Here in HSV, the organization is "Therapy Partners, Inc.," or "TPI." The amount of training they put those animals (mostly) dogs is impressive. However, you'll normally see them in environments such as hospitals, nursing homes, sometimes even in private homes. You'll seldom see them just out and about...There are many dogs that are not actually considered "service" dogs but "therapy" dogs and will therefore not have the vest clearly identifying them as such. Therapy animals are used in a variety of ways from providing comfort to the elderly or after a natural disaster or mentally incapacitating occurrence. Just Google service dog. Below is an excerpt from one of the websites. There is one more exception, people use that ruse to garner sympathy and even money, Arab has one but being a small town, it doesn't work anymore plus I think someone threatened them.
But therapy animals also serve in many other ways, including helping people with learning difficulties, helping people with mental and physical therapy, and bringing comfort to people in stressful situations such as those recovering from disaster. Research has shown that contact with a therapy animal helps improve a patient's physical, mental, emotional and social state, which in turn helps them better engage and participate in the process of their treatment and recovery.