I just arrived back from my trip to teach Treibball in
Montreal with DogzWorth, and as many of you know this was Deef’s last big trip
with me. I am thinking of a retirement
party for him sometime soon. In many
ways it was a great trip with the exception of the enormous access challenge
that we faced just before we travelled.
I was travelling by train and as normal for me, I called the day before
I was to travel in order to make sure that D’fer was going to be welcome on the
train. I call not because I have to, but
because I want the trip to go as smoothly as possible.
The answer I got was somewhat frustrating. I was told that the company’s policy was to
require that all service dogs have certification by a recognized service dog
school. Under the law, this is not
required, and probably not permitted, but many companies in many countries all
over the world are beginning to make their own policies without regard for what
the local laws say regarding disabled people who are accompanied by their
service dogs. And many companies are
very concerned about people faking that their dog is a service dog. Hmmm.
John posted a short blurb on his Facebook page lamenting how
frustrated he was with this attitude, stating that we have never met a fake
service dog. I know many people claim
that they know of this happening and I know many trainers who have been
presented with dogs that clients want trained as a service dog so that they can
either live somewhere that a dog is prohibited or that they can travel with
their dogs, so I know this is out there, but I think that the whole “fake”
service dog issue is a side bar.
First and foremost it is illegal in most places to fake
having a disability. In the United
States there are big fines at the federal level for faking a disability in
order to get access to services that might not be available to the general
public. So if you are faking having a
disability, then that in and of its self is wrong. Using an assistive device to perpetuate that
is even more wrong, regardless of the type of assistive device that you choose
to use.
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| This is an extremely sophisticated assistive device. Who trained her, where she came from, and what she does is not as important as the fact that she is never a disturbance in public! |
Interestingly the transportation company did not have a
policy regarding the use of wheelchairs, canes or walkers, of eye glasses or of
hearing aides. They only had a policy
regarding the use of a dog. Hmmmm
again. So in theory, if you are in need
of a prosthetic finger, and you happen to be a bicycle repair guy, you can make
your own and no one will care. In fact,
if you do that, you can get yourself an article in the Huffington Post: http://tinyurl.com/c3qfhvf
. You are more than welcome to travel with your prosthetic finger, even if
you are not certified to make one. That
dear readers is discrimination. If you
are permitted to make your own wheelchair, cane, glasses, prosthetics or
hearing aides, then why should you not be permitted to train your own service
dog?
Something that I
think is an important part of disability culture is the right of the individual
to determine what the best accommodation is for him or her. I live with migraines, traumatic brain
injury, depression and anxiety. My dog
is able to pick things up, make space for me in a crowd, help me to walk in a
straight line and alert me to oncoming migraines and panic events. My dog makes travel comfortable when I might
not be able to go at all otherwise. My
dog frees up the skills of my fellow travelers who might otherwise be asked to
pick things up or take care of me when I am not able to take care of
myself. I would far rather have D’fer by
my side and not have to explain each day what I need and ask for the help I
need in order to be able to go from one point to another.
Not every dog is
suited to this work, and not every disabled person is able to train their own
dogs, but we need to start considering some of the things that we can do when
the situation comes together where a disabled person has a suitable dog and has
the skills to train it. When this comes
together, then why shouldn’t we have the right to train our own dogs?
The law already says
I am not permitted to create a disturbance in public. Dogs themselves don’t have the right of
access; it is disabled people who have the right of access and who may be
accompanied by a working dog. If I am traveling and my dog was to create a disturbance by barking, or toileting inappropriately,
or by jumping on people or by knocking someone down, or by picking things up or
carrying things, then it doesn’t matter if the dog is certified; the company
has the right to kick me out. My dog
does none of these things.
When I called the
company, I was told that I would need a certificate from a recognized service
dog school. I have a friend who is
trying to fly overseas right now with her service dog and she is going through
the same thing. She has a very highly
trained sheltie who assists her in a number of ways, but she does not have a “certificate”. This discrimination is frustrating and
avoidable.
There is a theory
that is very interesting when it come to disabled and currently abled people
sharing space; it is called Universal Accessibility. What this means is that without making a
special ramp, or changing the configuration of the room; how could we set up
the world so that everyone would be welcome.
When you build a building so that it has Universal Accessibility, you think
about how a wide variety of people would access your service. In the case of a train you think about how
you might build a train and the platform so that wheelchairs could roll in, and
people could walk in and strollers could roll in and we wouldn’t need to
preboard if we were disabled because there would be no more difficulty for
someone with a wheelchair or a service dog or a baby in a buggy than there
would be for someone who is currently abled.
