Texas writes post-traumatic stress disorder into its statutes twice, by name, in two different codes.
Human Resources Code § 121.002(4) lists what counts as a disability for the whole of Texas service animal law, and subdivision (G) is three words long: post-traumatic stress disorder. Then Health and Safety Code § 437.023(c) lists the tasks a service animal may be trained to perform, and the last one on the list is calming a person who has post-traumatic stress disorder.
No other state covered on this site does both. It matters because of what it removes from the argument. In a Texas dispute, nobody has to establish that a psychiatric service dog for PTSD is a real service dog, or that PTSD is a real disability. The legislature settled both in 2014 and wrote them down.
That is not the only thing Texas does well. Its criminal statute for someone who hurts your dog is the widest in this series, it forbids any city from writing a breed ban, and it names the service dog in its housing law so you cannot be charged a deposit. It is also weaker than you would expect in two places, and there is one sentence in the middle of it that does not match the rest of the chapter.
Everything below is quoted from the Texas statutes and linked so you can read them yourself.
What Texas adds on top of the ADA
State law can only ever add. Under 42 U.S.C. § 12201(b), a state law survives alongside the Americans with Disabilities Act only where it gives greater or equal protection. So nothing here is an extra hoop. It is a list of things you have in Texas that a handler in another state may not.
| What | Texas | Federal law |
|---|---|---|
| PTSD | Named in the disability definition, and named as a task | Covered, but you have to argue it |
| Hurting your dog | Felony if injured, felony if killed, and recklessness is enough | None |
| Someone letting their dog do it | Same offense, same tiers | None |
| Money for a denial | A conclusive presumption of at least $300 | None |
| Being questioned | Only if your disability is not readily apparent | Two questions whenever the work is not obvious |
| Registration | Nothing issued, and qualifications may not be demanded | Nothing issued |
| Housing | No deposit and no extra charge, in the statute | A duty under the Fair Housing Act |
| Breed bans | A city may not write one | A ban must make an exception |
| Faking one | Misdemeanor, up to $1,000 and 30 hours community service | None |
Does Texas make you register your service dog?
No. There is no Texas registry, no state tag, no card and no certificate. Nothing in Chapter 121 creates one and no Texas agency issues one.
What Texas does instead is limit what anyone is allowed to ask you, and its version is narrower than the federal rule. § 121.003(k):
“Except as provided by Subsection (l), a person is not entitled to make demands or inquiries relating to the qualifications or certifications of a service animal for purposes of admittance to a public facility except to determine the basic type of assistance provided by the service animal to a person with a disability.”
Then the two questions, in subsection (l), and the first eight words are the part to read twice:
“If a person’s disability is not readily apparent, for purposes of admittance to a public facility with a service animal, a staff member or manager of the facility may inquire about: (1) whether the service animal is required because the person has a disability; and (2) what type of work or task the service animal is trained to perform.”
Under the federal regulation at 28 CFR § 36.302(c), a business may ask the two questions whenever the dog’s work is not obvious. Texas keys it to something different: whether your disability is obvious. Those are not the same test, and Texas asks less of you. The same condition is repeated for food premises in § 437.023(b).
I would not press that in a doorway. It is worth knowing, and the practical version of a denial is in what to do if your service dog is denied access. If somebody is telling you that a Texas registration is required, that is a product, and how to identify a fake service dog explains why none of them create a right anywhere.
Training your own dog in Texas
This is the section I most want to get right, because Texas is a good state to owner-train in and there is one sentence that muddies it.
The finished dog: there is no question at all
§ 121.002(1) is the whole definition:
“‘Assistance animal’ and ‘service animal’ mean a canine that is specially trained or equipped to help a person with a disability and that is used by a person with a disability.”
Read what is not in that sentence. Not a word about who trained the dog, where, to what standard, or under whose supervision. No program. No accreditation. No certificate. A dog you trained yourself, at home, over two years, is a service animal in Texas on exactly the same terms as a dog from a hundred-thousand-dollar program, and every protection in this article applies to it identically.
If you are working out how to do that, the honest version of what it costs and who is qualified to help is in service dog training school, and whether your dog is a plausible candidate at all is in how do I qualify my dog as a service dog.
The dog that is not finished yet, and a mismatch in the framework
Now the sentence. § 121.003(i), in full:
“A service animal in training shall not be denied admittance to any public facility when accompanied by an approved trainer.”
And § 437.023(a)(2) uses the same words again for restaurants and food stores: a service animal that “is in training and is accompanied and controlled by an approved trainer.”
