Service dogs - Page 2

Jennifer can't tell from your post what the purpose is. Are you merely curious or would like to learn to train service dogs or are you envious of those "passing off "  their dogs as service dogs and wish to be able to do the same. So please let us which of these it is.  May I suggest to be very very careful in evaluating certification schemes.   The Internet abounds with fraudulent offers to certify assistance dogs much akin to the mail in minister's "certifications" i.e. you have the money, I have a printer and I'll send you out a printed piece of paper.

Next you need to be aware that the issue of psychiatric service dogs is somewhat of a hot button right now. Unfortunately many of the dogs being claimed as service dogs are no more than a "comfort" or therapy dog - neither of which have public access rights and neither of which are service dogs. These dogs are often derogatorily referred to as "feel good dogs" - i.e. the dog makes me feel good so ergo he's a service animal. Unfortunately very wrong!

You need to educate your self about assistance dogs (guide,hearing,service) and what their legal status is and the rights their owner (not the dog) has to public access.   Most importantly beware that there are several thresholds that must be met.  Firstly the owner must be disabled and this is defined by the law as having adisabling condition which must be severe enough to substantially limit one or more major life activities, such as the ability to see or hear, speak, breathe, learn, work, think or take care of oneself. Secondly the  dog must be individually  trained to do work or perform tasks which serve to mitigate the disabling condition. Please note here that a business owner has the legal right to ask what tasks the dog is trained for. Finally the dog must be well behaved and under control. Business owners and other representatives of places of public accommodation have the legal right to exclude any dog who displays aggressive behavior or is out of control. They may also exclude any dog whose behavior disrupts the provision of goods or services, such as a dog barking in a movie theater.

The above info comes from a site I suggest you explore www.iaadp.com. These pages have information on task training in regards to the ADA and also information on task training of psychariatric service dogs. http://www.iaadp.org/A-dogWorld.html  http://www.iaadp.org/iaadp-minimum-training-standards-for-public-access.html  http://www.iaadp.org/tasks.html  and http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html . It is very important on this last page that you pay attention to the disclaimers as the author tries to delinate the difference between mere trained obedience behaviors(ie a long down) and a task trained to mitigate the disability. It is often much more problematic delinating such tasks for a psychiatric condition than a physical one. It is important to know that mere "grounding" of the person by their presence is NOT legally considered to be a task trained to mitigate the disability. Hope this helps.

Jennifer can't tell from your post what the purpose is. Are you merely curious or would like to learn to train service dogs or are you envious of those "passing off "  their dogs as service dogs and wish to be able to do the same. So please let us which of these it is.  May I suggest to be very very careful in evaluating certification schemes.   The Internet abounds with fraudulent offers to certify assistance dogs much akin to the mail in minister's "certifications" i.e. you have the money, I have a printer and I'll send you out a printed piece of paper.

Next you need to be aware that the issue of psychiatric service dogs is somewhat of a hot button right now. Unfortunately many of the dogs being claimed as service dogs are no more than a "comfort" or therapy dog - neither of which have public access rights and neither of which are service dogs. These dogs are often derogatorily referred to as "feel good dogs" - i.e. the dog makes me feel good so ergo he's a service animal. Unfortunately very wrong!

You need to educate your self about assistance dogs (guide,hearing,service) and what their legal status is and the rights their owner (not the dog) has to public access.   Most importantly beware that there are several thresholds that must be met.  Firstly the owner must be disabled and this is defined by the law as having adisabling condition which must be severe enough to substantially limit one or more major life activities, such as the ability to see or hear, speak, breathe, learn, work, think or take care of oneself. Secondly the  dog must be individually  trained to do work or perform tasks which serve to mitigate the disabling condition. Please note here that a business owner has the legal right to ask what tasks the dog is trained for. Finally the dog must be well behaved and under control. Business owners and other representatives of places of public accommodation have the legal right to exclude any dog who displays aggressive behavior or is out of control. They may also exclude any dog whose behavior disrupts the provision of goods or services, such as a dog barking in a movie theater.

The above info comes from a site I suggest you explore www.iaadp.com. These pages have information on task training in regards to the ADA and also information on task training of psychariatric service dogs. http://www.iaadp.org/A-dogWorld.html  http://www.iaadp.org/iaadp-minimum-training-standards-for-public-access.html  http://www.iaadp.org/tasks.html  and http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html . It is very important on this last page that you pay attention to the disclaimers as the author tries to delinate the difference between mere trained obedience behaviors(ie a long down) and a task trained to mitigate the disability. It is often much more problematic delinating such tasks for a psychiatric condition than a physical one. It is important to know that mere "grounding" of the person by their presence is NOT legally considered to be a task trained to mitigate the disability. Hope this helps.

Casa, One suggestion and two corrections if I may. You stated "A Psych Support dog (PSA) has all the rights of a regular SD, " I would suggest you might want to change the phrase to - A Psych Support dog (PSA) as long as if has been task trained as required by the law, has all the rights .... because as noted above this is a burgeoning area of concern because people are calling mere comfort dogs PSA and they do not understand or choose to ignore the requirements for task training.

The first correction I would like to make is reqarding what you chose to call an ESA. There is no such creature. Dogs being so labeled are merely companion animals acting as comfort dogs. Accurate labeling and language is always very important when dealing with any civil right issue. The problem w/ the label ESA is it gives the impression to the uneducated that these are trained dogs or dogs that have legal rights neither of which is true. I strongly recommend we call a spade a spade and label them the mere comfort dogs they are.
 
Secondly, while you are right that HUD specifically grants rights to comfort dogs in HUD housing , you are wrong about them being able to travel on airplanes like a SD. The new air transport regulations about to go into effect which control air travel and are separate and different from the ADA, have been revised to clarify the language in the regs that perhaps led to this mistaken assumption. The new regs specifically reject public access rights on airplanes for comfort dogs because they do not meet the legal standard for an assistance dog. ( it also clarifies that pythons, pigs and the like do not meet this standard either. )Yes unfortunately there was a case about a claimed "service" python that they wanted loose in the plane with them.  This was yet again one of the "feel good" situations, i.e. it makes me feel good so I should have some sort of rights to take it with me. Once again that does meet the legal definition of a assistance animal.