« Dog Radio Thailand | Main | Guest Blog: Best Friends Animal Society on Louisiana Pet Evacuation Bill »
Guest Blog: Beth Finke on Service Animals
Beth Landmand's May 14 New York Times article (Wagging the Dog, and a Finger) questions whether people should be allowed to bring their emotional support animals with them wherever they go.
To qualify as a service animal under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a dog must be:
- partnered with a person with a disability, and
- individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of that person.
I lost my sight when I was 26 years old. After 4 weeks of training in Morristown, New Jersey I flew back to Chicago on my own—the first time I'd traveled alone since losing my sight. I was guided by my Seeing Eye dog, a Black Lab named Dora. Now I work with Hanni, a Golden Retriever/Lab mix.
I love my dogs and certainly understand why others might want a dog along to relieve stress and anxiety. But a dog who has not been task trained to mitigate the partners' disability does not qualify as a service animal.
To me there is an obvious distinction between the rights of people with emotional support dogs and those with service animals. My dog isn't with me to help me feel comfortable at a restaurant, she is there to allow me to BE at that restaurant in the first place. I physically couldn't get there without her.
The Seeing Eye is 76 years old this year. Along with other training centers, they fought long and hard for the right of people who are blind to bring guide dogs to public places. We are still working to be able to bring our guide dogs with us on some international flights. Dogs who aren't truly qualified could ruin the good name we've built over all these years.
I know how any regulatory line can look arbitrary. And I know emotional support animals provide comfort and stress relief by their mere presence. But I worry what backlash will result from unqualified dogs showing up in public places.
Beth Finke
Author of "Long Time No See"
www.bethfinke.com
May 16, 2006 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/393119/4896013
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Guest Blog: Beth Finke on Service Animals:
Comments
I have had a chihuahua named Mouse since she was eight weeks old. I suffer from a psychiatric disorder that involves a number of conditions, including, but not limited to, severe panic attacks. I personally have trained Mouse to alert me to the onset of a problem, and to get help. If this should occur in public, which it frequently does, she not only gets help but also guards me until that help comes by enforcing a perimeter around me, and then by licking my face and vocalizing until I begin to recover. She is neither licensed nor certified, but she provides an absolutely invaluable service to me. However, because she is not a golden retriever, she is frequently banished from public places, which means I am, because I cannot be without her. Plus, I am frequently quizzed by greeters, restaurant waiters and hosts/hostesses, and so on, as to exactly what my disability is. I never dignify that hostility with more than a cursory answer, namely, "I am disabled, and this is my service animal. Legally, that is all you are required to know." These valiant little dogs should be recognized for their intuition and for their ability to be an absolutely essential assistance to those of us with "invisible" disabilities.
Posted by: Elizabeth In Roseville, Michigan | May 13, 2008 10:14:28 AM
The author's comments reflect and reinforce the general societal lack of support for those whose disabilities result from mental, rather than physical, illness.
Six years ago two social workers had to extract me from my trailer, where I'd been holed up for the four months since my "episode". Five years ago I still needed my hand held on the bus. Four years ago I'd stick to the ceiling when the phone rang. Three years ago they let me manage my own money again. Two years ago I became Webmaster for my educational non-profit. Last year I got my own place. And I only had an assortment of "mood disorders", considered the mildest form of mental illness.
An excuse? Something that could be fixed with a mere attitude adjustment? Nothing worth missing work over, right?
But something a little dog could help with...yes.
Curli-Su will never make a service dog. (She's awful around other dogs.) But she makes sure I get out of bed at the same time every day, make it out of the house at least twice, and meet at least a few strangers on our walks. She keeps me from wandering the railroad tracks at night. Thanks to her I have regular mealtimes, active times, quiet times, naptimes, playtimes. She gets me to bed at a decent hour. (She's waiting up for me right now, in fact.) And that's besides all the "pets and loves" that anybody gets from a dog.
