A Business Owner’s Guide to Service Dogs

Service dogs are trained to perform tasks that help people with disabilities. Service dogs don’t just help people that can’t see anymore; they also assist people that can’t hear, people that have trouble walking, people that have seizure disorders, people with mental illnesses, people with autism, and more. Any breed or size of dog can be a service dog. The Americans with Disabilities Act is a federal law that allows people with disabilities to take their service dogs into most public places even if pets aren’t normally permitted. Violating the Americans with Disabilities Act can get business owners into trouble with the U.S. Department of Justice.

What questions are you allowed to ask people with service dogs?

Business owners are only allowed to ask two questions if a customer comes in with a dog. You can ask, “Is that a service dog required due to a disability?” and “What task is the dog trained to perform?” If the dog’s owner refuses to answer those two questions, you are not required by law to allow them to bring their dog into your business.

What can’t you ask?

You can’t ask any other questions about the dog. You can’t ask what the owner’s disability is, you can’t ask to see identification for the dog, you can’t ask to see a letter from the owner’s doctor or a letter from the dog’s trainer, and you can’t ask if the dog is a certified service dog (there’s no such thing as official certification for service dogs). You can’t ask to see the dog demonstrate the tasks the owner says the dog is trained to perform.

You also cannot require the dog to have on a special vest that designates it as a service dog. Most service dogs do wear a service dog vest but it is not required by law.

How do you know it’s a real service dog?

You may not know for sure. If the dog’s owner answers the two questions you are allowed to ask and if the dog is behaving appropriately in public, then it’s probably a real service dog.

When can you ask someone to remove their dog?

You can ask someone to remove their dog, regardless of whether or not it is a legitimate service dog, if the dog is not housebroken or if it is behaving in a disruptive manner. If the dog barks more than once or twice, if the dog sniffs or licks or jumps on other customers, if the dog sniffs or licks merchandise, you can ask the owner to remove the dog.

What about service dogs in training?

In some states, people that are training service dogs are allowed by state law to bring those dogs into public places for training. In some states, they aren’t. In some states, only professional dog trainers are allowed to take service dogs in training into public places. In some states, only dogs being trained for specific purposes are allowed in public, like only dogs being trained to guide people that are blind. Find out what the laws are in your state. Nothing in federal law allows people training service dogs to take those dogs into public places where pets aren’t normally allowed.

What if other customers complain about a service dog?

Explain to them that federal law gives people with disabilities the right to bring service dogs into public places where pets are usually not allowed. Federal law does not allow you to refuse to allow service dogs into your business, even if another customer is afraid of dogs or is allergic to dogs. If a customer is afraid of dogs or allergic to dogs, though, or just strongly dislikes them, they can be seated in a different part of a restaurant away from the service dog or you can open up another checkout lane so they don’t have to stand in line with the dog, or you can in some other way separate them from the dog. If a customer complains because a dog is barking or jumping up on them or doing something else inappropriate, though, you should ask the dog’s owner to remove the dog.

Sources:

U.SDepartment of Justice. Service Animals. 

Man with Service Dog Denied Access at Gym

When the owners of the gym said he could not come in with his service dog, the man handed them a card explaining the Americans with Disabilities Act and suggested they call the ADA Info Line, the number of which was on the card, if they had any questions.  The owners refused to call the number and refused to allow him into the gym

So the man called the police.  This happened in Michigan and in just a few weeks a law goes into effect in the state of Michigan making it a misdemeanor to deny access to someone with a service dog.  The man wanted to office that responded to explain the ADA and the new state law to the owners of the gym. Instead, the office said he didn't know anything about the new state law (which goes into effect in about three weeks, mind you, which he will be responsible for upholding and enforcing) and instead suggested the man just find a new gym to go to.

The owner of the gym now says she and her husband are "getting up to speed" on the laws.  Well, the ADA has been in effect for 25 years, so they've had ample time to get up to speed.  She also says they just did not know what to do.   Well, how about complying with the law and not discriminating against people with disabilities, to start with?  Or maybe calling the ADA Info Line, the number of which was given to her, and asking what to do?

But she says she mean no harm.  She violated the federal law and discriminated against a disabled veteran.  Well, I'd say that's harmful.

Here's the article if you want to read it.

"Service Bird" Not Allowed in Grocery Store

A woman in Ohio is upset because Kroger won't allow her to take her pet bird into the grocery store. 

The woman says her bird is a "nationally registered service bird," but there's really no such thing.  She registered him with one of those online registries, that are really just a scam.  They don't mean anything.  You can register any pet you want, or a stuffed animal, or a made up creature like a dinosaur or a unicorn.  All you need is internet access and a credit card.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, only dogs (and in some instances, miniature horses) can be service animals.  Some states do recognize other animals as service animals, but Ohio doesn't.  In fact, Ohio state law only recognizes dogs as service animals.  Miniature horses are still allowed as service animals in the state because federal law says so, but Ohio state law doesn't include anything about service horses.

So the bird is not a service animal.  The bird is a pet.  Maybe the bird is an emotional support animal, I don't know.  But it's not a service animal.

The bird shouldn't be allowed in the grocery store.  It's a violation of local health codes and there is no other law that supersedes those health codes, the way the ADA does in the case of service dogs.

Aggressive Dogs Do Not Make Good Service Dogs

I came across this article today.  A prisoner was participating in a program that trains dogs as service dogs.  There are a number of such programs across the country and I think it is often a good thing for both the dogs and the prisoners.

But in this case, the dog bit the prisoner training him.  Turns out the dog had a history of biting and the people in charge of this program knew it.

