Over a million miles flown on AA and I have never seen a service dog on a plane but here are the facts...

From AA's website:

Service Animal

Definition
Service animals are trained to work with people who have different types of disablilities including people who are blind, deaf, mobility impaired, developmentally disabled, autistic and senior citizens. Service animals may include dogs and certain species of monkeys.

Acceptance/Health documents
Service animals will be accepted for transportation when accompanied by handlers of a service animal or passengers who require their assistance.
Health certificates are a government requirement and although American and Eagle do not require one for acceptance, customers should be encouraged to obtain the proper documents and contact local government authorities for detailed requirements to avoid quarantine or destruction in certain countries including (but not limited to) the U.K., Japan and Hawaii.
The service animal is carried free of charge.
It must be harnessed and sit at the handler's/passenger's feet.
Only one service animal per handler/passenger is permitted.

Seating
The passenger/handler and service animal may be seated in any row, except a designated exit row.

Flight into the UK
The service animal may not travel in the cabin into the U.K. It must travel in the cargo compartment. Special requirements exist for animals to Hawaii and Japan. Please call AA Reservation for more informations.

No, I did not mean to imply that donnae's friend (or anyone for that matter) should commit fraud and claim their dog was a "service animal" if this was not a fact. However, I have considered getting my German Shepherds certified and while I'm not familiar with the procedure, I assume that it can be done by others as well.

Thanks for the further information.

While some individuals claim to have adequately self-trained service dogs, there are organizations that do this. Traditional breeds for service dogs are labs, retrievers and sometimes German shepherds. While originally thought of as "seeing eye dogs", a broader definition called service dogs is now used.

Often these dogs are identified as puppies, sometimes from shelters. They are put into foster family homes to be socialized. If they pass certain behavior criteria after that, they go into a "dog school" where they are taught basic service commands.

Then the disabled individual goes to the same location as the dog school to spend time - often a week or 2, where a potential match dog is taught specific commands/needs of that individual and the person with disabiities learns how to best manage and use the dogs abilities. There is also periodic retraining and evaluation.

These dogs are issued a unique vest type garment that helps identify them as service dogs, although they do not always wear this in the real world.

In most states, legally these dogs can go all sorts of places regular pet dogs can not - restaurants, food stores, work, etc. However, at least in Massachusetts, they can be excluded for special reasons - such as intensive care unit in a hospital.

Considering the access these dogs have to all sorts of places, most people would want only highly trained and evaluated dogs with that kind of access.

There is another category of dogs called therapy dogs. These are the type dogs that make therapeutic visits to nursing homes, with disabled or abused kids, etc. These dogs operate as a team with a person and have less extensive or formal training - however, they too can be amazingly effective at what they do. Usually they are invited guests into a situation rather than having uniform access rights.

Part of the reason few people have seen service dogs on planes is that is often very difficult for those with severe physical disabilities to fly. They are less likely to take jobs that require extensive travel since it is so difficult. Also, a higher percentage of those with severe disabilities have low incomes and therefore less opportunity to fly.

DON'T DO IT.

If one is interested in having a certified therapy dog, Therapy Dog International (TDI) handles a national standard of testing and registry. The training prepares the dog to behave in difficult circumstances and to be a comfort to people in difficult circumstances. The training and testing are offered by dog clubs around the country. Check out the website at www.tdi-dog.org
My youngest dog, adopted from a shelter, developed a fibrosarcoma very soon after we got her home. She has been treated successfully and now she is a certified therapy dog. She works with stroke and accident victims, the elderly and her favorite partners, children with cancer. They relate beautifully with her. On Tuesday the newest addition to our family, also a shelter adoption, will begin his training. It is an exceedingly rewarding program but would certainly not qualify my dogs to travel as service dogs, a completely different concept. I commend everyone with the time and the inclination to consider animal therapy work. The programs vary from simply listening to children read to visitations in hospitals and rest homes. The dogs do all the work and it is such a beautiful experience to see people respond to them.
I have a small dog, Jack, who was trained a number of years ago. We visited a rest home and stopped to see many patients. One old man was sitting slumped over in his wheelchair. The attendant with me discouraged me from trying to talk to him saying he would not respond. I gave it a shot anyway. I introduced him to Jack. The old fellow sat bolt upright in his wheelchair, gave me a terrific smile and said "I had a dog named Jack when I was a boy." He held Jack on his lap and petted him all the while smiling. The staff was amazed. Animals open hearts which are broken and hurt. It is an incredible joy to see what they can do.

cmcfong, how wonderful that you take the time to train your dogs to bring so much joy to others. A friend of mine is also training her Nefy as a therapy dog, but I understand that this is different than a service dog. However, I've heard that in some can have their dogs designated as "service animals" if a therapist is willing to state that the person needs to have their dog with them at all times. I don't know of anyone who has done this--maybe it's not even true, but would be interested if anyone knows of such a case.

The AA website speaks to animals necessary for emotional/mental health purposes. Must have documentaion on letterhead from medical/mental health professional as to nature of mental disability, etc.

I flew from NY to Denver in the summer of 2001 when I moved and had no other way to get my Golden Retriever there. We got the BIGGEST Crate sold weeks early, slowly acclamating him to it. [He was 6 at the time]. The only airline that would take him was Continental, since it was summer. I wanted to be sure that tarmac temp wasn't a problem, so we took a 7 am flight [non-stop]and we arrived by 9 am or so, way before heat could have been a problem. He was VERY happy to see us and didn't seem to much worse for wear.

I really would do this if it were the only option and then it would have to be non-stop and when the temps weren't too hot or cold.

I have four cats and I moved to Colorado Springs from Halifax in the summer of 2005. I had a very difficult time moving them - I called many airlines and only Frontier would take them (all other airlines had an embargo and would not take animals during the summer due to the heat)- the closest airline was Chicago so I had to find a way to get them there from halifax. Then luck struck - I found a pet carrier based out of Conneticut who was willing to transport them by land - it took 4 days and he slept in the van with them and posted daily reports on their condition on our email. If your friend plans to be in Denver for some time - perhaps she should explore this option - it cost me $325/cat and it was worth it. let me know if you what more details re the pet carrier.

Topping for other pet owners. Catherine's suggestion are great.