We can also think of
this as being something that we do when we make our rules. Rules should apply equally to all. No one ever worries about currently abled
people rolling into their place of business in a wheelchair that they made
themselves. So if you are NOT disabled,
and you decide to take your kitchen chair and the wheels off your bike and meld
them together, there is no law that says you cannot travel around just like
that. Why you might want to is beyond
me, but it is perfectly legal to do so.
In fact you can do this if you are disabled too, but really, who would
want to do this?
When we look at the
laws that we live with and the rules that companies make, they are often the
result of a problem that has cropped up.
Presumably there have been no problems so far with homemade wheelchairs
or prosthetics and thus there are not rules about this. There have however been problems with service
dogs and thus, we have rules, but the rules are rarely universal in
nature. I would implore organizations
that make rules relating to service dogs to make fair rules that are in line
with the law AND that apply equally to everyone.
If a rule were to
state that train passengers are not permitted to make a disturbance either
through making excessive noise, littering or leaving their seat area in an
unsanitary manner, or interfering with their fellow passenger’s access to the
train, we would have a rule that applied equally to service dog users,
currently abled people and those with canes, wheelchairs or incontinent babies
or service dogs, without specifically listing the service dog as an issue. We already have a law that requires that
service dog users in Ontario carry a letter from their doctor indicating that
we have legitimate need for a service dog; why should we need more than that to
give us the right to use a dog who is clean, well behaved, not barking and not
blocking the aisle? Fair is fair and I
would like to see the rules change internally to reflect that rules ought to be
the same for everyone.
Traveling through
the public realm with a service dog is not nearly as much fun as people
think. The background work that goes
into making a service dog candidate into a great service dog is huge. You have to choose the right dog, and then
give him the proper socialization. You
have to train him to cope with all the things that you are going to need to
face as an adult doing public access.
You have to teach him to do things that help. That your dog makes you feel better is not a
task; it is an outcome. If you cannot
articulate what your dog does, then he isn’t a service dog. Assistive devices are not toys, even though
they may be a lot of fun some of the time.
If you are thinking about making your pet into a service dog, and you don’t
have a disability consider that I cannot choose to not have my disability at
any given point. I am reliant on my dog
to make it possible for me to do things, and it is not cool to pretend to have
the limitations that a disabled person does.
Traveling with a
service dog is a lot of work. When we
got off the train in Toronto, my first order of duty was to find somewhere that
Deef could toilet without inconveniencing any of my fellow travellers. This weekend, that meant a twenty minute
walk, lugging about fifty pounds of gear, out of the building and through
construction. D’fer was really thirsty
from our trip so I had to find water. I
purchased a big bottle of water for him and unpacked his bowl and put it down
for him to drink. He drank most of it
and then I needed to wait and see if he needed any more. After waiting ten minutes, I dumped what he
didn’t drink, used a dirty shirt from my suitcase to dry off the bowl and
repacked everything. Then we had to walk
some more in case he needed to go again.
Have you noticed that I haven’t been to the bathroom yet? Then we had to hike on back to the train
station, and find an accessible bathroom; we don’t fit in a regular stall. That done, I found a place to wait the hour
for my connection. During that hour four
people interrupted my work (I was on my computer) to ask me inane questions about
my dog. Sometimes they ask me really
rude questions too. I am not fond of
answering personal questions from complete strangers but it is par for the
course when traveling with a service dog.
Why anyone would fake this is beyond me; it is too much work!
I have written this
for several reasons. Firstly, if you are
a gate keeper who is trying to make sure that those who should not have a
service dog don’t, please look first at the behaviour of the dog; if the dog is
jacketed and well behaved, on one level, who cares if the person is disabled or
not. If they are not, if they don’t
really need the dog they will learn soon enough that it is a big pain in the
butt to travel with a dog who isn’t needed, and they will stop doing it. If in the meantime, you have a well behaved
dog on your hands, what harm? And if the
dog is not well behaved, you are within your rights to refuse service to the
person solely based on them creating a disturbance. Secondly, if you are considering faking your
need for a service dog, think again. It
isn’t fair to the dog if he has not had the appropriate training to ask him to
do the things we ask service dogs to do.
It is also a ton of work for you and it will get you attention you
really don’t want. Thirdly, if you are a
service dog user, please make sure that your use of a dog doesn’t inconvenience
the people you encounter. I have seen service
dogs who do not mind their manners, whose people don’t clean up after them and
who create a disturbance. YOU are
disturbing the peace when your service dog barks, lunges, takes things that don’t
belong to you or soils the area he is within, and the proprietor has the right
to refuse you service based on YOU creating a disturbance. Having a certificate from a service dog
school doesn’t give you the right to disturb others. We can all get along if we try, but we all
have to try if we are going to get along.
