FAKE SERVICE DOGS? REALLY?

 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.

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.

So You Would Like A Service Dog

D'fer!  My constant partner for the past 8 years or so.  So many things I would not have been able to do were made possible by this incredible dog.

Every week we get multiple requests from people who would like to train a dog to be a service dog.  The people contacting us are quite varied, but there are common threads of information that they are looking for.  Regardless of if you are a person with a disability, a person who knows someone with a disability and would like to train a dog to help a friend, someone who is just starting out in dog training who would like to consider working in the field of training dogs to help the disabled or someone without a disability who would like to take a pet out in public with them, you all need to know the same information.

At Dogs in the Park we are unable to help everyone who wants to train a service dog through our classes.  There are too many issues that surround service dogs that take up time in a regular training class and too few people locally to support a class specifically for service dogs.  There is enough demand however to support an annual seminar and we have now been offering such a seminar for over five years.  These annual seminars offer information both for those who are beginning their journey and those who have been training for many, many years.  We include information on access, laws, how to train your dog and tasks that your dog can do.  For this reason, we have developed this article to help people who want to train their dogs to assist them.  We are happy to respond to emailed questions on this topic but please read through the following questions and answers before emailing us and if you have a question that is not addressed then please feel free to contact us.  If you phone the office, please leave an email where we can reach you to respond to you.

Do you or the person you want to train for have a disability?

This question is the first question you need to answer before you can move forward.  In most jurisdictions, you cannot use a service dog in public unless you have a disability.  In each legal jurisdiction there is a specific definition of what a disability is.  In general, you are considered disabled if you live with a condition that limits your ability to carry out the activities of daily living.  Usually, The activities of daily living means you cannot go to school or work, or you cannot shop for your groceries, get yourself to your doctor or cook or clean.  This does not mean that you could do it, but you don’t like to, but rather that you are unable to do it.  If you do not have a disability, in North America, there is no way for you to legally take your pet with you out in public.

Do you have a condition that is best helped with a dog?

D'fer alerting.

Dogs have been used to help people with a very wide variety of problems, from autism to diabetes to mobility issues to psychiatric illness and beyond, but in every case the dog has to DO something.  In some cases having a dog who can interpret the environment for the handler and the handler can determine if they are seeing something real helps a handler determine when they are experiencing hallucinations and when they are seeing real things.  This is a filter that the person can take everywhere with them, but it is something the dog does; it is not just something that happens.  If you cannot think of what you do will DO, but only that you would like him to be with you, then your dog is not normally permitted to be out in public with you.  If you can think of something that can be done with a dog but that can be better done with technology, technology may be a better alternative for you to consider.

Do you have a suitable dog?

This sheltie is not a common breed used for service work, but he does a really good job!

The work of a service dog is challenging and often quite difficult.  Your dog must be able to enjoy changes of environment and footing, must be able to tolerate unexpected pats from strangers and accept grocery carts bumping into them.  They work in places that are not meant for dogs to go to, and they must do it without complaining, startling or becoming frightened.  If you have a dog who startles and becomes frightened when a truck backfires, or who barks at things like people who walk by while wearing a funny hat, then your dog is the wrong dog for the job, and you will spend more of your time addressing your dog’s needs instead of him helping you.  It is important to have someone to help you to determine if your dog is actually appropriate for the work-having a second pair of eyes to look carefully at your dog’s suitability is important.  A huge variety of breeds have been used for service work, from tiny Yorkshire Terriers through giant English Mastiffs, as well as a wide variety of mixed breeds, but each individual must be considered on his own merit.  You cannot simply say that you have had a dog of a certain breed who was perfect for service work and then randomly choose another dog of the same breed and expect to be successful.  Choosing the wrong dog is not fair to the dog and makes your job of training much more difficult than necessary.

Did your dog have appropriate early socialization?

This young dog is learning that she is safe on a tile floor in a public atrium, before she is 5 months old.

Most dogs cannot overcome a lack of socialization and go on to become confident, happy working service dogs.  Socialization for service dog puppies means the careful exposure of the puppy to everyone and everything you expect him to cope with as an adult and it happens before the puppy is 16 weeks of age.  If your pup was rescued out of a barn at 20 weeks, you might be able to teach him to cope with the world you want him to work within, but it will not be a fast or easy job.  If your dog missed early socialization, you must realize that you will need to spend more time and energy teaching him to accept the world than you may have the energy to commit.  If you have a puppy under 16 weeks, you really should be in a good puppy socialization class.

Does your dog have the appropriate training to help you?

Leash manners are important skills to have!  Training takes time, effort and patience and is often costly.

Service dog training can be divided neatly into two categories; public access and task training.  Public access training is all about leash manners and the ability to not touch things that your dog will encounter in public.  I like to think about service dogs as conspicuously invisible.  They must never bark at people or animals or things that startle them, or pick up food off the floor or solicit attention from the people he encounters when he is working in public.  Then your dog must also have the skills needed to help you; alerts for medical conditions, picking up items if you cannot or opening doors to let you through for instance.  It generally takes between ten months and two years to train all the behaviours that your dog will need, and until that training has occurred, your dog is not going to be helping you.

Do you require certification to take your dog out in public?

Certification is not required in most places, but you must know the laws of your community!