And they were planning to give this dog, that they  knew had a history of biting, to a disabled people as a service dog.  And the dog would have likely bitten his disabled handler or a member of the public when the dog was taken into public. 

Why on earth would you plan to place an aggressive dog as a service dog?  I'm sorry the prisoner was bitten but I am glad he won his case and I hope it makes whoever is in charge of this program reconsider trying to train aggressive dogs as service dogs.  That is dangerous to everyone.

Fetching Juice

A few days ago, I woke up and my legs hurt something awful.  I think it was the day before I got to go back to my acupuncturist, and I hadn't been in a week, plus I'd had the flu, so I was having a lot more pain than I'd had since I started going to acupuncture.  And for a few days, my legs were aching something awful.  It was keeping me up at night, waking me during the night, which hadn't happened since I'd started seeing the acupuncturist.  I mean, I've had trouble sleeping for other reasons, but not due to pain.

The morning, though, I woke up and my legs hurt so much it was hard to move.  So I called Isaac and asked him to get my meds.  My meds are in this little vinyl pouch and I have both anxiety meds and meds for pain in there.  I don't have many pain meds in there because I simply do not possess many pain meds these days, but I have a few Tramadol left from last year when my doctor was still prescribing them for me. 

Normally when I need Isaac to bring my meds, it's for my anxiety meds.  Those are a small capsule, easy to swallow even without anything to drink if I don't happen to have a drink handy.  Usually when I need my anxiety meds, though, I can get a drink if I want one.

I don't think I've ever taken a Tramadol without a drink before.  They aren't big tablets so I would have thought it would be easy to swallow.  And honestly, my thought had always been that if I really needed a pain pill, I'd take it without a drink if I had to, even if I had to chew the darn thing.  I mean, when you are in too much pain to move, you don't really care about stuff like a bad-tasting pain pill.  You just want relief.

Well, I had no idea Tramadol tasted so bad!  That's how I know I must not have ever taken one without something to drink before.  I'd remember that icky taste.  I got it down because I needed it, but ugh.

So I decided Isaac really needed to learn to fetch me something to drink.  I started to teach him that once before but it wasn't something I really needed and I was having trouble with training him to do it for several reasons and I just gave up.  That was about a year ago, though, and Isaac and I have both learned a lot since then and I think I know what the problems were last time and I decided I needed him to learn it now.

I decided to buy some juice boxes and teach him to fetch one of those.  I decided on juice boxes for a few reasons.  If I am taking a bad-tasting pill, might as well have something flavored to get it down with.  Water doesn't always cover up a nasty pill taste so well, I have discovered.  Also, sometimes my blood sugar drops really low and it might be helpful at some point to have him bring a juice box because the naturally-occurring sugar in the juice would help get my blood sugar back up.  Finally, Isaac loves to play with plastic bottles, like water bottles.  He thinks they make great toys.  Teaching him to fetch a bottle of water might therefore be difficult (I think that was part of my problem last time I tried to teach him to get me a drink) because he thinks of them as playthings instead of something to bring me.

Oh.  And water bottles fall over easily in the fridge.  Juice boxes don't.  And that makes them easier to pick up.  When I tried putting a bottle of water in the door of the fridge, it was likely to fall over when Isaac opened the fridge.  Juice boxes sit nicely in the door of the fridge.

So.  Juice boxes it is.  I know, it's a terribly choice from an environmental perspective.  But it's not like I'm going to drink a lot of them.  I bought a pack of eight and I expect those will last me a year or so.  I seldom drink juice at all, and if I can go into the kitchen myself and get a drink, it won't be a juice box.  Those are just for when I need Isaac to fetch a drink for me.

Today I started with having Isaac pick up a juice box out of the fridge.  I used the command "get it" to start with, while pointing at the juice box.  He found them pretty easy to pick up.  Then I started adding the word "juice," like saying "get it, get juice," while still pointing.  We did that multiple times today, just about each time I went into the kitchen for anything.

Tomorrow I will start with "get it, get juice," to remind him of the word, then I will point to it but just say "get juice."  Then I will drop the word "get" and just say "juice," while still pointing to it.

That's all I plan to work on tomorrow.  Supposing that goes well, which I expect it will, the following day I will start with "get juice" while pointing to it (kind of a refresher each morning, going back one step), then move on to just saying "juice" while pointing to it, then seeing if he will get it if I am standing right there but not pointing at it.  Or maybe I will stand a few steps away but still point, while saying "juice."  Gradually I will move further away from the fridge, so he has to bring the juice to me when he picks it up.

I will also have him open the refrigerator door, which is something he already does on command, before getting the juice (as opposed to me opening it instead of him doing it).  At some point, I will say "juice" and point to the refrigerator door as a reminder that he needs to open the door in order to get the juice and see if he can figure that out.  I think he will be able to.  And then later on, I will say "juice" without pointing to the refrigerator door and see if he thinks to open it on his own.  If he doesn't, I'll point as a way of giving him a hint.

At some point, I will open the door and then go into the living room and sit on the couch and tell him "juice" and let him go into the kitchen and get the juice box and bring it to me.  Later, I will progress to having him open the door himself in order to get the juice.

At some point I will teach him to go back into the kitchen and close the fridge, but I am not really worried about that right now.

Isaac learns really fast.  While this sounds like a long, slow process, it will go fast.  We will practice several times a day, only for a few minutes at a time.  We did a similar thing with learning to carry things for me, and he learned that in a weekend.  This is a bit more complex, but I bet he is doing it in no more than two weeks.  Probably less.  I will keep you updated.  And at some point, I will try to get a video to post.

