Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What is going on with some dog owners? My two pet peeves which also happen to be very common and illegal.
1) Unattended dogs who are allowed to run free off the leash - that the owners do not care how much they bark or who they run into or what they are disrupting (my group tennis lesson).
I have read on other blogs that it is pretty much against the law to have dogs off the leashes in public areas, other than, and I'm guessing, dog parks. Department of Animal Care & Control
I see dogs off their leashes all the time and I have never seen a dog owner ever get a ticket. A fellow tennis player said that he sees people get $58 tickets daily near his beach house. It says the tickets can be up to $250. I don't get it. How can people let their dogs bark and run wild when it is against the law and not in human beings' public best interest.
2) A new trend is that people are lying and buying their dog red "service dog" vests to bring them into Whole Foods, restaurants, walk them around airports. I am 100% supportive of actual service dogs for blind people, dogs that hear for people or help them when their insulin is low.
What I have learned is this: Everyone is afraid of offending a real person with a disability. If someone has a note from their psychologist saying they are "nervous", that does not constitute a disability. A true service dog is trained by an organization (not an individual or the owner) to do a task or job that dogs don't usually do (like see for a blind person). When the dogs are working, they are working for the person with the disability. That is the only time they get the special access. A seeing eye dog who is off the job, is not allowed into public places. So, the woman parading her "rescue dog" around the airport is breaking the law just to seek attention and be permissive. That dog is not currently rescuing. The woman carrying her "adorable" pooch in the grocery store or restaurant, and is "psychologically comforted" by her dog and may even have a note from her shrink - that is not a service dog because it is not performing a service other than being a little animal while she is acting out her attachment disorder on the animal.
In Texas, pretending to have a service dog or a disability is a criminal misdemeanor with a fine up to $3000.
These "comfort dogs" masquerading as "service dogs" are a huge problem. It will take a health department issues (people getting sick, a child dying, food contamination, a person being bitten) for these dog owners to be controlled.
I called the health department in Santa Monica and asked what the policy is when a person has a pet dressed as a "service dog" and enters a restaurant or grocery store. It is obvious, usually because the person is carrying the dog and it is not extremely well disciplined, that it is a "fraudulent service dog". When service dogs are working, it they are not to be petted by others who distract them from their duties. So, another clue is a person looking and encouraging others to pet the dog. That is not what goes on with a true service dog working for a person with a disability. The business owners are afraid to get in trouble with the ADA (Federal Disability Group) so they do nothing - they see the obviously untrained non-service dog with the entitled dog owner but are afraid of getting in trouble.
These are the two questions you can ask:
In the U.S., according to the Department of Justice's Business Brief concerning Service Animals, business owners/managers can ask 2 specific questions. 1) Is this a service dog required because of a disability? and 2) What task(s) is the dog trained to perform? If these questions are not appropriately answered, the business may exclude the animal, but not the person.
These dog owners are making our public places unsafe and also disrespecting the actual highly trained service dog serving individuals with real disabilities.
What is going on with some dog owners? My two pet peeves which also happen to be very common and illegal.
1) Unattended dogs who are allowed to run free off the leash - that the owners do not care how much they bark or who they run into or what they are disrupting (my group tennis lesson).
I have read on other blogs that it is pretty much against the law to have dogs off the leashes in public areas, other than, and I'm guessing, dog parks. Department of Animal Care & Control
I see dogs off their leashes all the time and I have never seen a dog owner ever get a ticket. A fellow tennis player said that he sees people get $58 tickets daily near his beach house. It says the tickets can be up to $250. I don't get it. How can people let their dogs bark and run wild when it is against the law and not in human beings' public best interest.
2) A new trend is that people are lying and buying their dog red "service dog" vests to bring them into Whole Foods, restaurants, walk them around airports. I am 100% supportive of actual service dogs for blind people, dogs that hear for people or help them when their insulin is low.