This question depends entirely on where you are.  You need to know the law where you are at any given time.  If you live in North Carolina and you visit Ontario, you would be covered by the laws in the community you are in at any given time, not by the laws of where you are from.  It is important for you to know the laws where you are living, but also the laws where you are going!

If you live in the United States, then you will not need certification for your service dog, but you may not have the right to bring your service dog in training with you as he learns.  The right to be accompanied by a service dog is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the right to bring service dogs in training is covered individually by each state.  You can find information about service dog in the Americans with Disabilities Act here:  http://www.ada.gov/

If you live in Ontario, where Dogs in the Park operates, you will need to know the information that is contained within Ontario Regulation 429/07 under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, Accessibility Standards for Customer Service,  found at http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2007/elaws_src_regs_r07429_e.htm

If you live somewhere else, you will be governed by the local laws.  It is not the intent of this article to provide an exhaustive list of links to laws around the world, so you will have to look up your own laws locally and become familiar with them.

I have heard that my dog must be certified to have public access.  Is this true?

Please reread the above section on the law; it is going to depend on where you are and what the laws are relative to where you are.  Be aware though of organizations that will sell you certifications for your dog; most of these organizations are willing to take your money and print out a piece of paper.  You can do that yourself for the price of a little time and a piece of paper through your printer.

Where can I go to train to be a service dog trainer?

At the moment there are a few private programs that train people to be service dog trainers, but the truth is that most service dog trainers for programs come up through the ranks, working first in the kennels and then learning to train service dogs within the organization they are working for.  Other people begin privately training dogs for others based on their abilities as a dog trainer. 

Where can I send my dog to be trained as a service dog?

There are a wide variety of private programs that train your dog to be a service dog, but check your references carefully and be aware of programs that claim they can train your dog in under six months.  Training a dog properly requires that dogs be allowed the time to obtain and integrate the information that they are being asked to learn.

 Does my dog have to be able to do three demonstrable tasks to be considered a service dog?

D'fer will pick up items such as his leash for me if I am unable to bend over due to my disability.

 

No.  That is the criteria that the organization Assistance Dogs International (ADI, found at http://www.assistancedogsinternational.org/) has established for its member organizations.  ADI is a coalition of not for profit assistance dog organisations and has nothing to do with owners who train their own service dogs.  On the other hand, you dog must be able to do something that helps you and in many jurisdictions you may be asked to demonstrate that your dog is trained to assist you.  If you are just bringing your dog along because you like to do that or because you think it will be fun, that is not a service dog.

Will you train a dog to assist me at Dogs in the Park?

A dog in training at Dogs in the Park

We occasionally take clients on after they have attended our annual service dog seminar.  If you attend a seminar with us and you would like us to train a dog for you, we will consider taking you on as a client.  We choose the dogs we train for our clients; if you already have a dog we will not train that dog for you.  If you would like to take private lessons with us, you can do that with the objective of training your dog as a service dog, but we will not be doing the training in that case; we will be acting as consultants only.

How much does it cost to purchase, raise and train a dog from puppy hood to adulthood?

It can cost a LOT of money to prepare for, select and train a service dog.

This question depends entirely on how you go about doing that.  If you wanted us to train a dog for you from start to finish, including attending our conference, you might be looking at as much as forty thousand dollars USD.  If you are an experienced dog trainer with access to the right dog to start with, you can expect to spend as much as you might on a sport dog by the time they attain their second level of title (the equivalent of training a dog through his CDX or RX title). 

My school or employer won’t allow me to bring my dog to their establishment, or a hotel wants to charge me extra for having my dog with me.  Can you help?

We cannot provide legal advice.

Sorry, no.  You need to speak with a human rights lawyer in your area.  We do not keep a list of human rights lawyers; you will need to do your own research about that.

I need to know something that isn’t listed on this page.  Can you help me?

Yes!  If you have not found the answer you need here, please email me at sue@dogsinthepark.ca with your question.  If you call my office leave an email address so that I can get in touch with you.  If you wish to speak with me on the phone, I will be happy to do so for a fee; please email me for details.

ADDENDUM:
Recently a few people are very persistent in wanting to come visit me and speak with me in person about their service dog projects.  I take on very few service dog clients each year, and I only take clients who have been to my service dog seminar.  If you want to discuss your service dog project with me in person there are two ways to go about that.  You can EMAIL me and I will provide you with details about my professional fees to discuss your project on the phone or in person, or you can EMAIL me and outline specific questions which I will respond to at no cost if the specifics of your question are not addressed in this article.  I will respond to what I consider a reasonable number of questions at no charge by email.  I will not discuss service dog projects by phone or in person until I have been paid to do so. 

Over the past fifteen years, I have spent thousands of hours sharing my knowledge and understanding of service dogs with others via email and over the phone and in person.  I cannot do this any longer as I must make a living if I am going to continue to do service dog work at all.  I am able to help you with my blog and in a limited way by email, and I still contribute to a variety of email lists, yahoo groups and Facebook pages, but I can no longer spend hours on end on the phone or in person helping people for no fee.  While I appreciate how difficult it is to wade through the large picture of developing a service dog, I hope that you the reader will appreciate how I must limit my participation in your project at no charge.  I just cannot afford to do that any longer.