Do All Kids with Disabilities Need Service Dogs?

Well, no.  Of course not.

But it seems like every day I read more news stories about families raising money for service dogs for their kids, asking the public for donations.

Like this story.  A family wants to raise money for a service dog for a three-year-old boy with multiple disabilities, including a muscular disorder, a feeding disorder and a seizure disorder. 

The boy is nonverbal and hits himself when he gets upset.  Um, what is going to keep him from hitting a dog when he is upset?  Most service dog organizations won't place a service dog with someone that regularly harms himself, especially not someone that is nonverbal and hasn't learned other coping skills.  But the particular organization this family plans to get a dog from apparently will place a dog with anyone that comes up with the money.  I guess it's just too bad for the dog if he gets hurt.

The boy has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder but hasn't had a seizure in a year.  So does he really need a seizure response dog?  The family says they want a dog that can alert a family member when (or if) he has another seizure.  But this child has a home health nurse with him for 20 hours a day, five days a week.  So why can't the nurse alert a family member if he has a seizure?

They also want to tether him to the dog so he doesn't wander off and get lost.  Well, tethering kids to dogs is very dangerous, as I've discussed before.  But also.  He is three!  He should not be without adult supervision, at all.  Even a non-disabled three-year-old should not be without adult supervision.  So why would you need to tether him to anything?  Can't an adult (like the nurses that are with him 100 hours a week, for instance?) keen an eye on him?  Can't an adult hold his hand?  Or, if the family really wants to tether him to something, how about a responsible adult?  Which would be much, much safer than tethering him to a dog.

I know firsthand how helpful service dogs can be.  But they aren't helpful or necessary for everyone with a disability, especially small children.

You Just Have to Hold the Leash, Right?

There is a family in Arkansas that is fighting with their son's school district because they want the child's service dog to go to school with him but the school says the family must provide a handler for the dog because the child can't handle the dog himself and the family thinks the school should provide a handler.  Here's one of many articles on the matter.

In this article, the child's mother is quoted as saying all the handling required is someone to hold the leash and issue one-word commands.  Well, unless this child's service dog is somehow much more low-maintenance than a typical service dog, I just don't see how that can be true.

Yes, when I take Isaac somewhere, I have to hold the leash.  I also have to issue commands.  Some are two or three words, but may this dog is trained to all one word commands. 

But I also have to take Isaac outside to go potty.  If he poops, I have to pick it up.  Does this kid's mother really think the dog can be at school all day and not pee or poop? 

I have to offer him water if we are going to be somewhere for several hours.  Does this kid's mom really expect the dog to go without water for seven or eight hours?  I don't know how long their school day is, but with the ride to and from school, it's probably eight hours, don't you think?  Maybe that is mom's plan, and maybe she figures if she doesn't give the poor dog anything to drink, then it won't have to pee.

If that's the case, then I feel really, really sorry for the dog.  No dog should be expected to work for eight hours with no water and no chance to pee.

What if the dog gets sick and throws up?  Does the mom think that the dog vomit should just be left on the floor in the classroom?  Someone would need to be responsible for cleaning that up.

And as far as issuing commands, well, even if they are one word commands, it seems to me you'd need to issue a lot of commands in the course of a school day.  Let's think about it. 

You'd get on the bus and need to tell the dog to go under the seat and lie down.  And let's say the dog is super well behaved and you never need to tell it more than once and it never starts to get up before the bus arrives at school.  I don't think that's very realistic, I think something you would need to remind it to stay down, but let's just pretend it's a perfect service dog.

You get to school and tell the dog to get up and follow you off the bus.  You either have to tell the dog to go in front of you or behind you, because the aisle on a bus isn't really wide enough for a dog to heel.  So that's two more commands. 

When you get off the bus, you tell the dog to heel and you go to your classroom.  That's four commands so far, at least.

Then you go to your desk and tell the dog to go under the desk and lie down.  That's five commands.  Again, we'll pretend this service dog is perfect and never ever gets up until given the command to do so.

The child in question is in elementary school so he probably doesn't change classes a lot.  Let's say he has two recess times a day, plus lunch, plus one "special," like art or music or gym or library.

So to go to your first recess, you'd command the dog to get up, then tell the dog to heel while you went to the playground.  That's two more commands.  We're up to seven so far.  You might need to give more commands while you're on the playground, depending on what you do. 

Hey, maybe you could let the dog pee while you're at recess.  So you'd give it the command to go potty.  That's eight.

Then when recess is over, you'd give the dog the command to heel and you'd go back to the classroom and give the command to go under the desk and lie down.  That's 10.

Then let's say it's time for art or music or whatever.  You tell the dog to get up, tell the dog to heel, go to the art room or music room, and tell the dog to lie down.  That's 13.  And when that class is over, you tell the dog to get up, tell the dog to heel, go back to your classroom and tell the dog to go under the desk and lie down. 16.

Then it's lunch time.  You tell the dog to get up, tell the dog to heel, go to the cafeteria and get in line.  When I'm standing in a food line with Isaac, like at Subway or Chipotle, I have to tell him where to stand.  Otherwise, he will flop down on the floor in people's way.  So that be three more commands.  And then you'd tell the dog to heel while you go to your table and then tell the dog to go under the table and lie down.  That's two more.  We're up to 21 now.

After lunch, you tell the dog to get up, tell the dog to heel, go to your classroom, tell the dog to go under the desk and lie down.  That's 24, so far.

