Service Animals

[Dftodd]

There are a couple of businesses where I'm expected to bring my dog; the hardware store and the saw shop. Also my vet's office, even when I just stop to get meds. That's to be expected, but (like my last dog) he's apparently one of their favorites.

Gypsy is a favorite at the local vets office. She has to go behind the counter and have her "girl time" with the ladies whenever shes in there.

The two times shes been in there for an over night stay, she's spent the day hanging with the girls working the counter instead of being cooped up in a cage. They just put up a child gate to block off the entrance to the lobby. It surprised me the first time I stopped by to pick her up and her head popped up over the counter next to the receptionist :laughing:

 

[Jstpssng]

Our late Jack Russell terrier was going blind. We realized he was having an issue when he tried to jump onto the back of my wife's recliner. (He would sit up there and look out the window). He over shot and bounced off the wall before hitting the floor After that we would help him up and down.

He also developed dementia a couple years later.

I knew that my last dog was going blind when she tried to jump into the pickup bed as she'd done all of her life, and bounced off the tailgate cable. My parents had a light colored floor in their kitchen, it got so that we would have to put dark colored rugs down before she would walk across them. She was (a little too ) fearless for all of her 14 years, yet wouldn't go anywhere unless she could see what she was getting into.

 

[Diggin It]

It surprised me the first time I stopped by to pick her up and her head popped up over the counter next to the receptionist.

Surplus hardware store I go to has a Great Dane that does that.

 

[Molalla1]

Gypsy is a favorite at the local vets office. She has to go behind the counter and have her "girl time" with the ladies whenever shes in there.

The two times shes been in there for an over night stay, she's spent the day hanging with the girls working the counter instead of being cooped up in a cage. They just put up a child gate to block off the entrance to the lobby. It surprised me the first time I stopped by to pick her up and her head popped up over the counter next to the receptionist :laughing:

Gypsy, pictured? . . . If so she is a beautiful dog. That is your GSD pictured in your avatar.

 

[Dftodd]

Gypsy, pictured? . . . If so she is a beautiful dog. That is your GSD pictured in your avatar.

Yup. That's my Gypsy girl

 

[Molalla1]

Yup. That's my Gypsy girl

:thumbsup: , , ,

 

[wheelbuilder]

My wife and I have a therapy dog. It's our second dog to be one. They don't just go places, they're supposed to be invited and have a task (like having children read to them, or visit with willing persons in a nursing home). They are well trained, good natured dogs that passed a test by an evaluator. It can be pretty rewarding to work with them.
A service dog is a different critter. They are highly trained to do a task for a person who cannot. They don't need an invitation and are generally the only animals allowed in a restaurant.
Emotional support animals, I don't understand. If you have a need for a service dog, that's that, get one. People that use that as an excuse to force a dog on everyone give other ones a bad rap. Every pet is an emotional support animal (even those bees), but they don't belong in every situation. I've got no gripe with someone bringing a well behaved animal into most places, but pets on a plane ? Do you want to ride next to my 200 lb dog ? I wouldn't do that to someone who didn't get a choice.

 

[Jstpssng]

Emotional support animals, I don't understand. If you have a need for a service dog, that's that, get one. People that use that as an excuse to force a dog on everyone give other ones a bad rap. Every pet is an emotional support animal (even those bees), but they don't belong in every situation. I've got no gripe with someone bringing a well behaved animal into most places, but pets on a plane ? Do you want to ride next to my 200 lb dog ? I wouldn't do that to someone who didn't get a choice.

It's more than that. They use it as an excuse to bring their dogs into apartments where they aren't allowed, for instance. Based on my rather biased observations, service dogs are also the most untrained and unruly pets out there. I'm rather **** about taking responsibility for your animal; I travelled all over with my last Lab and anytime I checked into a motel I told them " If there's a problem I want to be the first to know about it." Yet hearing some of the horror stories motel owners have told me, it's pretty sad how irresponsible some people can be. I've also been told by those same innkeepers that the worst problems they've had with destroying rooms, etc was from people who "snuck their dog in."

 

[goeduck]

Dog takes a pee on the floor, someone walks by before it's cleaned up and the customer slips and hurts themselves.

No different than someone spilling their drink and walking away. Or a leak in the roof, or someone breaking a bottle on the floor accidentally. Etc. etc.

 

[goeduck]

Worth the read IMO...

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.pdf

Keep in mind it's not the federal government giving the leeway per the definition of a service aninal, but the states.

Someone could register a colony of cockroaches as service animals, take it to their state legislative building and accidentally let them loose. Maybe then the legislatures would think twice about having such lenient laws. :shocked: