Tennessee Service Dog Laws: Understanding the Essentials

Service dog laws are tricky, and sadly misconstrued. Knowing what the law says and how you can incorporate it into creative marketing is your ticket to standing out from the crowd. While this article is about Tennessee service dog laws, the principles apply across all states and municipalities.

Tennessee service dog laws are tricky to understand – here’s a concise breakdown of what you need to know about Tennessee service animal laws, especially as the law states that service animals must be individually trained to assist a disabled person.

With so much misinformation about service animals floating around on the internet, savvy marketers can gain an advantage by understanding not only how service dog laws work but how service animal awareness can work for them!

Many businesses have service animals while others don’t. Ignoring what the law says about service animals could be the difference between increasing your business exposure and finding yourself with a discrimination lawsuit. Since there are a lot of ethical questions about service animals, supplanting service animal and therapy animal awareness is also a great way to get ahead in the marketing game without running afoul of the law.

Those who operate a business or organization that involves service animals in any way will be interested to learn how other brands handled service animal matters ethically and in a way that educates their audience on local laws.

When it comes to service dog applications, few brands do a better job than Petco. They don’t even call them service dogs, rather they highlight the “nation’s most admirable heroes” and how they’re rewarding animals for their service.

McDonald’s also handles such issues with grace, operating family-friendly service dog spaces in their restaurants and making sure that those who enter these areas know they exist.

People love to donate and they love knowing that their donations are going to good causes, even if those causes are for animals. Unleashing Potential, a non-profit group that provides service animals for children with autism, got over 80,000 likes on Facebook, and a recent news story about them went viral.

Knowing that “money talks,” many people are willing to make a donation to a cause they feel is worthy or that interests them. Animal assisted therapy is popular, especially in religious communities and donations to causes like Wags and Whiskers can be combined with a sermon or weekly community outreach event.

The spiritual nature of some people lends itself to various different types of awareness campaigns often utilizing social media. People like to share posts that are being sponsored by other people with the same or similar disability, and they often do it on their personal pages. The more posts that are shared about local service animals, the more desirable partnerships you’re likely to have with social media influencers or even other companies.

Public knowledge about disabilities is always changing, but the beautiful part about making mention of disabilities in your marketing is that what is considered a disability today, may not be in a year or two, which is also seen in how public perceptions of disabilities evolve. The best way to know what’s trending in the disability world is to subscribe to newsletters and daily disability news updates.

In addition to knowing the law on discrimination against disabled persons and those who work with service animals, it’s also best to understand some of the not-so-common legal considerations involved in marketing and promoting service animals.

While we spend a lot of time discussing the brand on this blog, it’s also worth looking at some of the marketing ideas that are out there. Here are some of the best ways to market and promote service animals and service dog awareness that has proven effective in the past.

There are a lot of businesses who will bend the rules on service dogs and claim that they are a service dog when they’re not, causing other ethical and legal problems for their competitors. For instance, you might find a restaurant that has a service animal fly their “service animal allowed” flag despite the fact that their service animal is electric blue and their bag carrying case is adorned with the logo of their competing business.

Creativity in service dog marketing can increase civil rights awareness while also providing more visibility to local civil rights organizations. The best ideas are always the simplest ones, so why not simply ask disability and civil rights organizations to join you for a day of fun and awareness?

Service dog laws are difficult to understand, especially since they differ widely across states and municipalities. As such, the legal implications of incorrectly understanding what constitutes discrimination against disabled persons can be damaging to a business.

Tennessee service dog laws are notoriously difficult to navigate as they involve a lot of intricate aspects of the law. Do you know of any unique marketing strategies that revolve around service animals? How do you think companies can give back to service animals?