, again, Adele was through Canine Companions, so she always had her vest on. 

Trina Wilcox: Any other silly things that people have asked you about your dog? (laughter) 

Kara Dingess: Yeah, I work with kids. We were in the schools during college, like, I would go into the schools, and I was a counselor in the school system, and I used to get a lot of funny questions like, "Can she use the toilet like me? Can she wear clothes?" The questions the kids ask are the greatest. You also get some hard-hitting… I would do my best not to take things personally because, if you look at me, I look like I'm fine. And most individuals with arthritis or chronic illnesses, they're invisible, right? And so, if I'm out in public with Adele, I would get a lot of looks. I would get a lot of stares. I think for the first year, if anybody was out having lunch with me, they felt uncomfortable because the people would look at me and be like trying to figure out what's wrong with me because I look totally normal. I once had somebody come up and say to me, "I wish I was sick so I could take my dog everywhere with me." And I took a deep breath, and I was, like, "Yeah, you know, that's actually not good. You really don't want to wish that you kind of have what I have or have anything wrong. " I was just baffled. I kind of just stood there, shook my head at the person, like, "Do you hear kind of what just came out of your mouth right now?" 

Trina Wilcox: "What you just said?" 

Kara Dingess: Yeah, "What you just said? " You get a mix of reactions. One of my favorite stories is in grad school. I was really studying, and I would, like, teach Adele as we were on our walks, I would talk her through some of the neuro-psych stuff that we were learning at the time. And I was talking out loud to Adele, and my neighbor was out, and she was, like, "Are you talking to yourself? Are you talking to the dog?" (laughter) And I was, like, "Oh, I'm talking to the dog." And she's, like, "OK, you do that a lot. So, I just didn't know." I was, like, "Yeah, we have conversations all the time, you know?" And things like that. 

Trina Wilcox: You just mentioned walking with Adele. A lot of people can't usually get out to walk their bigger dog that has a lot of energy to release, and I worry that that could hold them back from getting a service animal. What do you suggest? How do they handle that? Because dogs need their exercise, too. 

Kara Dingess: They do. It depends on the organization's rules that they have. If I was flaring, I'd try and at least walk around the house so that I'm stretching my body and all that, and then I would make Adele go with me. A trusted adult or a trusted person that kind of knows can handle the dog depending on the organization. But then also, I like to remind people that, at the end of the day, she was a dog. And so, she had toys. We had a backyard. I was able to, like, throw the ball, or have somebody throw the ball for me. And so, she was able to get to run and get her exercise that way. 

I know there are a lot of things these days that there weren't a few years ago, like the little puzzle boxes and the sniffing games that all the dogs can do. A way to tire them out that we were also trained to do was to have them practice their commands, because it's requiring brain work, it's requiring mental stuff for them to be able to practice, and that would tire them out. But depending on the organization, you could also have somebody else walk them or handle them. If those of you in the arthritis world are familiar with the Auslanders, Lillie has Shadow, and Shadow came from the 4 Paws for Ability. And so sometimes, if Lillie is tired or needs a break or something... I've seen her mom handle Shadow before, or her dad. And so, she's able to kind of pass that on. Depending on the organization, others can kind of help you out with that. 

Trina Wilcox: Anything else I haven't thought to bring up or that you know that we need to know? 

Kara Dingess: Assistance Dogs International, again, is a great organization to look into as far as knowing the differences between all of the different types of service dogs. And then, at the end of the day, if you see one out in public, just respecting that space, respecting the boundary for the owner and the dog. And if you have questions, as a former service dog owner, I always welcome that, because it allowed me to educate and advocate for myself and for the service dog. Knowing when it's appropriate to go up to the individual and just being respectful and always acknowledging them first. People often see a cute dog out in public, and they want to go, "Hi, dog." But then there's always a human attached to it, so acknowledging that. 

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Trina Wilcox: We post a question on social media before our episode, and we asked this time: "What's the most surprising way a service animal has helped you live with arthritis?" And Barbara Ann Blaschuk said, "Mine actually stands behind me and holds me up while I'm cooking." So, I thought that was cute. 

Kara Dingess: I love that. Yeah, that's definitely something, some of the new commands that dogs are learning, especially with individuals with PTSD, is they have the command that can kind of put them behind an individual and create space but also support them in that sense. And I've seen that a lot, too, with kids with autism, is that pressure. So, having a dog come and lay across the child's body if they're having a meltdown, that pressure that they provide can be a sensory input. So, a variety of needs and skills that the dogs can provide for. 

Trina Wilcox: Before we close, we like to recap our three takeaways. Do you have three takeaways from everything we talked about? 

Kara Dingess: I do, yes. The first would be educate yourself. If you're interested in learning more, go check out Assistance Dogs International. Go check out Canine Companions. Go look at social media. I know a lot of individuals have service dogs within the arthritis community, so go follow us, check us out. Educate yourself. My second would be just respecting the boundary, and then knowing that service dogs, they don't always have to wear a vest. They are allowed in most places. Just respect the service dog at the end of the day. I think that's the biggest takeaway, is just that level of respect, not only for the dog, but for the human. 

Trina Wilcox: I would agree with those: respect, educate and always be learning and looking into things, because things become available, and accessibility is more accessible than ever. So, thank you so much for talking with me and sharing your experience. For more arthritis resources, including information on how to ease everyday life with arthritis, please visit the Arthritis Foundation's website at arthritis.org. And if you have questions, comments or thoughts, you can email [email protected]. We'll see you next time. 

PODCAST CLOSE: Thank you for listening to the Live Yes! With Arthritis podcast, produced as a public service by the Arthritis Foundation. Get show notes and other episode details at arthritis.org/podcast. Review, rate and recommend us wherever you get your podcasts, on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. This podcast and other life-changing Arthritis Foundation programs, resources and services are made possible in part by generous donors like you. Consider making a gift to support our work at arthritis.org/donate. We appreciate you listening. And please join us again!