Two questions, and nothing on paper. That is the rule for a business open to the public — a shop, a restaurant, a hotel, a clinic. It comes from the regulation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it is short enough to quote in full. Two kinds of place sit outside it — a genuinely private club and a religious organization — and both are dealt with further down.
The rule, in the regulation's own words
"A public accommodation shall not ask about the nature or extent of a person's disability, but may make two inquiries to determine whether an animal qualifies as a service animal. A public accommodation may ask if the animal is required because of a disability and what work or task the animal has been trained to perform. A public accommodation shall not require documentation, such as proof that the animal has been certified, trained, or licensed as a service animal. Generally, a public accommodation may not make these inquiries about a service animal when it is readily apparent that an animal is trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability (e.g., the dog is observed guiding an individual who is blind or has low vision, pulling a person's wheelchair, or providing assistance with stability or balance to an individual with an observable mobility disability)." — 28 CFR § 36.302(c)(6)
State and local government is held to the same rule by the ADA's regulation for public entities, in the same words with "public entity" in place of "public accommodation": "A public entity shall not require documentation, such as proof that the animal has been certified, trained, or licensed as a service animal" (28 CFR § 35.136(f)).
What they may ask
- Is the dog required because of a disability?
- What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
That is the list. The Department of Justice's guidance puts it the same way: "In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform?" (ADA.gov FAQ, Q7). And if it is obvious — a guide dog, a dog pulling a wheelchair — the regulation says they generally may not ask at all.
What they may not ask
- What your disability is. "A public accommodation shall not ask about the nature or extent of a person's disability" (§ 36.302(c)(6)).
- For any document. "A public accommodation shall not require documentation, such as proof that the animal has been certified, trained, or licensed as a service animal" (§ 36.302(c)(6)). The Department of Justice spells out what that covers: "Staff cannot ask about the person's disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task" (ADA.gov, ADA Requirements: Service Animals).
- For a demonstration. "Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person's disability" (ADA.gov FAQ, Q7).
- For a fee. "A public accommodation shall not ask or require an individual with a disability to pay a surcharge, even if people accompanied by pets are required to pay fees, or to comply with other requirements generally not applicable to people without pets" (§ 36.302(c)(8)).
What is not required
- A vest, tag or harness. "The ADA does not require service animals to wear a vest, ID tag, or specific harness" (ADA.gov FAQ, Q8).
- A professional trainer. "People with disabilities have the right to train the dog themselves and are not required to use a professional service dog training program" (ADA.gov FAQ, Q5). The training itself is required: "Under the ADA, the dog must already be trained before it can be taken into public places. However, some State or local laws cover animals that are still in training." (Q6.)
What they may do
The service-animal rule itself names two reasons a business may ask you to take the dog out:
"A public accommodation may ask an individual with a disability to remove a service animal from the premises if: (i) The animal is out of control and the animal's handler does not take effective action to control it; or (ii) The animal is not housebroken." — 28 CFR § 36.302(c)(2)
Other parts of the ADA's rules can also apply. The Department of Justice: "The ADA does not require covered entities to modify policies, practices, or procedures if it would 'fundamentally alter' the nature of the goods, services, programs, or activities provided to the public. Nor does it overrule legitimate safety requirements." (ADA.gov FAQ, Q25.) Whether either applies to a particular place is a question for a lawyer, not this page. What the service-animal rule adds is that even when a dog is properly excluded, the business must still serve you: "If a public accommodation properly excludes a service animal under § 36.302(c)(2), it shall give the individual with a disability the opportunity to obtain goods, services, and accommodations without having the service animal on the premises" (§ 36.302(c)(3)).
The dog must be under your control — on a harness, leash or tether unless your disability prevents it or it would interfere with the dog's work, in which case "the service animal must be otherwise under the handler's control (e.g., voice control, signals, or other effective means)" (§ 36.302(c)(4)). A business is "not responsible for the care or supervision of a service animal" (§ 36.302(c)(5)). If it normally charges people for damage they cause, it may charge you for damage your dog causes (§ 36.302(c)(8)).
Where you may go inside that place
"Individuals with disabilities shall be permitted to be accompanied by their service animals in all areas of a place of public accommodation where members of the public, program participants, clients, customers, patrons, or invitees, as relevant, are allowed to go." — 28 CFR § 36.302(c)(7)
That is every area the public may use, not every area of the building. The Department of Justice's own example is a hospital, where a dog generally goes wherever patients and visitors go, but "it may be appropriate to exclude a service animal from operating rooms or burn units where the animal's presence may compromise a sterile environment" (ADA.gov, ADA Requirements: Service Animals).
Answering the second question
The second question — what work or task has the dog been trained to perform — is the one that is actually about your dog, and it is worth having an answer you are comfortable saying out loud. It does not have to be detailed, and you decide how much to reveal: the regulation says they may not ask about your disability, so "She's trained to alert me to a medical episode" answers the question, and so does "He picks up things I drop and opens doors."
What counts as work or a task is defined in the regulation, with examples — guiding, alerting, pulling a wheelchair, retrieving, providing balance, interrupting behaviours — and the exclusion that matters here:
"The crime deterrent effects of an animal's presence and the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship do not constitute work or tasks for the purposes of this definition." — 28 CFR § 36.104
If the only honest answer to the second question is that she calms you just by being there, the dog is not a service animal under the ADA, and a business is not obliged to admit it. That is the line the Department of Justice draws: "if the dog's mere presence provides comfort, that would not be considered a service animal under the ADA" (Q4). Some state or local laws do admit emotional support animals to public places — the Department of Justice says so in the same FAQ (Q3) — so check your state; but nothing on this page gives an emotional support animal a right of entry. The same answer draws the line the other way too: "The ADA makes a distinction between psychiatric service animals and emotional support animals. If the dog has been trained to sense that an anxiety attack is about to happen and take a specific action to help avoid the attack or lessen its impact, that would qualify as a service animal." (Q4.) A dog trained to do something about it is a service animal; a dog whose presence helps is not.
Where this rule does not reach
- Airlines. The Department of Justice asks "Do commercial airlines have to comply with the ADA?" and answers "No. The Air Carrier Access Act is the Federal law that protects the rights of people with disabilities in air travel" (ADA.gov FAQ, Q37). Our registration guide covers what an airline may ask for.
- Housing. Mainly the Fair Housing Act, with different rules for assistance animals. That is a guide of its own.
- Genuinely private clubs, and religious organizations. The regulation: "This part does not apply to any private club (except to the extent that the facilities of the private club are made available to customers or patrons of a place of public accommodation), or to any religious entity or public entity" (28 CFR § 36.102(e)). A private club is covered to the extent its facilities "are made available to customers or patrons of a place of public accommodation". Public entities, which the same sentence also excludes, have their own rule, § 35.136, quoted above.
- Your state may add to this. "Some State and local laws also define service animal more broadly than the ADA does" (ADA.gov, ADA Requirements: Service Animals). The regulation preserves that: "This part does not invalidate or limit the remedies, rights, and procedures of any other Federal laws, or State or local laws (including State common law) that provide greater or equal protection for the rights of individuals with disabilities or individuals associated with them" (28 CFR § 36.103(c)).
Where a record fits
A record of what your dog is trained to do — written by you, dated, in your own words — is one way to have your answer to the second question ready. No record is a document a business may require: the regulation says no such document may be required of anyone. ServDog keeps records like that.
Last reviewed: 24 September 2026.