Then it's afternoon recess time, so you tell the dog to get up, tell the dog to heel, go out to the playground, tell the dog to pee (because I'm nicer than the kid's mom that seems to think the dog should not be allowed to pee all day), and when recess is over, tell the dog to heel, go back to the classroom, and tell the dog to go under the desk and lie down.  Now we're up to 29.  At least.

And then school is over, so you tell the dog to get up, tell the dog to heel, get on the bus, tell the dog to go under the seat and lie down, tell the dog to get up when the bus gets to your house and tell the dog to follow you off the bus.  That's at least 34 commands during the school day, if the dog behaves perfectly all day long.

My dog does not behave perfectly all day long, so somewhere in there I would have to tell him to lie down again or tell him to "leave it" when he tried to sniff some other kid's lunch or feet or whatever.

Also, somewhere in there I would have to pee myself, so I'd have to issue more commands to tell my dog to get up, to heel while I headed to the bathroom, tell my dog what to do while I was peeing (sit? stand? lie down?  oh, and leave it, when he tried to peek under the stall to see who was in the next stall), tell him to heel on the way back to the classroom, and tell him to lie down again when we got back to class.  So that would be six more commands for me, for a total of at least 40.

It's not just holding the leash. 

Plus, someone has to tell other kids and adults not to pet the dog, not to distract the dog, all that stuff.  Is this second grader able to be responsible for that?  Or does the handler have to do that, too?

Really, it's a lot more than just holding the leash.  It's kind of scary that the kid has a service dog and his mom thinks it's just holding the leash.

Access Dispute at Walgreens

Have you heard about the access dispute at Walgreens?  In addition to the article, I saw a post on Facebook by the man's wife that included a brief video clip she shot with her cell phone.  The basic story, as far as I can make out, is this.

A man with a service dog that helps him with PTSD went to Walgreens.  The service dog was not wearing a service dog vest (which is not required by law but does help cut down on access disputes) because it was hot.  The manager approached and said something about the dog in a way the service dog handler felt was disrespectful.  He also felt the manager should have been more discrete in the way he approached him.

The man responded by becoming verbally abusive, loud, rude, using lots of profanity.  As you might imagine, the manager did not respond well to this.

At some point, the manager said something about the dog not wearing a vest.  He might have said the dog was not allowed in the store without a vest or that he would not sell the dog's owner anything if the dog did not have on a vest.  The owner pointed out, correctly, that the dog is not required to wear any special vest.

Let me say again, legally, no special vest is required for service dogs.  However, without a special vest or something else to indicate a dog is a service dog, people will, quite reasonably, assume a dog is just a pet.  They will be more much likely to approach you and ask if the dog is a service dog or to tell you dogs aren't allowed in the store.  And they may not do so in a discreet fashion.  The law does not require them to be discrete about it.  If you choose not to put a vest on your service dog, you should expect and be prepared for this.

Since the Walgreens in question is in Texas, it probably was very hot outside.  But I really doubt it was too hot for the dog to wear a vest inside Walgreens.  I don't know why the guy didn't just put the vest on the dog right before they went in.  That's what I do.  Isaac doesn't wear his vest in the car.  I put it on him before he gets out of the car, in the parking lot of the store or whatever business we are going to visit.  I take it off as soon as we get back to the car, when we've finished our shopping.

I guess at some point the manager asked for proof that the dog was a service dog, which is illegal.  Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, they are not allowed to ask for that.  The service dog  handler informed the manager of that and then pulled out a fake identification card, purchased from one of those websites that will sell a service dog identification card to anyone with internet access and a credit card.

As far as I can tell, the manager did violate the ADA by refusing to allow the man with the service dog to purchase anything.  However, the guy handled the access dispute really poorly, yelling and cussing and showing a fake identification card and stuff.

Service Dogs That Don't Belong in Schools

I read an article today about a family that is upset because a little girl, who has a service dog that is supposed to alert to seizures (and I assume respond to seizures in some way, since simply alerting is not a trained task and would not in itself make a dog a service dog), has been asked not to bring her dog to school anymore.

The article I read initially didn't provide much info but in reading more information in other places and in discussing the situation with someone that knows a teacher at the little girl's school, the facts seems to be these.  Initially, the school was enthusiastic about the idea of the little girl bringing her seizure alert dog to school.  An assembly was held to tell all the students about the service dog and to explain why they weren't supposed to pet the dog.  However, once the dog began attending school with the little girl, a problem was noticed.  One of the girl's teachers uses a wheelchair and the dog seems disturbed by the chair, barking at it and biting its wheels.

That, of course, is inappropriate behavior for a service dog and suggests the dog didn't receive the proper socialization when it was young and/or was not trained properly.  It's disruptive to the class when the dog barks at the wheelchair and biting the wheels may cause costly damage to the teacher's chair.  In addition, if the dog behaves aggressively toward a wheelchair, it's possible the dog may behave aggressively toward other things it's not accustomed to.  It's also possible the dog might accidentally bite the teacher or another student when attempting to bite the wheels of the chair.

It makes perfect sense to me that the school would decide this particular dog could not come to school with the little girl anymore.

The family disagrees and some family members have suggested the teacher was doing something to startle the dog or that she was doing something to make the little girl nervous, so the dog was just being protective, and that that is appropriate behavior for a service dog.  Well, biting the wheelchair of a person that makes an owner nervous is not appropriate behavior for a service dog.  Service dogs are not supposed to be protective.  "Protection" is not a service they can provide.  And while a dog might bark once when startled, a dog should not bite or attempt to bite something that startles it, and a dog should not be startled by something like seeing a wheelchair, especially when it sees one every day at school.

