ESA Letter for a Dog

Your Dog Needs No Training

This is the line between an emotional support dog and a service dog, and it is worth getting right. A service dog is individually trained to perform tasks. An emotional support dog helps through its presence, so there is nothing to train and nothing to certify.

It follows that the evaluation is about you. A licensed professional asks about your symptoms, your history, and what changes when your dog is around. Your dog does not attend, is not tested, and does not need to demonstrate anything.

It also follows that anyone selling you a training certificate for an emotional support dog is selling something with no function.

Breed Bans and Weight Limits

This is where an ESA letter earns its keep for dog owners, and it is the most common reason people come looking for one.

Building rules capping an animal's weight or banning particular breeds generally do not apply to an assistance animal under the Fair Housing Act. That covers the breeds most often named in leases, including pit bull type dogs, rottweilers, german shepherds, dobermans and huskies.

The exception is narrow and specific to your dog. If your individual animal poses a direct threat to others' health or safety, or would cause substantial property damage, a landlord can refuse. That assessment has to be about your dog's actual conduct or history — a breed's general reputation is not sufficient grounds.

Pet Rent, Fees and Deposits

• Monthly pet rent generally does not apply to an assistance animal
• One-time pet fees generally do not apply
• Pet deposits generally do not apply
• You remain fully responsible for any actual damage your dog causes
• A landlord can still charge for repairs, as they could for any tenant damage

The arithmetic is usually decisive. Pet rent in many markets runs $25 to $75 a month per animal, so a single year normally exceeds what a legitimate letter costs, before counting a deposit that may not be refunded.

Multiple Dogs

One letter can name more than one dog. Ours covers up to two animals at $129 and three or more at $199, with no per-animal add-on inside a tier.

Your landlord will assess each dog individually rather than accept a blanket statement, so each is named and described separately in the letter. Be accurate about the number from the start — adding a dog later means a fresh accommodation request, and an undisclosed animal is a weaker position than a disclosed one.

Flying With an Emotional Support Dog

An emotional support dog flies as a pet. Since a Department of Transportation rule took effect in January 2021, airlines have not been required to treat emotional support animals as service animals, and effectively none do. Your dog travels under the airline's pet policy, with the associated fees and carrier rules.

If your dog is individually trained to perform tasks that mitigate a mental health disability, that is a psychiatric service dog, which airlines still accept. For those, carriers require the DOT's Service Animal Air Transportation Form, which the handler completes and signs.

Any site advertising ESA cabin access in 2026 is either out of date or misleading you.

Getting the Letter

If you already see a therapist, ask them first — they know your history and may write it at no extra cost. Otherwise, screening with us takes about five minutes and the visit is 20 minutes by video or phone. You pay nothing unless a provider approves you, and once they do your signed PDF arrives within 10 minutes.

Emotional Support Dog or Psychiatric Service Dog?

Dog owners are the only group who genuinely have to choose between these, and picking the wrong one wastes money.

If your dog helps simply by being present — calming you, giving you a reason to get up, making a flat feel survivable — that is an emotional support animal. No training, no tasks, $129 with us, and it covers housing.

If your dog is individually trained to perform specific actions that mitigate a disability, that is a psychiatric service dog. Tasks might include interrupting a panic attack by nudging or pawing, applying deep pressure, reminding you to take medication at a set time, guiding you out of a crowded space, or waking you from a night terror. That training is what creates public access rights under the ADA, and it is also what airlines still accept.

The honest test is whether you could describe, in a sentence, a trained action the dog performs on cue or in response to a symptom. If you cannot, the ESA letter is the correct product and the cheaper one. A PSD letter documents task work; it cannot create it, and no letter substitutes for the training.