My wife says “no way” unless I keep it with me, and I travel a lot.
Here’s my plan: I assign myself sort of significant, but um…flexible and subtle…disability. I have Panic Disorder for sure, as evidenced by my last peek at my 200.5K Plan, and I think I can show it definitely limits my major life activities. A little pooch to attend me would help ameliorate this disorder, and I am in a position to get an Official Letter from a health professional certifying this is so.
So now my little doggie, “Prozac,” is a Service Dog with all the attendant rights under ADA 1990.
Assuming I can take the heat for being wimpy enough to own little Prozac, and can live with the scorn when the Public hears the reason I get to take Pro wherever I go, are there any holes in my plan?
My Wife has, on occasion, claimed that Duchess in needed to alleviate her anxiety disorders. But Duchess is a well-behaved Boston Terrier whom everyone loves.
Good question … I have always wanted a service dog with backpacks to carry crap. Crutches are a pain in the ass if you need to carry anything, and backpacks can be a bitch to get in and out of, purses dangling even slung crossways from right shoulder to left hip bangs around if you have anything more than a bare minimum in it. Nothing like trying to walk and untangle an errant purse from the crutch …
it is bad enough that I have a moto 9M as a cell phone, portable brain and reading library, and i carry a business card case I got as a freebie with my plastic, military ID, drivers license and medical insurance card. Any time I go anywhere, anything I need to carry other than that has to be carried by someone else. Everything I carry needs to go into my pockets.
Actually, this is a relatively common use for service dogs, precisely because it allows the person who uses crutches on a regular basis to go out and shop/carry things around without the inconvenience and discomfort that you described and without needing someone else with you. If you use a wheel chair as well, then the dogs can be trained to help pull the chair, position themselves in helpful ways to aid in getting in and out of the chair, picking up dropped objects (like crutches!) etc. This is a link to the Mira Foundation, which provides dogs to people in Quebec (I don’t know other foundations enough to look them up!)
While I think that claiming that any and all pets to be a service animal is an abuse of the system and I can understand your annoyance, the fact is that you would still have sneezing fits on airplanes, in hotels or in restaurants if a true service dog were present. The mobility and independence of the person with the dog does, IMHO, trump your allergies. You can take an antihistamine. They cannot pop a pill and be able to see/walk/carry things/function as normally as possible.
I didn’t know you were a crutch user, aruvqan! My daughter is too (she has CP); and has all of the same issues you do with them. This is actually one of the biggest reasons she likes the idea of a service dog – and she may get one yet. She is in college now, though, and we decided that it would be more trouble than it’s worth until she is out of dorms.
Anyway, to continue the hijack – have you tried a crutch bag? We bought one of these – the middle sized one. It worked great, but lacked style, so i took it apart and made her a snazzier one out of an old Vera Bradley totebag she had. It still works great and she likes how it looks now too.
Thank you. I will try to endure the shame as nobly as possible. That law just keeps getting better and better; in this case killing three birds with one stone (my desire for a dog; my need to ameliorate my Panic Disorder and my hope that I not have to defend those things all the time).
I can’t figure out why it’s an abuse, except to the extent that someone would invent or exaggerate a disability (and may they rot in hell if they do). If that’s you point, then well-made, and well-taken. I would certainly make a commitment to abide by the letter of the law, of course.
That is exactly my point, it does happen. I wouldn’t even mind so much but for the fact that some of these so-called “service dogs” have had NO training, NO discipline on public behavior and give proper service dogs a bad name.
I remember this from my days of teaching ADA to businesses.
The thing about the ADA is that results are open to legal opinion. The use of animals is limited to services the disabled AREN’T OTHERWISE able to provide for themselves without the use of animals.
This can be open to discussion. If you could carry stuff in a backpack it could be argued that you don’t need a service dog. The ADA is not for your CONVENIENCE or because something is HARD. It exists because something is impossible for you (or nearly impossible for you) to do otherwise.
The ADA says that your serice animal is NOT a pet.
If somehow it could be proved your service animal also serves as a pet, instead of an extension of your body, it could be argued you have no right to use it.
Also the ADA does allow business to recoup costs for damage done by animals. So if your helper monkey is not toliet trained you could be responsible for any clean up.
The person is also responsible for the animal. If you go into a resturaunt and your service dog bites a kid, you are at fault. The service animal is regarded as an extension of the person he is helping’s body. Therefore if your service animals is barking or growling, for example, you could expel the customer, if you would do the same if an non-disabled customer was yelling or shouting. For example a service dog barking in a theatre.
The problem with the ADA is a lot of results are decided till you get to a judge and one judge may say one thing and another judge yet another thing.
When making a decision the important thing is to regard the service animal as part of the disabled person. And second the animal is a necessity NOT simply a convenience because it’s easier.
Unfortunately, I do have balance issues, and the bag flopping around puts me at risk of falling when I am having a bad day. Main reason I dislike backpacks, I can fall over trying to wrestle one around - my laptop backpack weighs probably 15 lbs and after using it once or twice and having wrestling issues, I will only use it if I have someone to get it on and off me … and slamming me and a 3000 $US computer onto a hard surface is not my idea of fun or profit=)
I do have a killer HUGE backpack sort of bag for my wheelchair, it matches the web upholstry on the chair=)
Won’t solve all your carrying needs, but a large-ish waist (fanny) pack can be quite useful, you don’t need to fumble into/out of a backpack, and the stuff is >>right there<< when you need it. My “carry everywhere” essentials include a cell phone, large-ish cosmetic pouch (for my inhalers and daily meds), wallet, and PDA. Because a purse is not convenient when, say, at an amusement park, I bought a fanny pack and they fit nicely into that. Of course, it makes me look like a dork but I’ve got zero sense of style, so that doesn’t matter.
There’s not enough room in it for purchases etc. so a backpack (or service dog) would still be useful for that.
Having an embarassing purse dog might constitute a handicap. Certainly if the handicapped spaces are near a designated pet rest area, a nervous trembly little dog might benefit from parking as close as possible.
Hey, thanks for the idea…maybe I don’t need the handicapped space but Prozac does b/c he’s nervous and trembly–perhaps severely agoraphobic.
ok that time it was a whoosh. I was always pretty generous signing off on handicap certificates for my patients, but I park pretty far away and don’t even engage in the Circling Around for the Closest Spot to the Gym contest
Tangent: A “Yorkie-Poo” or any other “designer dog” (aka mixed breed) will invariably be the product of backyard breeders or puppy mills, as responsible breeders won’t mix breeds. There will probably be some significant health problems in such a dog.
While you might have a “service animal,” your qualification for a disabled parking permit is contingent upon your doctor “signing off” on your disability.