Attacks on Service Dogs

Some of you probably remember me posting a while back about a woman I know whose service dog was attacked by some crazy woman in a Walmart. The woman kicked the dog for no reason at all.  And before that, about the woman whose service dog had bleach sprayed in its face, also for no reason, in a store.

Well, today another person I know had her service dog kicked on a city bus. The dog was not bothering anyone and was completely under the woman's seat when another passenger, for no apparently reason, as she was passing the seat to get off the bus, reached out and kicked the dog. It was clearly not an accident, as the dog was completely under the seat and she had to really stretch out her leg to do it. 

The woman that kicked the service dog in Walmart did get arrested and I think is being charged with cruelty to animals. The woman that kicked the service dog on the bus today then continued to get off the bus before anyone thought to try and stop her, so I guess she isn't getting in trouble at all.

Personally, I think in addition to being charged with cruelty to animals, they should probably be charged with hate crimes. These are not only crimes against animals, but crimes against the people with disabilities that rely on these service dogs. If the dog is physically injured, or if he becomes psychologically damaged as a result of being attacked by a person for no reason, that would have a devastating effect on his handler's life.

These kinds of stories really scare me.  It's just unbelievably cruel, not only to the dogs, but also to the person with a disability. 

And I don't mean to downplay the cruelty to the dogs.  I am against cruelty to animals.  I don't eat meat, haven't since I was 14, because I think killing animals so we can eat them is cruel.  I rarely eat eggs but when I do, I buy free range eggs from a local farm where I can see how the chickens are treated, because most chickens raised for their eggs are treated in terribly cruel ways.  I watched a documentary about how Wegman's raises eggs and I cried.  (I encourage you to watch the video.  It's only about 30 minutes long and the ending is beautiful.  And I promise it will make you think).  I refuse to visit zoos or aquariums because the way animals are captured and then kept is cruel.  I am against using animals for medical research.

So I think people that attack dogs, whether they are service dogs or not, should be prosecuted.  I think it's terrible that they usually get no jail time, especially for a first offense.  Hurting animals is a terrible crime.  It's immoral.  It's unethical.  It's wrong.

But I think attacking a service dog is another crime, too.  It's also a crime against the person with a disability.  If a person used a wheelchair and another customer in a Walmart came up and did something to damage or destroy that wheelchair, how horrible would that be?  How would that person get home, without their wheelchair?  They'd be stranded in Walmart.

And you know, in many cases, the person that damaged the wheelchair would get in more trouble, legally, than the person that kicked a service dog.  Animals are viewed as property and usually not very valuable property, either.

But service dogs are incredibly valuable.  They cannot be easily replaced.  Hurting a service dog hurts the person that relies on that dog.  I really do think it should be considered a hate crime.

Service Dogs in Schools

I read an article today about a family that is upset because they got a service dog for their six-year-old little boy and they want the school to provide someone to care for the service dog while their child is at school and the school has refused to do that because, they say, it's not their responsibility to care for a child's service dog.

This is becoming more and more of an issue these days, as there are now a number of organizations that place service dogs (or untrained puppies, in the case of one organization that sells "diabetic alert dogs" to families of diabetic children for $20,000) with young children that are not able to steward a service dog themselves.  In the past, when service dogs were primarily used to help blind people, this wasn't an issue because the programs that train and place guide dogs for the blind won't place dogs with children under the age of 16.  They require that all recipients be old enough and mature enough to care for their own dogs and also require that they complete orientation and mobility training first, which means they have to learn coping skills to allow them to cope with their disability before receiving a service dog. 

That makes good sense.  But there are some organizations now that provide service dogs (or untrained puppies, as mentioned above) with small children, some of whom are also severely disabled, that cannot possible care for a dog themselves.  The children also have not yet learned to manage their disabilities as well as they can without a dog.  I don't think it's a good idea to place service dogs with children in these cases, but there is big money in it.  As I said, one organization sells puppies for $20,000, telling parents the puppies will alert to changes in their children's blood sugar and that the parents can later have the dogs trained to actually do tasks, like bring the child a juice box if their blood sugar drops.  Parents, desperate for any help for a seriously ill child, shell out the $20,000.  Some of them are now suing said organization for selling them untrained puppies instead of service dogs, but what did they really expect when they were told they were getting an eight-week-old puppy?

Anyway.  I think that's why these organizations do it, because they make a lot of money, not because they care about the kids or the dogs.

But then the parents want these dogs to go to school with their kids and they want the school to provide a handler for the dog.  Which is not required under state or federal law and which, in my opinion, is not reasonable.

In this particular article, it seems the parents did not bother to work all that out with the school before getting the service dog.  The dog, according to the article, was not very well trained and the school actually paid for additional training for the dog, which I think is remarkable and which I also think was not the school's responsibility. 

The parents seem to lack understand of what it means to care for a service dog.  The article mentioned a younger sibling pulling the dog's tail and trying to ride her like a horse, and apparently the six-year-old is unable to protect his dog from that sort of behavior, and apparently the parents don't correct the toddler in a timely manner.  I feel sorry for the dog. 

The parents are also quoted as saying the only assistance with the dog that the six-year-old needs is someone to hold the dog's leash in the hallways between classes.  Um, handling a service dog involves more than that.  The dog would need at least one potty break during the school day, and if the six-year-old is unable to hold the dog's leash, then he must also be unable to take the dog outside and pick up its poop.  So which school employee is supposed to be responsible for that?  The dog would need access to water at some point during the school day, probably more than once.  And no matter how well the dog is trained, there will be times it will not want to lie under the kid's desk, times it will get distracted, times it will need to be given commands and corrected and stuff.

