Here's an article that summarizes the differences among therapy dogs, service dogs, and emotional support dogs <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.petsandpeople.org/difference.htm">http://www.petsandpeople.org/difference.htm</a> and that discusses the federal laws and such. That site has lots of other information as well (see their toc at <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.petsandpeople.org/toc.htm">http://www.petsandpeople.org/toc.htm</a> ) The Delta Society has a card you can carry that explains the laws about service dogs (see <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.deltasociety.org/ServiceAccessLaw.htm">http://www.deltasociety.org/ServiceAccessLaw.htm</a> )
I am not advocating taking an untrained dog out with you and calling it a service dog. A service dog is a working dog and needs to be highly trained - and needs to be out there with you working about 90% of the time or it won't be able to do its job. (That's why I'm not sure you can do training "just in case"). But there are lots of people who cannot afford a service dog who has been trained by an agency and they do train their dogs themselves (and their dogs are hot shot service dogs) and they should not be restricted from using their dogs just because they don't have some sort of official certification. (Again my earlier post about how you can really tell if a dog is a working dog or not).
Lots of folks with lung disease have panic attacks along with their anxiety when they are SOB. These folks could benefit with a psychicatric service dog (who dcould go anywhere with them) or an emotional support dog (who could only be with them in their home or out where aany dog is allowed).