What I have learned is this: Everyone is afraid of offending a real person with a disability. If someone has a note from their psychologist saying they are "nervous", that does not constitute a disability. A true service dog is trained by an organization (not an individual or the owner) to do a task or job that dogs don't usually do (like see for a blind person). When the dogs are working, they are working for the person with the disability. That is the only time they get the special access. A seeing eye dog who is off the job, is not allowed into public places. So, the woman parading her "rescue dog" around the airport is breaking the law just to seek attention and be permissive. That dog is not currently rescuing. The woman carrying her "adorable" pooch in the grocery store or restaurant, and is "psychologically comforted" by her dog and may even have a note from her shrink - that is not a service dog because it is not performing a service other than being a little animal while she is acting out her attachment disorder on the animal.
In Texas, pretending to have a service dog or a disability is a criminal misdemeanor with a fine up to $3000.
These "comfort dogs" masquerading as "service dogs" are a huge problem. It will take a health department issues (people getting sick, a child dying, food contamination, a person being bitten) for these dog owners to be controlled.
I called the health department in Santa Monica and asked what the policy is when a person has a pet dressed as a "service dog" and enters a restaurant or grocery store. It is obvious, usually because the person is carrying the dog and it is not extremely well disciplined, that it is a "fraudulent service dog". When service dogs are working, it they are not to be petted by others who distract them from their duties. So, another clue is a person looking and encouraging others to pet the dog. That is not what goes on with a true service dog working for a person with a disability. The business owners are afraid to get in trouble with the ADA (Federal Disability Group) so they do nothing - they see the obviously untrained non-service dog with the entitled dog owner but are afraid of getting in trouble.
These are the two questions you can ask:
In the U.S., according to the Department of Justice's Business Brief concerning Service Animals, business owners/managers can ask 2 specific questions. 1) Is this a service dog required because of a disability? and 2) What task(s) is the dog trained to perform? If these questions are not appropriately answered, the business may exclude the animal, but not the person.
These dog owners are making our public places unsafe and also disrespecting the actual highly trained service dog serving individuals with real disabilities.
This must stop.
Lola
That is why I think there should be a certification that can be recognized on a national level. It is the ADA law that is being abused and taken advantage of at the expense of actual disabled people with service dogs that have underwent proper training.
On the other hand, business owners and managers need to tread carefully if they are going to ask a disabled person for some proof. That would be close to interrogating and possibly asking for a lawsuit. The best they can do is observe the service dog if it is actually working as a service dog. Once it starts acting like a typical pet (i.e. growling at others, running around, urinating/defecating in public, or being unruly in public areas) the business owner and manager have every right to ask them to leave.
I dated a girl who had a "service" dog, I believe it was a Maltese and it was for emotional comfort. I didn't know about him until our 3rd date when I picked her up before heading to Santa Barbara for the weekend. I love dogs but I hated that one, it growled, barked, pissed everywhere, it was obvious she bought the vest just so she could bring him around everywhere she went. That vest didn't fool anyone either, it was so embarrassing just to be around her. The whole trip was a nightmare because of that dog, and I learned very quickly that she was crazy.So guys out there reading this, don't date chicks with service dogs. They're insane.
And to Lola, what can we do to stop these faux service dogs?
I dated a girl who had a "service" dog, I believe it was a Maltese and it was for emotional comfort. I didn't know about him until our 3rd date when I picked her up before heading to Santa Barbara for the weekend. I love dogs but I hated that one, it growled, barked, pissed everywhere, it was obvious she bought the vest just so she could bring him around everywhere she went. That vest didn't fool anyone either, it was so embarrassing just to be around her. The whole trip was a nightmare because of that dog, and I learned very quickly that she was crazy.So guys out there reading this, don't date chicks with service dogs. They're insane.
And to Lola, what can we do to stop these faux service dogs?
your story would be funny if it wasn't somewhat sad. There is a limit to what we should call service dogs and I would not consider a dog that is part of someones mental or emotional comfort a true service dog.
your story would be funny if it wasn't somewhat sad. There is a limit to what we should call service dogs and I would not consider a dog that is part of someones mental or emotional comfort a true service dog.
Nita
It's obvious the dog I mentioned wasn't a real service dog if it was growling, barking, pissing everywhere. Service dogs are supposed to be highly trained and they're not supposed to be pet when they are working.
