What is a PSD letter, and how is it different from an ESA letter?
A Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) is a dog trained to perform a specific task for a person with a diagnosed mental health disability. It's a legally different category from an Emotional Support Animal, with different rights and different requirements, worth understanding before you get a letter for either.
The core difference: trained task vs. presence
An ESA helps just by being present, with no task training required. A PSD has to be trained to do something specific tied to your disability: interrupt a panic attack, apply deep-pressure therapy, retrieve medication, create physical space in a crowd, wake someone during a dissociative episode, and similar. A well-behaved, comforting dog that hasn't been trained to perform a task doesn't legally qualify as a PSD. It's still a wonderful companion, and an ESA letter is the honest fit for that.
PSDs have broader public-access rights, ESAs don't
Under the ADA, a trained service dog (including a PSD) can generally go anywhere the public can go (stores, restaurants, workplaces), the same as a guide dog. An ESA has no such right; its protections are limited to housing (Fair Housing Act) and, in some cases, campus housing. This is the single biggest reason to be honest with yourself about which category your dog actually fits, rather than defaulting to whichever sounds more useful.
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The ADA does not require a letter or certification at all
This is the part a lot of sites gloss over: a business can only ask two things about a service dog (is it required because of a disability, and what task has it been trained to perform) and cannot demand documentation, registration, or a certificate. There is no official national PSD registry; anyone selling one is selling you a vest and an ID card with no legal weight. Our letter is clinical documentation of your disability and the dog's trained task, not an ADA certification, because no such certification exists to issue.
So why get a letter at all?
In practice, plenty of landlords, airlines, and employers ask more than the ADA technically allows, and having a clinician's letter on hand, stating your diagnosis-adjacent need and the dog's specific trained task, reduces friction even where it isn't strictly required. It's also useful as your own record of a real clinical conversation, not just a form you filled out yourself.
Still training your dog, or not sure it qualifies yet?
That's common and completely fine. An ESA letter doesn't require any task training and is the more honest fit while your dog is still comfort-only or still in training. You can always come back for a PSD letter once training is further along.