I really don't think six-year-old kids should have service dogs at all, but if they do, then it's not the school's job to care for the dog.

Starbucks Employee Embarrassed Man with Service Dog

The headline says "Amputee veteran turned away by Starbucks employees who wouldn't let his service dog in store," but if you read the article, he wasn't turned away at all.

A Starbucks employee told him dogs weren't allowed.  He said his dog was a service dog.  The employee said, "You're not blind," which is a fairly stupid thing to say, but people say it.  I was asked by an employee at Jiffy Lube if I was blind.  Yes, I drove my car up, got out of the car with my service dog, sat there until he was done changing my oil, paid for the oil change and signed the credit card slip, and then, as I was preparing to get back into my car, he asked if I was blind.  I laughed and pointed out that if someone drives to Jiffy Lube, they probably can see OK.

Anyway.  The Starbucks employee then asked what the dog was trained to do.  Employees are allowed to ask that.  The U.S. Department of Justice says so.  It is not a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act to ask that.

The man with the service dog answered the question and then the employee asked him why he can't do those things for himself.  That is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The employee should not have asked that.  He was wrong.

However, the disabled man was not required to answer the question in order to enter the store and make his purchase.  He was not turned away, either.  Another employee stepped in, told the first employee to stop asking questions, and told the disabled man he could bring his service dog into the store.  Problem solved.

But the man with the service dog was embarrassed.  Well, I can understand that.  But there is no law prohibiting employees from embarrassing customers, whether or not the customers have service dogs or disabilities.  There is no law preventing employees from being rude, either.  

So the problem was resolved on the spot and the man with the service dog was not denied access.  But he was embarrassed, so he made a big stink and involved the  media.  Starbucks issued an apology but he says he'll never go there again because the employee embarrassed him.  Well, OK.  He certainly doesn't have to go there if he doesn't want to.  But I find it objectionable that he's stirring up the media and they are printing headlines saying he was turned away when he wasn't.

Poorly Trained Service Dogs Sold to Families Desparate to Help Their Kids

There are several organizations selling very costly "service dogs" to families with young kids with serious medical problems, like juvenile diabetes, and severe disabilities, like autism.  I put the term "service dogs" in quotes because some of these organizations, the ones I'm talking about here, are selling poorly-trained dogs or even untrained puppies and calling them service dogs when they really aren't.

One organization is infamous among service dog handlers for selling puppies as young as eight weeks old for $20,000, claiming the puppies are trained to detect life-threatening changes in blood sugar levels in young children, even from a distance of more than a mile away.  It is simply not possible for a dog to smell anything that far away and an eight-week-old puppy is too young to be trained to do anything; they are barely old enough to be housebroken.

Now another organization is in the news, with parents complaining that the service dogs they paid $10,000 for don't even obey basic commands like "sit" and "stay," that they chew up household items, and have even bitten people.  Naturally, these parents want their money back.  Naturally, the organization does not want to refund their money.

I'm pretty sure this is the organization that trained a service dog for a family that posted numerous pictures on Facebook and videos on Youtube a while back, showing the dog sitting on a chair in a restaurant, sitting in a seat on a plane, and barking loudly at animals in exhibits at a zoo.  The mom said that the dog refused to lie under the table at restaurants.  She was angry because someone on the plane told her the dog was not supposed to be in the seat.  She did not think it was a problem that the dog was barking at animals at the zoo.

I'm not surprised that some people want their money back.  I am surprised that people keeping shelling out so much  money without finding out how the dogs are trained and stuff first, but I guess some parents are so desperate to help their kids, they are willing to forgo common sense.  I mean, seriously, a believing that a puppy can detect changes in your kid's blood sugar from more than a mile away?  Does that sound believable?  But they shelled out $20,000.

"Service Dog" Bites Customer in Pet Store

A couple weeks ago, this woman complained that she was asked to leave a store because she had a service dog with her.  The store manager says she was asked to leave because, when questioned about her dog, she became confrontational.  Apparently at one point, she said she wanted to be allowed to shop after the store had closed with her dog so that the dog would not bother other customers.  She got angry when she was told she would not be allowed to shop outside of the store's regular business hours.

Now, her "service dog" has bitten another customer in a pet store.  The bite was severe enough that the other customer required stitches.  I know a lot of details are missing from this brief article, but it does not sound as if the dog was provoked in any way.  The owner of the dog is trying to minimize the problem, saying it was more of a "nip" than a bite.  Um, yeah... a nip would not require stitches.  That's a bite.

She says she'll be getting some additional obedience training for her dog.  I really hope she doesn't mean that she intends to continue taking this dog out in public and calling it a "service dog."  But that's what it sounds like.  And she seems to think she is entitled to all kinds of special treatment, like stores should allow her to shop whenever she wants, even when they are closed, and she should be allowed to take her dog that bites into stores with her.

I'm putting "service dog" in quotes because I am very skeptical that her dog is actually a trained service dog.  Properly trained service dogs do not bite people in stores.  They just don't.  For that matter, properly socialized puppies don't bite people, not without some sort of provocation.  But trained service dogs?  They don't bite people in stores.  They don't bite people that startle them, that grab them from behind, that hug them too hard, that pull their tails or ears, that stick their fingers in their noses or mouths. 