I also forgot to mention that she said she didn't need the dog, she was fine without him. She just wanted a legitimate excuse to have him around all the time and she got it. She told me exactly what to do to have my dog as a service dog because I was so baffled by it.
Nothing sad about the story. Chick was just insane and wanted as much attention as possible.
realize some dogs are meant to detect whether the owner is going through an internal health problem (like a stroke, heart attack, etc) as they can detect that type of thing. I have a friend who has such a dog (she was born with a very weak heart and needed to get a pace maker put in when she was 10 years old). She's gone through three services dogs, that can detect when her heart goes out of rhythm or the pace maker isn't working correctly.
She is not disabled (blind), the dog is trained to sense medical ailments.
I have Bi Polar Depression, and PTSD and need a physiatric service dog(PSD). SDs are not just for people who are blind or pleople who have mobility and sensory disabilities, but also for us people with Mental Illness. Yes, sadly its a growing trend to FAKE a SD. Those people are a bunch of idiots! They bring their dirty UNTRAINED FAKE SD, out into public and pose a danger, not only to their dog but to other people. I trained my own PSD. It takes up to 2 years to fully train an SD. And not even half those SDiT make it and can't become SD. People do not understand you can't just slap a vest on your dog and call it can SD.
I NEED my PSD to live a normal life. Before him I could not leave my house....He gave me my life back! I am a 19 year old woman and just because I have a SD does not make me crazy, or dumb. I was delt with a hard life as a kid growing up. I was not asked if I wanted to be sexually abused my two men as a child. It happened and now I see the world as a completely different place then you do. I see it as a dark, cold, and insecure place. My Jazz brings light into my life. My SD alerts me to my mood changes and tells me I need to stop, he will lick and cuddle me so I stay calm and focused. If I have a flashback and start to panic he is trained to take me to a safe place till i put myself back together. He reminds me to take my meds when I have my really bad days and I forget. He is trained to also uses his body as barrier to keep people from getting too close to to me and give me space to breath and keep myself calm. He also helps at home when I have nightmares. So just because a young girl has her dog with her, so please do not pass judgement.
People who have FAKE SDs just do not understand anything. Dogs that are SD have to be bombproof in public. For example, if a little kid were to just come up and start beating my dog( and this has happend once) the SD is not allowed to defend himslef, or even cry out in pain. I had no clue where that kid came from, and I did not know he was going to do that. But my Jaz handled it like a pro I keep my PSD well groomed and he is very clean. He is very well behaved and is not all over the place, but always by my side and keeping all his attention on me cause he has a job to do. You can tell a real from the fake but can't do much about it. Its gonna take a little kid or someone being badly injured or even killed by one of those FAKE SDs for something huge to change. People live their lives normally .....they need to let us live ares.
Unless you are blind and getting a guide dog, obtaining a service dog from a provider is costly and time-consuming. Most people don't realize that to get a so-called “free” service dog, unless it's a guide dog there are both strings attached and hoops to jump through. You are charged an “application fee”, sometimes even a “placement fee” as well. You may languish on a waiting list for two or three years. You may even be required to engage in “fundraising” - doing whatever you can to raise thousands of dollars for the organization - and some don't even earmark what you raise for your dog! Legally, they can keep the money whether you get your service dog or not!!
And once they are ready to try to team you with a dog, who do you think pays for your transportation to where the provider is, lodging for the two week process, and travel between your lodging and the facility? Unless you're a blind person getting a guide dog, YOU DO.
