Never heard of the term. I know of seeing eye dogs, dogs for the deaf, even diabeties dogs, bomb dogs, drug dogs, sentry dogs, etc. What does a “support dog” support?
It’s similar to a service dog but does not need to learn specific tasks such as retrieving dropped items, leading the blind, opening doors, alerting deaf people to noises, etc, although they *can* do be taught to do those things if it’s called for.
Service dogs are usually professionally trained by service dog organizations but not always so nor is it legally required.
Support dogs can be trained by their owners.
The support they offer can be anything from emotional, such as PTSD dogs or physical, such as “stability/balance” dogs for people who have fainting spells, vertigo, etc and a whole host of other problems that would take too long to list.
*Many* organizations have popped up just for ‘damaged’ vets who benefit greatly from PTSD dogs.
Here is one story.
http://www.ydr.com/ci_18669963
A support animal can be just about anything, too.
The ADA has been at the forefront of getting information out to the public about the huge benefits support animals offer to those people for whom no other treatment or counseling has succeeded.
In most cases, they are afforded the same “rights” as service dogs although, as with anything else good and noble, there are those people who perfectly fine but are abusing the system just to be able to carry “Fifi” wherever they go.
A pox upon them.
They cause trouble and hardship for those who actually *do* need a support animal.
“There’s no better psychiatrist than a warm puppy.”