“Approved trainer” is not defined. Not in § 121.002, which defines assistance animal, harass, housing accommodations, person with a disability, public facility and white cane. Not anywhere else in Chapter 121. Not anywhere else in Texas law that I could find.
There is no Texas body that approves dog trainers. Dog training is not a licensed profession in Texas or in any other state, which is a subject in its own right and it is here. So the statute conditions a right on a status that no Texas authority grants, withholds, or defines.
That is a mismatch in the legal framework, and I am going to leave it as one.
Everywhere else in the chapter Texas recognizes owner training without hesitation. The definition of a service animal has no trainer requirement in it. The access right, the housing right, the criminal protections and the questioning limits all attach to the dog and the handler, not to anybody’s credential. Then this one sentence introduces a word that nothing else in Texas law explains.
On the face of it, the owner-trainer and the approved trainer can be one and the same person, because there is nobody in Texas positioned to say otherwise. But that is an interpretation, and it is not mine to make. Nobody has decided it, and a page that tells you confidently which way it goes is inventing certainty that the statute does not contain.
What I would say plainly is this. The gap only exists while the dog is unfinished. The day your dog meets the definition in § 121.002(1), the sentence stops applying to you and none of this matters any more. What every other state does with dogs in training, and how to build public access skills when you are not sure you have public access, is in can service dogs in training go anywhere.
If somebody hurts your dog: the widest criminal statute in this series
Texas has a dedicated offense for this and it is the strongest of any state covered here. Penal Code § 42.091:
“(a) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly attacks, injures, or kills an assistance animal.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly incites or permits an animal owned by or otherwise in the custody of the actor to attack, injure, or kill an assistance animal and, as a result of the person’s conduct, the assistance animal is attacked, injured, or killed.”
Three things in those two paragraphs are unusual and all three are in your favor.
Recklessness is enough. Most states in this series require intent, which is the hardest thing in the world to prove about a stranger in a car park. Texas does not.
The loose dog is covered. Subsection (b) reaches the person who let it happen, not only the person who did it. That is the situation most handlers actually face, and most state statutes miss it entirely.
And the tiers are serious. Under subsection (c):
| What happened | The offense |
|---|---|
| Attacks your dog | Class A misdemeanor |
| Injures your dog | State jail felony |
| Kills your dog | Felony of the third degree |
Then restitution, under subsection (d). A court “shall order” a defendant convicted under subsection (a) to pay for related veterinary or medical bills, the cost of replacing the animal or retraining an injured one, and “any other expense reasonably incurred as a result of the offense.”
One limit worth reading carefully
Look at which subsection the restitution provision names. It says an offense under Subsection (a).
Subsection (a) is the person who attacked your dog themselves. Subsection (b) is the person who let their own dog do it. The criminal tiers in (c) cover both. The mandatory restitution in (d), read literally, names only (a).
I am not going to tell you what a court would do with that. A judge has general power to order restitution in a criminal case in Texas and may well do so. But if your dog is hurt by somebody else’s dog in Texas, the mandatory restitution provision is not obviously the one you are standing on, and that is worth knowing before somebody tells you otherwise.
Set against the other states: Florida has a restitution list that expressly covers your own lost wages while you are without the dog, which Texas does not spell out. Florida’s restitution is more generous. Texas’s criminal net is wider. Neither is simply better.
Separately, § 121.003(j) prohibits assaulting, harassing, interfering with, killing or injuring an assistance animal, and § 121.002(2) defines harassment to include conduct that impedes the dog’s work or places the handler, or a trainer, in danger of injury.
What a denial is worth in Texas
§ 121.004(a) makes a violation a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $300, plus 30 hours of community service for an organization serving people with disabilities.
The part that matters more is subsection (b):
“…the person with a disability deprived of his or her civil liberties may maintain an action for damages in a court of competent jurisdiction, and there is a conclusive presumption of damages in the amount of at least $300 to the person with a disability.”
A conclusive presumption means you do not have to prove you were harmed, or how much. The statute decides it for you. That is a genuine thing to have, and it is $300.
For scale, California sets a statutory minimum of $4,000 for each offense. Texas and California are the only two states covered here with a floor at all, and the floors are more than thirteen times apart.
The 60-day rule that does not apply to you
Texas added a notice-and-cure procedure in 2017 and you will see it repeated on pages about this subject. Read what it actually covers. § 121.0041(b):
“This section applies only to an action under Section 121.004(b) alleging a failure to comply with applicable design, construction, technical, or similar standards… including Internet website accessibility guidelines, to accommodate persons with disabilities.”
