The Problem with Service Dogs

How many 'service dogs' have you seen recently?

With impressive harness and large 'service dog' tag?

Many of them are small dogs riding around in pouches, shoulder bags and purses.

I daresay that many, if not most, of the service dog tags sported by these animals are actually the cheap kind you can buy on the Internet for around $ 6.00 – with certification that this animal is a service dog. No certification test needed or taken. Instead buyers get a small card advising anyone who cares to challenge the owner of the service dog what the federal service dog law, ADA version, provides.

These tags are dubious at best, if not outright fraudulent. There is not even an attempt to verify that the dog is indeed trained as a service dog AND that the owner is disabled.

The ID cards that advise about the law are phony as well. The issuing agencies have fancy names that sound official or even purport to be training facilities. I have seen some that give only a very general outline on how a dog should be trained. No actual training takes place despite the fact that the facilities claim to be training facilities.

The overwhelming majority are not. Just money making enterprises. Or fronts for puppy mills or online pet stores.

ADA facilitated service dogs

There are several ways a dog can become a service dog. The most commonly used method is to apply the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This federal law defines 'service dog' less accurately and more broadly than many State and local laws and regulations pertaining to service dogs.

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Under current federal law a dog can be a service dog

- if his/her owner is disabled and

- the animal performs a specific service, often a physical task, for the owner. Listed are, among others, pulling a wheel chair, fetching a phone, picking up dropped items and turning lights on or off, to name a few.

That's pretty straight forward. It conjures up images of seeing eye dogs and of a large dog pulling a wheelchair. Not much room for misleading manipulation there. Problems arise when non-physical factors are used to justify a dog's position as service dog.

For example, giving passive emotional support does not qualify a dog as a service dog. These animals are emotional support dogs and as such not covered by ADA rules. Emotional support dogs are usually not trained to perform certain physical tasks for their emotionally affected owners. Dogs that give only emotional comfort to a person or visit and interact with the infirm are therapy dogs and not service dogs.

Therapy dogs do not have the privileges of a service dog.

In order to qualify as a service dog the canine must be trained to act specifically on specific behavioral patterns or behavior displayed by his emotionally challenged owner, such as with the onset of serious depression.

Dogs trained to do so often called psych dogs.

They respond to great sadness or sustained crying of their owners by licking face and the tears.

That is a far cry from a dog sitting on the couch or in the car or on an airplane doing nothing but what a dog normally would do without special training.

The problem with the ADA service dogs

1. Self-certified 'handicap'.

Only licensed medical professionals or institutions can declare a person handicapped as part of a formal diagnosis and medical findings.

Yet, if a person points to his dog and claims it to be a service dog, he cannot be challenged as to his or her disability. ADA does not allow that.

So, it is all self-policed.

2. Self-certified specific service

When challenged the disabled owner of a 'service dog' does not necessarily have to explain what specific service the dog is performing, since nobody can lawfully inquire about the nature of the owner's disability.

Virtually all website that have service dog tag and harnesses for sale make it a point to emphasize that prohibition. Only the police may have the right to look more closely into the nature of the disability, if any, and to check the truth of the facts claimed.

The result?

Rampant abuse of the service dog status. Much of it is based on some vague statement by some sort of medical practitioner that the dog is needed for emotional support of his owner.

Go to any grocery store, airline check line, taxi service or any other facility frequented by people and you will find the proverbial Chihuahua riding in a shoulder bag or other small dogs lifting a leg on the groceries. Ask landlords about their experiences with 'service' dogs and their belligerent owners.

Therefore many owners of true service dogs get challenged by store managers and tailed by security guards while in a store. They are keeping a leery eye on the dog looking for any transgression that might serve as a convenient reason to eject the animal from the facility for creating a nuisance.

The authors of ADA and the service dog provisions therein

• envisioned large dog performing physical services for their owners. The laws were written with Seeing Eye Dogs in mind not to deliver excuses to take a dog in a bag on an airplane or to a grocery store,
• had in mind training and certification efforts similar to those of certified Seeing Eye Dogs,
• assumed the integrity and honesty of a truly handicapped person.

They did not think of dogs as fashion statements and couched as 'service dogs'.

In reality cheating is rampant.

It is supported by individuals who derive income from offering phony service dog implements, claim to train dogs and so to certify them, misrepresent legal requirements service dogs must meet in order to cater to a clientèle that cheats outright.

Most these owners are not handicapped at all, have no trained service dog that can perform any specific service for them other than just being a pet. But that does not make for a service dog. A pet is a pet.

These owners are making a mockery out of the status as service dog.

They are only looking for a way to take their dog places where they do not belong or to find a way to defeat a landlord who does not allow dogs on his property.

Backlash

The actions of a minority of irresponsible and selfish people are creating a backlash from retailers and other entities because of the high number of bad experiences with untrained, small noisy dogs that pee in grocery stores and bark up a storm. As a consequence, true service dogs also get hassled by managers, security guards and other interested personnel.

Should honest handicapped people be inconvenienced and forced to fight every time they need to take their dog because of the abuse perpetrated by an ever growing minority of selfish pet lovers who abuse a well-meant system?

What should and can be done about this deplorable situation?

I will answer this question in the second part of this article.

PJJ