MI
Michigan service dog rules
Federal ADA baseline plus what Michigan specifically adds.
Federal ADA baseline (applies in Michigan)
- Public access to all places open to the public
- No documentation required
- No registration required
- Businesses may ask only 2 questions (is it a service animal, what task)
- No fee may be charged for the dog
- Dog must be under handler control + housebroken
Michigan-specific additions
- Misrepresentation: misdemeanor with fine up to $500.
Are YOU a legitimate handler?
If both boxes apply, you are. Full stop.
You have a disability
Visible or invisible. PTSD, autism, anxiety, mobility, chronic illness, hearing loss, blindness, panic disorder, depression, fibromyalgia, diabetes — all qualify.
Your dog performs a trained task for it
Interrupting panic episodes, alerting to blood sugar drops, retrieving dropped items, deep pressure therapy, guiding, signaling alarms — anything specific to your disability.
You do NOT need any of these
If both ✅ apply, you're a real handler. The ADA protects you whether or not you carry our card. We just make the card so the public interactions go faster. Misrepresentation penalties target people who don't qualify and pass pets off as service dogs — they don't apply to you.
What "misrepresentation" means
This penalty does NOT apply to real handlers. It targets people who falsely claim their pet is a trained service dog when it isn't.
Examples of misrepresentation that the state can prosecute:
- A non-disabled person puts a vest on their untrained pet and claims it's a service dog to bring it into a restaurant
- Someone buys a fake "registration" online to pass off a family pet as a service animal
- A person tells a hotel their dog is a service dog to skip the pet fee, when they have no disability and the dog has no task training
If you're a real handler — meaning you have a disability and your dog is trained to perform tasks for it — you have nothing to worry about. The ADA protects you, regardless of Michigan's anti-fraud penalty.