Is she doing anything special? --No. Is what she does essential to keeping me in balance? --Absolutely. And while I can leave my dog elsewhere for a week or two without freaking out, I can very easily imagine someone whose condition is only a couple of notches worse than mine having the presence and support of a companion animal be all but mandatory. Any psychiatrist who recognizes this to be the case would be irresponsible not to say so on paper.
Posted by: Marius | Aug 22, 2007 12:02:58 AM
I am a single woman and I live with Cecilia my service animal. Cecilia is a Yorkie. She has important tasks that are inherent and did not need training. I suffer from debillitating anxiety attacks in public. Cecilia senses the changes in me and profusely licks my arm. She causes me to realize what is happening to me so that I can get to somewhere that is safe and wait out my attack. Some dogs have instincts that are not trained and professionals don't know the specifics of. My neice has Cerebral Palsy and has seizures all of the time. Cecilia does the same think to my neice right before she has a seizure. So while my dog is trained for obediance and has extremely good manners in public. She has never been so called "trained" to do this task for me. My docter recognized how valuable her service is to me and prescribed her as my service animal. I could really care less if others think that she or I am not worthy to be somewhere because we are together. She helps me to go places when before my disbility kept me from doing so.
Posted by: Camille Kemp | Aug 21, 2007 1:39:11 AM
While I can understand Beth's annoyance and agree that there are many taking advantage of the 1990 ADA guidelines, there are a few of us who have had to resort to training our own dogs for assistance work.
I have MS, permanent nerve damage in both arms and have been in and out of wheelchairs (mostly in) for the past 7 years due to an injury and 20 surgeries to try correct it. (When not in a wheelchair I need the support of forearm crutches.)
Because of the nerve damage in my hands I drop items constantly and have trouble or just cannot pick them back up... my cell phone rings in my purse and I just cannot grip it enough to get it out... I drop a prescription bottle and cannot grasp it to get it off the floor. Also because of my nerve damage I cannot hold a leash or harness for a medium or large dog, so after much thought I decided on a chihuahua to be my service dog.
I contacted all the service dog training centers I could find and got the following responses...
- you will have to get rid of your other dogs
- chihuahua's cannot be service animals, they cannot pull a wheelchair (even though that IS NOT what I need help with)
I then learned that dogs do not have to be certified and along came Loki, who is now 19 weeks of age, a long hair chihuahua, and tops in his puppy kindergarden class.
I will be taking him through all the obedience classes to advance as well as working with a trainer to teach him the skills I will need from him, he has already gone with me to doctor's appointments and shopping (wearing his service dog in training vest) and I have noticed a difference in my own emotional stability and anxiety when he is with me. One of my problems with MS is periodic stuttering, it makes me fearful of talking to strangers because I do not know when it is going to strike... but I noticed that when Loki is with me I feel more relaxed and the episodes are not as bad.
All owner/handlers of service dogs have a moral obligation to those that come after them, they are ambassadors to the public for all of us and it does stress me that some people take advantage without meaning to or the proper knowledge and make it harder for all of us.
Yes, I am training my own assistance animal... yes, he is a chihuahua... but one of the largest stumbling blocks I have come across are the people who got their dogs from agencies that train and 'certify' service animals. They look at me and inform me (sometimes rudely and quite obnoxiously) that I am a fraud just wanting to take my dog with me.
Loki already knows how to:
- 'down' and 'stay' for extended periods of time in offices, quietly and without any fuss. (last time at the doctors office following the 4 hour drive to get there he laid awake on my lap for 3 hours waiting with me for the appointment even as children ran around screaming)
- take, hold and release items
- pick up items that I drop when I say "get it" (bringing them to me is tha hard part, but he is still a pup)
- recognise the ringing of the cell phone and run to the sound
- 'get daddy' if I fall and need help
- 'dig' mail out of the mailbox
So, if you see me in public, (the overweight woman with a chihuahua on her lap in her wheelchair wearing a blue vest with 'service dog' and 'in training' patches on it) don't automatically think that I am just trying to get away with anything. Loki will be adding to my independance, my emotional well being and my ability to be out and about without the fear that I will be in trouble and not able to get to my phone.
Posted by: Penny R. in Virginia | May 20, 2006 1:26:55 AM
