Service Animals And The TSA

What to expect when taking your service dog on an airplane.

The airport is one of the places where you can expect close attention to your service dog. It is better to be prepared than to be sorry. Proper preparation begins with the knowledge of what to expect and how to adjust to it.

Check out the following official advice and rules that the TSA has published on their website:

“General

• If you have a service animal, you are encouraged to inform the TSO that the animal accompanying you is a service animal and not a pet.  This will provide you with an opportunity to move to the front of the screening line since the TSO may need to spend more time with you.
• It is recommended that persons using an animal for assistance carry appropriate identification.  Identification may include: cards or documentation, presence of a harness or markings on the harness, or other credible assurance of the passenger using the animal for their disability.
• At no time during the screening process will you be required to be separated from your service animal.
• TSOs have been trained not to communicate, distract, interact, play, feed, or pet service animals.
• The TSO should ask permission before touching your service animal or its belongings.
• You must assist with the inspection process by controlling the service animal while the TSO conducts the search.   You are required to maintain control of the animal in a manner that ensures the animal cannot harm the TSO.
• If you need to leave the sterile area to relieve your animal, you must undergo the full screening process again.  Inform the TSO upon your return to the security checkpoint and she/him will move you to the front of the screening line to expedite the screening process.

Service Dogs

• Advise the TSO how you and your dog can best achieve screening when going through the metal detector as a team (i.e., whether walking together or with the service animal walking in front of or behind you).
• If the WTMD alarms in the situation where you and the animal have walked together, both you and the dog must undergo additional screening.
• If the WTMD alarms on either you or the dog individually (because you walked through separately), additional screening must be conducted on whoever alarmed the WTMD.
• If the dog alarms the WTMD, the TSO will ask the PWD’s permission and assistance before they touch the dog and its belongings.  The TSO will then perform a hand inspection of the dog and its belongings (collar, harness, leash, backpack, vest, etc.)  The belongings will not be removed from the dog at any time.”

Now you know what to expect from TSA. Based on these official rules it is easy to foresee potential complications and to prepare for them. First and foremost among them is to establish without doubt that your dog is indeed a service animal and not just a pet impersonating an assistance animal.

In my opinion this is best accomplished by foregoing the easy way of using ADA provisions and some dubious Internet service dog patch or harness for a registered official State or local service dog license.

Not all states issue these licenses and your dog must take and pass a test to establish its function as a true, recognized service dog. But it is well worth having such a state sponsored service dog license, because not even police or any other authority can now question the status of your dog as a service animal.

You and your service dog must also comply with airline policies that vary from carrier to carrier. Some ask you to call and advise the airline that you will be traveling with a service dog. Most will allow your service animal to sit with you in the aircraft as long as the dog can sit in front of your feet or under the seat. Dogs that do not meet this requirement may have to travel in the cargo hold unless you buy a second ticket to accommodate your dog. Whenever possible most airlines will give you a bulkhead seat that allows more room for a dog.

I will talk about and explain state and local service dog rules in the second part of my article on service dogs (see The Problem with Service Dogs for part I.)

Oh, I know. Supporters of ADA rules, mainly those that sell harnesses, tags, dubious IDs and so-called service dog training, never fail to state that federal law supersedes state and local law. But they also conveniently forget to mention that state and local laws trump federal law when the regional provisions are stricter than federal rules regarding service dogs.

Many of them are indeed more exacting. Others also include extended legal protection for the service animal in their Penal Code. California for example incorporates both in state law regarding service dogs.

PJJ