That is the architectural-barrier and website-accessibility provision. It was aimed at a particular kind of mass filing. A business turning you away because of your dog is not a design or construction standard, so the 60-day notice does not gate it.
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. If you are considering an action, that is a conversation with a Texas disability rights attorney, and the deadlines that apply to your situation are theirs to tell you, not mine.
Faking a service dog in Texas
§ 121.006(a) makes it an offense to intentionally or knowingly represent that an animal is an assistance or service animal when it is not specially trained or equipped to help a person with a disability. It is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 and 30 hours of community service.
The $1,000 figure is new. It arrived with House Bill 4164 on 1 September 2023. Before that it was $300, and a great many pages about Texas are still quoting the old number.
Housing in Texas: the service dog is named, the emotional support animal is not
This is where Texas splits, and after May 2026 the split matters.
What Texas gives a service dog
“A person with a total or partial disability who has or obtains a service animal is entitled to full and equal access to all housing accommodations provided for in this section, and may not be required to pay extra compensation or make a deposit for the animal but is liable for damages done to the premises by the animal except for reasonable wear and tear.”
No pet deposit. No pet rent. No extra compensation. Written into a Texas statute. You remain liable for actual damage, which is the trade and it is a fair one. § 121.002(3) defines housing accommodations broadly, with one carve-out for a single-family residence whose occupants rent out only one room.
What Texas does not give an emotional support animal
The Texas Fair Housing Act is Property Code Chapter 301, and § 301.025(c)(2) makes it discrimination to refuse “a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices, or services if the accommodation may be necessary to afford the person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.”
That is the standard federal wording. It does not mention an animal. I read the whole chapter looking for one and there is no mention of animals anywhere in it.
So compare the two positions honestly. On 22 May 2026 the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued enforcement guidance stating that it will find reasonable cause and recommend charges only in cases involving animals trained to provide disability-related assistance. An emotional support animal is by definition untrained.
A Texan with a service dog has a Texas statute naming their animal. A Texan with an emotional support animal has the federal Fair Housing Act and a general state accommodation duty, and nothing animal-specific underneath either.
That is a thinner floor, not an absence of one. Congress did not amend the Fair Housing Act and the private right of action is untouched. But New York, Florida and California all have their own animal-specific housing provisions and Texas does not. What a letter actually gets you is in ESA letter, and the practical version of a landlord dispute is in can a landlord refuse a service dog.
Emotional support animals in Texas
Texas has never passed an emotional support animal law. There is no rule about who may write a letter, no minimum relationship with the person signing it, and no required disclosure on the document. California has all three and Florida has its own statute. Texas has nothing.
Texas also excludes them by name from the food-premises right. § 437.023(c):
“In this section, ‘service animal’ means a canine that is specially trained or equipped to help a person with a disability. An animal that provides only comfort or emotional support to a person is not a service animal under this section.“
That is not Texas being unkind. It is Texas repeating the federal definition, which has drawn the same line since 2010. The difference between the two animals, and why the line exists, is in emotional support animal versus service dog.
One thing worth naming while we are here. When I searched for Texas emotional support animal law, the first two screens of results were almost entirely companies that sell emotional support animal letters. That is not a coincidence and it happens in every state. The version with the receipts is in emotional support animals: requirements, benefits and more.
A letter from a clinician who knows you is a clinical judgment. A letter from a website is a receipt.
Restaurants and food stores
Texas wrote its own provision for this rather than leaving it to the general access right. § 437.023(a) says a food service establishment, retail food store or similar entity may not deny a service animal admittance to any area open to customers that is not used to prepare food.
The task list in subsection (c) is worth reading if you have ever been told a psychiatric service dog is not a real one. It names guiding a person with a visual impairment, alerting a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who has a seizure disorder, reminding a person who has a mental illness to take prescribed medication, and calming a person who has post-traumatic stress disorder. Three of those six are psychiatric.
Breed: no Texas city may write a ban
Health and Safety Code § 822.047, in full:
“A county or municipality may place additional requirements or restrictions on dangerous dogs if the requirements or restrictions: (1) are not specific to one breed or several breeds of dogs; and (2) are more stringent than restrictions provided by this subchapter.”
A Texas city can be stricter about dangerous dogs than the state is. It cannot do it by breed. The determination has to be about a particular dog and what it has actually done.
The federal position is weaker than that: a breed ban must make an exception for a service dog, which still leaves the ban standing over everybody else. Texas does not allow the ban in the first place. Why visual breed identification does not survive contact with the evidence is in can a pit bull be a service dog.