Seriously.  They don't.  You can stick your hand in Isaac's mouth and he will not bite you.  Now, I do not recommend going up to service dogs you happen to meet and sticking your hands in their mouths.  But if you did that, they should not bite you.  Because kids do that.  Toddlers will come up to service dogs, and for some reason I do not understand their parents will let them, and stick their little fingers in their noses and mouths.  And pull their tails and ears, and try to climb on them and ride them like horses, and all sorts of other things.  And Isaac does not bite them.  He does not snap at them or growl at them.  If they are really bothering him, he will turn his head away.  That's it.

So this woman's dog is not a properly trained service dog.  And it should not be taken in public around other people again.  Never.  And I am offended that she is calling the dog a service dog because some people will then think that service dogs might bite.  The manager of the pet store said that the pet store had to pay for the customer's medical bills.  Business owners are not going to want service dogs in their stores if they think service dogs might bite their customers and they will have to pay for their medical bills.

By the way, the owner of the dog should have paid for the medical bills.  I hope the pet store sues her to recover those costs.  If the dog was a real service dog, the owner should have had insurance that would cover a bite.  My renter's insurance covers it, if Isaac bites someone.  And yes, the insurance covers it even if the bite occurs outside of my home.  I know I just got done saying Isaac would never bite anyone, but I have insurance anyway, just in case, because that is what responsible pet owners and service dog owners are supposed to do.  But insurance is not going to cover it if your poorly socialized pet bites someone when you take it to a store pretending it is a service dog.

Retrieving

A man in Grand Rapids, Michigan is upset because his service dog is trained to grab mail when the mail carrier pushes it through the slot in his door and then bring the mail to him, but the post office says they cannot deliver mail that way because the mail carrier might be bitten by the dog.  Now, I'm not sure how the dog can bite someone through the mail slot, but I also don't understand why the dog cannot pick up the mail from the floor.  In the article I read, though, it says it is very difficult or impossible for his service dog to retrieve mail from the floor.

Isaac has no trouble picking up mail from the floor.  Everyone I know that has a service dog says their dogs have no trouble picking up mail from the floor.  In fact, most service dogs trained to retrieve things for their handlers can pick up much smaller, more challenging things than mail.

Today, Isaac and I practiced some retrieving.  Here are the items he was able to retrieve easily from my living room floor:

A protein bar wrapper, a coupon, a Panera card similar to a credit card, a large magnet, a tiny magnet (anyone else remember magnetic poetry?), and a nickle.  Yesterday he picked up a paper clip and a quarter, too.

When I first got Isaac, I was a little concerned that he might accidentally swallow something small like a paper clip or a coin.  However, Isaac never eats anything that is not food (with the exception of bugs and cat poop, both of which he believes are food).  When he rips stuffed animals to shreds, he never eats any of the stuffing.  Sometimes I see him really working with his tongue to get a bit of stuffing out of his mouth because he does not want to swallow it.  He shreds basketballs to little tiny scraps and never eats any of those, either. 

I am very grateful that he does not eat things that are not edible (disgusting as it is, apparently bugs and cat poop are easily digested by dogs).  I never find non-food items in his poop.  I have a friend whose dog eats shoes and socks and all sorts of things that are definitely not edible, and Isaac has never ever done that.  Therefore, at this point, I feel very comfortable that he is not going to eat a coin or a paper clip when asked to retrieve it for me.  If he did, he would just poop it out.  One coin or one paper clip would not hurt him.  But I have no fear that he will swallow anything he does not intend to swallow.

Student Told She Must Attend a Different School Because Teacher is Allergic to Her Service Dog

An elementary school student in Athens, Ohio, has been told she'll need to transfer to a different school because the special education teach at the school was planning to attend is several allergic to dogs and the student has a service dog. According to the article, the dog is trained to "comfort" the child (comforting is not a trained task for a service dog, according to the U.S. Department of Justice) and the child is tethered to the dog to keep her from wandering away (tethering children to dogs is a very dangerous practice).  I think the school is being very accommodating in allowing the child to bring the dog to school at all, if these are in fact the only "tasks" the dog does.  Now, maybe the dog is actually trained to perform tasks that mitigate the child's disability and the article I read just doesn't delineate them.  But if this is all the dog does, it's questionable whether to dog even qualifies as a service dog.

Supposing the dog really is a service dog, though, the school has a responsibility to accommodate both the student and the teacher.  Transferring the child to another school just five miles away, where she'll be taught by an equally qualified teacher following the same individual education plan (IEP), seems like a perfectly reasonable accommodation to me.  The parents are upset, though, and want the teacher to be transferred instead.  I think they are being unreasonable.  And their solution?  Not to send the child to school at all until the matter is resolved.

Another Fake Service Dog

Here's an article about a celebrity with a fake service dog.  It seems the only reason his dog is wearing a service dog vest is so the dog can fly in the cabin of the plane with him.  I wish airlines would crack down on this kind of thing.

See the photos of him carrying the dog through the airport?  That is a dead giveaway that it's not even a real service dog.  A real service dog would be walking through the airport, heeling nicely.

What's wrong with people pretending their dogs are service dogs when they're not?  Well, besides the fact that it's dishonest, unethical, and illegal, it ends up making things harder for people with real service dogs.  The public gets used to seeing all these fake service dogs and suspects that real service dogs are also pretend service dogs.  They get tired of dealing with ill-behaved pets and just want dogs to stay out of public places altogether.  I wish airlines and other businesses would start excising their rights and not allowing people to bring in fake service dogs.

Arresting for Barking at a Police Dog

Did you read about the football player that got arrested for barking at a police dog?

People bark at service dogs all the time.  They bark at them in the grocery store and places like that.  They don't get arrested for it, either.

