No. I’m no expert, but all the service animals I’ve been near have been very, very well behaved. They don’t jump up when greeting new people. They typically don’t even interact with other people while they’re on the job. I’ve only had one employee with a service animal and he pretty much ignored everyone but his master while he was on the job.
They can be. Don’t know if that works out as well as with dogs.
Big ol’ diapers.
I bet they have them. Apparently they have shoes for horses and I don’t mean 
.
I mean actual tennis shoes, maryjanes, and oxfords.
It’s unfortunate that the concept is so widely abused. Reactions like yours are a natural response when some huge percentage of the time there is no reason to believe the situation is anything more than “I like my pet a lot/don’t want to leave it home alone, so you have to allow it anywhere I go.”
I can imagine a few instances where an emotional support animal could be legit. My mother was a clinical therapist who worked with many people who were barely hanging on to the ability to live independently, or were in group homes with some supervision. When I was a teen, she made sure I had a lot of exposure to her clients, by doing things like going Christmas shopping or playing chess with them or just sitting and visiting with them (yes, I know that sounds like a HIPAA violation, but either the laws didn’t exist then or she broke them).
And now, I live in a community that has TONS of vets, some of whom clearly still suffer from PSTD.
Because of my exposure to these folks, I do believe that there are legitimate cases where the companionship of a well-trained animal could be the difference between being somewhat functional and experiencing such severe anxiety that daily functioning would be impossible.
Having said that, I think there should be very strict rules in place about screening the humans and training the animals. The system should be just as rigorous as it is for service animals.
Not a service dog. I tend to be more “don’t start anything” but I’d say something to HR. That’s some bullshit.
Who talks about horses lacking intelligence? I haven’t heard that anywhere.
I don’t see how that will help, as a genuine service dog might not wear one but anybody can buy one.
A dog who’s not trained to not jump on people seems like a poorly trained dog to me, service or not.
I would talk to HR and ask to be assured that the dog will be on a leash when you’re anywhere it has access to. The company’s entitled to allow the dog to be there; the dog’s human may have good reason to want the dog to be there; but others at the workplace are entitled to have the dog not be jumping up at them. Even aside from people nervous about dogs, a dog jumping on or even up at people can cause somebody to fall: a physical hazard.
It’s a really good idea to not just pet the doggy without a go-ahead from the human whether or not the dog is a service animal and whether or not the dog’s on duty.
Also try to be sure that you’ve got the dog’s permission. Some humans have dogs in their care despite not knowing anything much about dogs.
Without actual confirmation, I’m not convinced this dog is anything but a comfort/emotional support dog.
I can certainly understand needing support.
But, on your actual job?
I would not employ anyone requiring that.
A true service animal and their person have civil rights.
This is a choice the employer has made.
Nice of them, surely.
Don’t the other employees have rights?
I’d fight it.
I love dogs, not afraid of them and wanna be near them. My own especially.
I wouldn’t take a jumpy dog anyplace, much less a workplace.
What if she had a support Cayman or snake? Would the employer be so accommodating? I think not.
It’s ridiculous.
Pretty sure I saw it around these parts. But I’ll assume I was mistaken rather than try to search for it.
Now I want an emotional support drop bear.
I had a blind coworker who had a guide dog at work. These dogs were trained to be “working” whenever their harness was on. There were only very rare occasions where the harness was off. Her dogs came from the Guide Dogs for the Blind organization in San Rafael. I later had a boyfriend in San Rafael who used to tell stories about occasionally seeing dogs in training around town, and how once a dog tried to walk its trainer into traffic. I’d guess that’s one that flunked out!
I also had a friend who worked for the Disaster Dog group in Ojai. She said their flunk-out rate was really high, too. But the nice thing was that a lot of their dogs were ones who often were returnees to shelters because they were just too high energy. If that energy could be harnessed (heh), they made excellent disaster dogs.
The person in the OP is not the employer, but someone who share the office. I doubt the law applies to them. And they can certainly ask, though they could be refused.
We carried paperwork all the time, but never had to use it since our dogs had widely recognized vests and never misbehaved.
That where our dogs came from. We were just within the 50 mile limit to keep a breeder. They used to be more open there, but they had some disease problems so they’ve limited visitors.
Knowing generally where you live, I was guessing that’s the organization you were associated with. She was really happy with them. There was another org (blanking on the name) that she had nothing good to say about.
And not protected under ADA
They are NOT. That’s true.
Like I said upthread I have this for me and my dog. (I could use this. But I do not) I even spent $50 to get some registration paper and presumably legit ability for my dog.
It’s Worthless. It means absolutely nothing. It gives me no rights, whatsoever. None.
I have letters from 2 medical persons. A person/entity can accept them or not. It gives me NO rights.
People assume its some kinda legal thing. It’s not.
It’s courtesy only.
I’ll say openly, I do not use this. Ever. My dog visited me in rehab. But the facility allowed that anyway. With restrictions.
This employee got a break. The OPs employer allowed it. That is the whole story.
So, you are trying to essentially fool people into allowing you to bring your pet places with you? Instead of simply asking if you could bring your well-behaved pet because it would make you more comfortable?
People “assume” it is some kinda legal thing, because you went to some effort and expense to give them that impression.
Did you miss the part where she said
Sure, but she also previously said:
So we are to believe she went through the effort and expense of buying a vest/tag, getting letters, but never uses them? When is it that she “fools enough people”?
Yeah, that doesn’t sound right.
My wife is lucky in that her office of ~20 people they all love dogs. And we have a very well behaved Border Collie.The boss is cool with it, though it’s against the general organizations rules.