Cajun Casey wrote: A therapy dog has no more legal status than any other pet.
Yes and no. In public, yes, but many of the facilities in which therapy dogs work (hospitals, nursing homes) require TDI or similar certification before the animals are allowed in. I suspect these requirements come from the "risk management" departments in the respective organizations.
I do agree, though, service dogs and therapy dogs are completely different animals, so to speak.
One breeder claims that his dogs do it all (Celtic Red Setters -
http://celtickennels.nrsftc.com/superior.htm)
at least 25 are therapy dogs, more than a dozen are guide dogs to the hearing impaired; more than a dozen are assistants to paraplegics; at least one is an "epilepsy dog" which detects the onset of an epileptic attack before it occurs; two walk rounds with a geriatric orthopedic surgeon and detect the onset of a stroke 24 hours before it occurs; 2 are drug dogs during the week, companions in the evening and hunt on weekends; at least 1 finds and points truffles, permitting the owner to dig them up, rather than having to let pigs dig them up and break the truffles . . . the point is, their extreme intelligence, overwhelming desire to please and calmness make them perfect as companions/hunting dogs!