Service Animals Redefined...

[Sierra pachie bars]

I had heard they were going to do that. I have semi retired my one dog. Hope down the road to have. Mobility dog. It does take a skin of steel to get used to the comments and stares. From someone who gets help from a animal i can say it really helps and at times saved my life.

 

[chickened]

I guess I will have to get rid of my service crocidile now he really helped me with the people that caused me stress.

 

[debilorrah]

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I can tell you now, if I saw you in the market, I would talk to your dog and tell you how lovely he was. I get flamin irritated at people that stare at someone with a service animal trying to figure out their disability. They are not ALL visible.

 

[redhen]

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Yup! Its because folks are taking advantage of the service animal laws....

 

[littlegorb]

a service animal is one that is trained to do specific tasks. an emotional support animal does not need to be trained, it serves only for emotional support. when i have stress, feel sad or panicky, i like to spend time with the girls, just their natural behavior takes my mind off my worries and always make me smile. then i feel better. but, i would never want to take them in a restaurant.

 

[chickened]

I could never figure out why some homeless person begging on the freeway on ramp could afford a dog so I asked one one time and he said it was a service dog and his disability paid for it.

 

[redhen]

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*snort*
Scary stuff there..

 

[CoyoteMagic]

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Yup, me too. There used to be a website for folks who used Service Animals for "Invisible Disabilites" that were really advocates of those of us who didn't have any real outward signs. A very good friend of mine who has MS and vision issues was the first person to take a Service Dog to the White House. His name was Reggie.

There are a lot of people out there that are pushing for Service Dogs to be trained by some company instead of being trained by the owner of the dog. A dog coming from one of these organizations cost more than a car!! I believe a dog needs training, but I can train my own dog a whole lot faster and for less money than these people can.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I am currently training my dog to be a 'hearing dog'. I have significant hearing loss post lightning strike, and cannot hear any directional sounds... so my dog nudges me at any sound she thinks is important (we're working on this!) and looks in the direction of the sound. She alerts me to who is talking to me, so I can look at their lips and then can 'hear' what they say. A service dog differs from a therapy or emotional support dog in that the handler needs to have a documented, qualifying disability, and must be trained to assist with that. PTSD dogs are only service dogs if their handler suffers from ptsd bad enough that they are legally disabled by it. my husband has some ptsd after serving in afghanistan, but being forced to keep another dog around would probably make him more crazy!

 

[EweSheep]

I love service animals! They have their purpose, their role and their devotion to their owners. An ID should be on the animal at al times to state if it is a service dog.

However I do not like my husband's mother abusing the system. Always carried her Pug dog around as "status symbol" seeking attention of shoppers where ever they go. A few times store managers would ask her to take her dog outside and she would refuse and cause a scene. To this day, she still does it.