Where Texas is not different at all
Underneath everything above sits the federal floor, and it does not move from state to state.
A business may ask two questions and no more, under 28 CFR § 36.302(c). No documentation, no certification, no registration and no identification may be required. The Department of Justice states plainly on ada.gov that “The ADA does not require service animals to wear a vest, ID tag, or specific harness.” Your dog must be under control and housebroken and may be excluded if it is out of control or not housebroken. No federal registry exists.
Texas adds to that floor and never subtracts from it. The whole of the federal picture is in what the ADA actually says about service dogs, and how six states answer the same six questions is in service dog laws by state.
One small Texas thing to end on. § 121.008 requires the governor to proclaim 15 October as White Cane Safety and Service Animal Recognition Day, every year, and to call the public’s attention to the law. Almost nobody knows it exists, which is its own kind of comment.
Questions people actually ask
Do service dogs have to be registered in Texas?
No. Texas has no service dog registry, tag, card or certificate, and no statute creates one. Human Resources Code § 121.003(k) says a person is not entitled to make demands or inquiries about the qualifications or certifications of a service animal, beyond determining the basic type of assistance it provides. Anything sold online as a Texas service dog registration is a private product with no legal effect.
Can I train my own service dog in Texas?
Yes, without qualification. Section 121.002(1) defines a service animal as a canine that is specially trained or equipped to help a person with a disability and that is used by a person with a disability. Nothing in the definition says who must do the training, and no program, credential or certificate is required anywhere in the chapter. A finished owner-trained dog has exactly the same rights in Texas as a dog from a program.
Does a service dog in training have access in Texas?
Section 121.003(i) says a service animal in training may not be denied admittance to a public facility when accompanied by an approved trainer, and § 437.023(a)(2) repeats it for food premises. Approved trainer is not defined anywhere in Texas law, and no Texas body approves dog trainers. That is a mismatch in the framework rather than a settled rule, and this page does not tell you how it resolves.
Is it a felony to hurt a service dog in Texas?
It can be. Penal Code § 42.091 makes it a Class A misdemeanor to attack an assistance animal, a state jail felony to injure one, and a third-degree felony to kill one. Recklessness is enough, so intent does not have to be proved, and subsection (b) covers a person who incites or permits their own animal to do it. A court must order restitution for a conviction under subsection (a).
How much can I get if I am denied access in Texas?
Section 121.004(b) creates a conclusive presumption of damages of at least $300, which means you do not have to prove you were harmed or by how much. A violation is also a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $300 and 30 hours of community service. Texas and California are the only states covered on this site with a statutory floor, and California sets its minimum at $4,000.
Can a Texas landlord charge a pet deposit for a service dog?
No. Human Resources Code § 121.003(h) says a person with a disability who has or obtains a service animal is entitled to full and equal access to housing and may not be required to pay extra compensation or make a deposit for the animal. You remain liable for actual damage the animal does to the premises, beyond reasonable wear and tear.
Does Texas have an emotional support animal law?
No. Texas has never enacted one, so there is no state rule about who may write an emotional support animal letter and no state housing provision naming an animal. Health and Safety Code § 437.023(c) expressly excludes an animal that provides only comfort or emotional support from the food-premises right. An emotional support animal in Texas housing relies on the federal Fair Housing Act and the general accommodation duty in Property Code § 301.025.
Can a Texas city ban pit bulls?
No. Health and Safety Code § 822.047 allows a county or municipality to place additional requirements on dangerous dogs only if those requirements are not specific to one breed or several breeds. A Texas dangerous dog determination has to rest on what a particular dog has done rather than on what breed it appears to be.
Sources
Every Texas provision on this page was read on the Texas Legislature’s own statutes site on 4 September 2026.
- Human Resources Code Chapter 121: § 121.002 definitions, § 121.003 discrimination and access, § 121.0041 notice and cure, § 121.004 penalties and damages, § 121.005 responsibilities, § 121.006 improper use, § 121.008 White Cane Safety and Service Animal Recognition Day
- Penal Code § 42.091, attack on an assistance animal
- Health and Safety Code § 437.023, service animals in food establishments
- Health and Safety Code § 822.047, local regulation of dangerous dogs
- Property Code Chapter 301, the Texas Fair Housing Act, checked in full for any mention of animals
- 28 CFR § 36.302(c) and 42 U.S.C. § 12201(b)
- US Department of Justice service animal FAQs
- HUD enforcement guidance on assistance animals, 22 May 2026
Written by a handler, not a lawyer. Every statute quoted here is linked so you can read the original for yourself, and none of it is a substitute for advice about your own situation.