We have a patient who wants to bring her dog with her to her appointments. One of our employees is deathly afraid of dogs and another employee is allergic to dogs. Can we refuse to have a dog on our premises?

If the dog is a pet, the answer is yes. If your business is open to the public and the dog is a service animal, however, you must allow the animal on your premises. Fear of an animal or allergies to animals is not generally a valid basis for refusing entry to a service animal. Individuals with a disability have legal rights to access public places with service dogs.

Service animals are animals that are individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities—such as guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks.

Should a customer with a service animal enter your business and the need for the animal is not obvious, you are limited to asking the customer the following two questions to confirm that the animal qualifies as a service animal:

• Is the animal required because of a disability?
• What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?

If the need for the service animal is obvious, such as a guide dog leading a blind person, then you should not ask either of these questions.

You cannot ask the customer about the nature of his/her disability, or require any documentation, such as proof that the animal is trained. Do not ask the customer to have the animal demonstrate the task it is trained to perform.

People with disabilities who use service animals cannot be charged extra fees, isolated from other patrons or treated less favorably than other patrons.

For more information about service animals, visit the government website or call the U.S. Department of Justice toll-free ADA Information Line at (800) 514-0301 (voice) or (800) 514-0383 (TDD).