One of the benefits to getting a service dog through a program is that, generally, you should know when you get the dog that he's going to work out. See, if you try to train a service dog yourself, you might spend six months or a year training that dog only to realize that he doesn't have the right temperament and isn't going to be able to do the job. That was something I was afraid of when I was thinking I was going to have to train a dog myself, with the help of a professional trainer. After spending a year working with a dog, I would have bonded with him. I'd be very attached to him. I wouldn't want to rehome him. But I also couldn't afford to have a pet dog and then get another dog to try again to train as a service dog.
Even when you get a dog from a program, though, occasionally things go wrong. There's a forum online for people with service dogs where I participate sometimes, and there is a woman there that got a dog from a program and it turned out that he had really severe allergies. I feel a bit angry at the program, because he had allergies when they placed him with her. She mentioned it when she first got the dog and they told her it was a simple food allergy and that if she just changed his food, it would clear up. That hasn't been the case. A year later, and hundreds and hundreds of dollars in vet bills later, she has had to make the difficult decision to return her dog to the program. She loves her dog, but she cannot afford his medical expenses any longer, plus he is often unable to work due to severe allergic outbreaks. I think the program should have never placed a dog with such severe allergies with someone in the first place. Now she has to go through the heartbreak of returning her dog.
The program guarantees they will find the dog a good home with someone that can provide for all his medical needs, which is nice. The program I got Isaac from does the same thing; if for any reason I was unable to keep Isaac, they would take him and find him a good home. If they couldn't find him a home, his trainer or the director of the program would keep him and care for him themselves. That's nice to know.
But it doesn't take away the grief and guilt that this woman is dealing with as she prepares to say goodbye to her dog. She has only a couple more days with him before he goes back to the program, and she's trying to soak up all the love she can until then. She's deciding which of his toys and other belongings to send with him. She's hoping his new family will keep in touch with her to let her know how he's doing and send her some pictures from time to time, but they aren't required to do that.
When someone loses a service dog, in addition to losing someone they love, they also lose a vital form of assistance. The emotional aspect is what seems so horrible to me, but the practical aspect is important, too. Not only will this woman be grieving her dog, but she'll be struggling to cope without the help she's come to rely on.
Of course, dogs don't live forever, including service dogs. Everyone with a service dog has to deal with this someday. I just prefer not to think about it right now.
That's so sad that she has to go through this pain because of the irresponsibility of the program that placed the dog with her. Aren't there any regulations that required a service dog to be in good health? Even allergies can cause big problems and as you said, have cost this woman a great deal of money which she can't afford.
ReplyDeleteKathy
There aren't really any regulations about that, no. She has a contract with the program, which probably says something like they will take the dog back and provide her with a new one if something is wrong with the first dog. But apparently her contract did not say they would reimburse her for the dog's vet bills (my contract with my program doesn't say that, either). The law basically treats service dogs as medical equipment, like wheelchairs or walkers. But of course, one would not as attached to a wheelchair as to a dog.
Delete