Our office sent email last week informing us that someone would be bringing a service dog to the office. The email says that the dog is friendly and likes to jump up to greet people. The email also says to not approach the dog unless his owner is holding the leash.
That’s not how any service dog I’ve encountered behaves. They stay close to their owners and don’t interact with people. This sounds like a comfort animal to me.
That would all be strange but fine except for the fact that I’m afraid of dogs. Big dogs, little dogs, doesn’t matter. Until I have enough experience to know that your dog isn’t a threat I will be afraid of it.
I’m going to work from home instead of going to the office for the week in question, which sucks because I like going to the office. I will pop in to get a look at the dog to see if it’s wearing a genuine service dog uniform to satisfy my curiosity.
I guess I don’t actually have a question except for “Does that sound like a service animal to you?”
‘Jump up’ is not as bad as ‘jump on’ would be, but still could be a problem if people get startled. IMHO the dog should not be off the leash in the office ever.
A few times I’ve had people call my store asking if they can bring their service dog in even though it doesn’t have it’s vest yet. That’s generally an automatic ‘no’ from me since I generally make the assumption that if someone thinks their service dog needs a vest, they don’t have a service dog. They have a companion/pet dog, but not a service dog.
A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Tasks performed can include, among other things, pulling a wheelchair, retrieving dropped items, alerting a person to a sound, reminding a person to take medication, or pressing an elevator button.
Emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not service animals under Title II and Title III of the ADA. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not considered service animals either. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual’s disability. It does not matter if a person has a note from a doctor that states that the person has a disability and needs to have the animal for emotional support. A doctor’s letter does not turn an animal into a service animal.
We raised four guide dogs, the last one of which became a breeder so we got to keep her.
Service dogs should never be off leash while working, and the dog is working in the office. When I took our dogs to work to socialize them or when our daughter took them to school they were always on leash. That was true even when she was under my desk in a one person office with the door closed. But a service dog will never jump on anyone while working. Any dog in our program who did that would get career changed right away.
You can look up the organization on the vest, and you can also ask to see the dog’s paperwork which they should have to prove they can accompany the owner on transportation and in restaurants and grocery stores.
You can also ask about the dog’s training. We socialized our guides, but after we were done with them they went through a rigorous training procedure, ending with training with the blind person they would help.
I’m suspicious also.
I don’t think there’s anything to be suspicious of – at best, that’s some sort of untrained emotional support animal, but more likely just a pet that the owner convinced a therapist to write a letter about.
Emotional support animals are not service animals. Roughly 50% of guide dog puppies get career changed and never work. Our guide dogs facility carefully bred the dogs also to be good service dogs. It was amazing to go to an event with 100 dogs at least and none of them barked. How many comfort dogs get career changed. Or even trained in any way. My objection is not to the animal, or the animal going to work, since that is up to the company. It is to calling the animal something it isn’t and cheapening the hard work the trainers of service dogs put in.
BTW, in a great humor book I read, a professor has to deal with a student who couldn’t come to class since she was forced to move dorm rooms after her comfort cat tried to eat her roommates comfort canary.
Quoted for emphasis. Essentially the first things service dogs are taught and evaluated on is basic obedience and restraint in interacting with others for a physical handicap (like blindness or limited mobility) or a severe condition (like epilepsy or PTST-induced panic attacks), the dog needs to be attentive at all times while on duty. A dog that can’t maintain good self-discipline, however intelligent or otherwise well-behaved, is going to get declared unsuitable and have a “career change” (reassigned to a non-service job or adopted out as a pet). There is no way the dog mentioned by the o.p. is a genuine service dog.
The problem with treating “emotional support animals” like service animals is that it undermines trust and comfort with actual service dogs who are a necessary accommodation for their owners. Even if these emotional support animals are well-mannered and appropriately trained, it still invites people to just assume any pet that they ‘need’ to be with them is the equivalent of a service animal, and there is no governance or confidence that all of these creatures will be well-behaved in their interactions.
I have a few friends that are volunteers with Canine Companions, a non-profit organization that will place graduated service dogs with individuals that need service dogs free of charge.
The rigor under which their service dogs are trained is phenomanel. No service dog would jump up on someone else unless they are “released” (not physically from their leash) but through a command that the dog knows it can be petted.
It’s a comfort animal. And that’s ok, if her employer wants to do it. And she’s got the doctor letter.
I have the same letter for my dog. I even went thru a type of registration to get him an “official” letter. He even got a banner thing to wear on his collar. It means absolutely nothing.
I like it cause it’s believable enough he can visit me if I’m hospitalized.
He can come to dialysis. But he’s not comfortable there. So I don’t bring him.
It fools enough people I could probably get him in anywhere.
If I were the OP, I’d make a formal complaint. These kinda of things are not civilly protected. It’s all voluntary. They can’t and shouldn’t discriminate her, or YOU.
Get you a therapist letter saying how your fear of dogs is overwhelming you. And you can’t come in the office.
OP, you can fight this. If it’s a real problem.
Some people allow them into their houses and on the furniture just like dogs. They’re very intelligent and personable. They are somewhat larger than dogs, 150 lbs. or more.
I’ve never encountered them. But I thought it was pretty common for people to talk about horses’ - um - lack of intelligence. Not having experience, is that hyperbole?
How house-breakable are they? Scooping a cat litterbox is a pain some days (my two hold excretion contests, apparently), I can’t imagine mopping up after a horse empties its bladder on the floor.