True, Texas doesn't legally recognize owner-trained service dogs; there, by definition, a service dog must be professionally trained by a recognized agency. But here's an eye-opener: THREE ARE NO STANDARDS OR REGULATIONS FOR SERVICE DOG TRAINERS (except for guide dog trainers, and even then standards vary from state to state; California's requirements are the most rigorous in the nation). Any pet dog trainer can claim to be a service dog trainer! So it's possible for a “professionally trained” service dog to not be worth a damn. I've even seen guide dogs whose behavior would curl your hair. One blind guy who I think was mentally disturbed got a kick out of his guide dog ferociously chasing after small dogs. He'd drop the guide handle, give the dog as much leash as he could, and laugh like hell. I know of no state besides Texas that gives no legal protection under state law to owner-trained service dogs. There are several that define either "person with a disability" or "service dog" in such a way that excludes a certain type of service dog teams, though - that in which the person's disability is psychological. Those states are Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Let's just say that my husband and I don't plan to settle in Texas or any of those places. We both have psychiatric disabilities (he has physical impairments as well) and neither of us see a professionally trained service dog as a viable option, both for the reasons I've mentioned and because we don't want a “canned dog” - a dog of one of the breeds typically trained for service dog work - or a “pig in a poke” - a dog selected for us using different criteria than we would. I spent half an hour evaluating a sweet dog in a local shelter before adopting him as a mental health service dog candidate. As per California law, I've applied for a California Assistance Dog tag for him that will protect our legal right to access to housing and public places as I'm training him. He's very obedient, house-trained, and not only was he leash-trained when I got him, he learned to switch sides to accommodate my frequent use of a cane in less than a week. He will soon be assessed by a staff member from a local service dog provider that, unlike the vast majority, both trains service dogs and places them with people with psychiatric disabilities and holds regular classes for owner-trainers to work on both public access and task training. Many people with psychiatric disabilities have to make do with certified pet dog trainers willing to work with them on ways to train their dogs and peer support from owner-trainers who have successfully done so with theirs. I'm very fortunate to have a better option.
Federal law was recently revised to specifically protect the right of people with psychiatric disabilities to benefit from the assistance of trained service dogs while retaining the exclusion of dogs that merely provide comfort and emotional support from the definition of “service animal”. I'm proud to live in a state that doesn't discriminate against either people with psychiatric disabilities or service dog owner-trainers. All that said, I have to add that I probably loathe fake “service dogs” more than you do. Not only do these dogs' behavior distract, and could even endanger, my legitimate service dog-in-training, I know they leave a trail of wary, annoyed business owners and managers in their wake, making it likely that there will be prejudice against my dog. I'm considering how to go about filing charges against one old character who thinks he can get away with calling his scruffy, dog-reactive terrier a service dog by putting a cheap yellow safety vest with “Service Dog [dog's name (!!)] scrawled on it with Magic Marker on her. NOT ON MY WATCH!! (The giveaway, in addition to the dog's behavior and appearance, is the inclusion of her name; NO legitimate service dog handler wants people to distract their dog, and displaying a dog's name gives anyone reading it license to do exactly that.) Rant over.
The law doesn't regard dogs that merely provide emotional support the same way as service dogs, either, though order the terms of The Fair Housing Act, if the owner had a disability about which the health care care provider treating her was willing to give written documentation, along with a recommendation that she keep a dog to provide emotional support in order to help her cope with her disability (her diagnosis need not be mentioned), she COULD legally keep her dog in housing that either would exclude her dog or for which she would be charged additional rent and/or a pet deposit...but the dog couldn't create a nuisance for her neighbors, either. But once she left her home, she wouldn't be able to legally take it anywhere pets aren't allowed.
If this young woman had a psychiatric disability (“crazy” was both imprecise and insulting), she made the same mistakes many people with this disability do: She neither access-trained nor task-trained her dog before identifying it as a service animal. This is illegal under both state and federal law. Under state law, I think she could be fined up to $1,500, spend six months in jail, or both; I'm sure federal penalties are worse. Instead of whining about how horrible her dog was and exhibiting your prejudice against women who benefit from having properly trained service dogs, who are probably better companions than women who rely on human assistants - often boyfriends or husbands - to help them cope with their disabilities - why don't you do something useful, like report her to the police? Just a thought.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I keep my PSD well groomed and he is very clean. He is very well behaved and is not all over the place, but always by my side and keeping all his attention on me cause he has a job to do. You can tell a real from the fake but can't do much about it. Its gonna take a little kid or someone being badly injured or even killed by one of those FAKE SDs for something huge to change. People live their lives normally .....they need to let us live ares.