One would think these immature people might behave a bit better around police dogs, though, since police dogs are generally accompanied by police officers.  But apparently not. 

Do you think this means I can make a citizen's arrest the next time someone barks at Isaac in the grocery store?

Actually, you can only make a citizen's arrest if someone is committing a felony.  Did you know that?  I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that barking at a dog, even a police dog, is probably just a misdemeanor.

Frightened Customer Sprays Service Dog in the Eyes with Bleach

I read this story this morning and was horrified.

A customer in a Florida grocery store was alarmed to see another customer, who is blind, with her guide dog.  She says she has schizoaffective disorder and that makes her paranoid (which very well may be true) and thought the dog was vicious (although she admits it was not behaving in an aggressive manner at all) and might attack other customers or children in the store.  She asked the woman with the guide dog to leave the store, but the woman declined to do so.  Apparently she wanted to complete her shopping and of course she has every right to have her trained service dog in the store with her.

The woman the grabbed a spray bottle of Clorox cleaner off the shelf and sprayed the service dog in its eyes.  The police were called, thank goodness, and they cited the woman for animal cruelty.  Perhaps that was the only local law they could use to cite her, but I think she should be charged with something more.  Yes, what she did was certainly animal cruelty, and she should be charged with that as well.  But she didn't only do something cruel to the dog.  She endangered the dog's owner, a blind woman that depends on her dog.

The article states that the dog appeared to be uninjured, which is surprising to me but I hope that's true.  Even if the dog is physically OK, though, it could be emotionally traumatized by the experience.  Something like that can cause a service dog to be unable to work for a while, or even unable to work ever again.  From the article, it appears the dog's owner was shopping alone.  How would she get home if her dog was temporarily unable to see clearly?  It seems to me that in addition to committing a crime against the dog (animal cruelty), the woman also committed a crime against the dog's owner, much like if she had damaged a disabled woman's wheelchair so that the woman could not safely use it. 

Only it is much more expensive and takes a lot longer to replace a service dog than a wheelchair.  Especially a guide dog for the blind.  While it costs about $20,000 to train most service dogs, it costs about $40,000 to $50,000 to train a guide dog.  While many service dogs can be trained in just 18 months, it usually takes at least two years to train a guide dog.  And while many service dog programs have one to two year waiting lists, the waiting list for a guide dog is often two to three years.

I read the comments on the article and one commenter said he thought the woman should be involuntarily hospitalized as she is clearly a danger to herself and/or others.  I agree that she is a danger to others, if indeed it was her mental illness that caused her to behave this way, which seems to be what she is saying.  What will she do the next time she sees a service dog in the grocery store?  In the article, she is quoted as saying she guesses she overreacted but she still doesn't think the dog should have been in the store.  I hope the court orders her to be evaluated to determine if she is still a danger to others. 

She could get up to a year in jail and/or a $5,000 fine for the animal cruelty charge.  I hope, if the court determines she is not "not guilty due to insanity," that she at least gets the maximum fine.

Have You Heard about the Dispute over a Dog in Oregon?

Basically, this young woman found a lost dog.  She says she looked for the owner, but it turns out the owner lived near her and he reported the dog missing to the county animal shelter and checked in there regularly, and she apparently never contacted the shelter as she should have done about finding the dog.  He also says he put up signs in the neighborhood and he posted an ad about the lost dog on Craig’s List.  So there is some question about whether or not she even looked for the owner.

She decided to train the dog to be her service dog because she has asthma.  She says she trained him to bring her an inhaler when she needs it.  I’m not sure why she cannot carry her own inhaler in her pocket or something and most people with asthma are not considered disabled by it, not under the Americans with Disabilities definition, so there is also some question about her need for a service dog.  But she says the dog is now her service dog.

Then one day at a coffee shop, she and the dog happened to cross paths with the original owner, who recognized his dog.  He spoke to her and she agreed to return the dog to him the following day.  She did not return the dog, though; instead, she went out and bought a license for the dog (which by law she should have done long before then).  The previous owner had purchased a license for the dog when he was supposed to do so, but the new owner only did it when her ownership of the dog was challenged.

The new owner says since she’s had the dog for a year, and since she needs him because he is her service dog, she should get to keep him.  The previous owner says that since he reported the dog lost and since he does not think the new owner really looked for the dog’s owner when she found the dog, she should give him back.  The county animal control people investigated and they agree with the original owner.  They told the new owner to return the dog.

But she didn’t.  Instead she hired a lawyer and they are fighting about it.

Recently, she was arrested for refusing to return the dog and the dog is now being kept at the animal shelter until the case is resolved.

She is also now alleging that the original owner abused the dog by kicking him, beating him, and urinating on him and that because he abused the dog, she should not have to give the dog back.  I think it’s unlikely that a dog that has been severely abused had the temperament to become a service dog.  I also think it’s a bit odd that she’s only now making these accusations of abuse.

Of course, the fact that she trained the dog, or says she trained him, to be her service dog is not really relevant.  Animals, including service dogs, are considered to be personal property.  It doesn’t matter in the eyes of the law if the man lost his wallet, his pet dog, or his service dog.  It doesn’t matter how the young woman has used the property she found, whether she trained the dog to be a service dog or a circus dog or whatever.  The issue is who is the rightful owner of the property.

Here are some links to some articles if you want to read more about the case.

BeaumontEnterprise: Stray Dog Dispute Heads for Portland Courtroom  

TheBark: Whose Dog Is It? 

Huffington Post: Student Arrested in Oregon Dog Dispute