How can you tell the ones that really need the dog (support animal) with them and the ones that don't? They may be trained for a special purpose. I may not look disabled but I am. I just don't talk about it. Most folks don't.

Why do you need to be able to tell them apart to dislike the so-called "cheaters"?

I dislike the fact that companies sell and people buy $50 kits with fake service animal certificates and badges. I don't need to know which individuals are participating in it to dislike them.

If someone is calling them out in person at the airport, that's one thing. But no one's doing that :rolleyes:

Jar, I think you’re missing spoolers point. We all dislike cheaters, but if you see someone with a support dog you usually can’t just tell who’s legit and whose a cheater so you Nd up hating on both the good and the bad.

There ought to be a way to be able to at least cut down on the cheaters but I honestly don’t have any ideas off the top of my head. :confused:

Yeap, that is the point.

There is no law that gives support animals special status. On the other hand people who own service do get special dispensation because a dog or Sheldon pony are the only animals classified as service animals by law. The are certified and preform a qualifying service such as a seeing eye or hearing dog. The law protects service animal owners and a business owner can only ask two questions...is that a service dog and what service does it provide you? The issue is as Jar points out anyone can get a vest for their dog the reads service dog and if the person is familiar with the law when asked the questions they will say yes and she alerts me if I'm about to have a seizure.

So what can a business owner do under the law? Well the law requires the dog to be under control of its owner at all times. It should not approach other people and jump up on them. They are not to be disruptive other than to alert their handler and they should not relieve themselves or cause any other damage to the business. So that is how you tell the difference...they don't behave! The issue is most businesses don't ask the questions and are afraid to take action. For my staff if the don't ask the questions and take appropriate action when necessary it will result in disciplinary action.

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I'm not missing the point. I'm just pointing out that I don't have to identify the person to dislike their actions. I don't look at people in the airport and get pissed because I think they are lying about their service animal. In truth, IDGAF what they do if it doesn't disturb me or others. But I can still be against the idea of being disingenuous to make money off someone trying to deceive a business.

Hotrodz is spot on. My primary issue with these people is their animals are often ill-behaved. At that point, IDGAF if your dog is a service animal or not - if it's being disruptive in public, I'm going to think you're a disrespectful jerkass, and even more so if you lied about your service animal.

When they claim the damn emu is a support animal I just dont buy it! :icon17:

One of the problems is that service animals are classified too narrowly and support animals bc they are unregulated, the designation gets misused too often. An emotional support dog for someone with tbi and ptsd gets no special status as you pointed out yet serves just as important a role in that persons life as an officially designated service dog that alerts someone of an impending seizure.

The problem is in the above scenario, the disabled person with the critically important support animal has no legal support for their animal, the people around them can’t just tell why that person needs a support animal, and too many people fake needing a support animal so no one can tell what’s what anymore.

We are all against profiting off lies and cheating, at least I hope so. But while you are not bothered by someone who is disabled but “looks able”, there are many many folks who are and that leads to quite a bit of discrimination.

No ones service or Support animal should or is allowed to be disruptive in public or a business. Treat them like a human patron/citizen, you disrupt a restaurant, you get told to leave, if your animal does same, same outcome. Real service and support animals are trained and are very rarely disruptive. And on the rare occasion it happens, the person almost always is super embarrassed and voluntarily leaves.

You can tell the fakers not just bc the animals are poorly behaved but also bc the humans act rude and entitled.

People like to judge others. I don't understand why being discriminatory and negative is better than trying to understand from their perspective.

I deal with accessibility building codes for a living. It's amazing how often I tell someone a code requirement and they say it's the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard of. Then I explain how the requirement actually removes the architectural barrier and makes the element accessible to people with certain disabilities they hadn't thought of. All of a sudden it's ok.

Why does something have to be ridiculous just because you don't understand it?

You are missing the point as service animals were limited to the two animals for exactly, Jar's point. A service animal provides service other than being a pet. Support animals are equivalent to a pet and only have that designation because it is proven that pets have a real impact on people. Many behavioral health professionals recommend to many people who do not have a pet that get a dog or cat to provide them comfort to deal with stress, anxiety, depression and the list goes on. There is no training or certification required for a service animal. The designation will help some get affordable housing if they have a note from their psychiatrist stating there animal is a support animal. Also, a veteran or anyone with PTSD can get a Service dog for there illness. They trained to see it coming on and alert their master.

I have dealing with service dogs and support animals practically my career, both of them. No you can't have a chimpanzee as a service animal or support animal. They are dangerous on will bit your face off or rip your junck and limbs from your body.

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At the risk of being too religiousy, the old saying “but for the grace of god go I”, needs to be on the forefront of more people’s minds. Empathy is too often a four letter word.

My support animal is fluffy bunny rabbit. But my service animal is a wild rhino :rock:

So spot on! In my current position I deal with this all the time as the COO for my company. You the regulations surrounding an inpatient psychiatric facility are pretty much unattainable but we do it and we allow service dogs within the unit.

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Does your dog bite...no but he will ram the hell out of you! LMAO

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I opened a can of worms errr Dogs..

I think I wasn’t clear before, I wasn’t advocating for an expanded definition of what kinds of animals can be service animals, rather I am advocating that what types of disabilities qualify for service animals should be expanded. To my knowledge there are no service dogs for ptsd and tbi, only emotional support dogs and the training isn’t standardized for support animals and this is where #hit starts to break down and some folks take advantage.

Also, I’m just going to say it even though I may come off as being thin skinned, when you say dogs, pets etc are all emotional support animals and help their humans, while true, in the context o& this particular discussion comes off, at least to me as belittling and demeaning folks with real psychiatric and brain disabilities.

A well-behaved dog is welcome around me any time (I like most dogs better than I like most people). A poorly behaved dog is still welcome (most bad behaviors can be corrected within a few minutes - just show the dog who the alpha is) but the owner is put on my feces list, especially if they get upset when I knee their dog in the chest for jumping up on me.

I guess we don't see what onzedge see's. He flies way more than most. I still won't judge folks just in case I get it wrong one time. That one time would make me feel like a piece of crap. Now if they have a bird, lizard, rhino, wolf, mouse, Gerbal, rat, etc. All beats are off. That chit is fake.

Your not thin skin at all, you just don't have a complete perspective. I never meant to demean people who that have or use support dogs, cats or horses as the benefits are huge. I was purely stating the lawful difference between the two. Support animals exist because there a reason many of us have "pets" so those in the behavioral mental health field recognized the benefits of owning a pet and gave it a name to help people that would benefit from having a companion that provides unconditional love. We are in total agreement surrounding that.

That said if you own service animal, support animal or pet. I am with Jar it needs to be under control at all times.

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The issue is not onzedge's dog. If all dogs on planes were as well behaved there would not be an issue!!!

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It’s a lot more than unconditional love tho, there is a service being rendered when for example, Someone gets overwhelmed bc of too much info to process and their tbi, ptsd, brain lesions, neurodegenerative issues overwhelmn them and their dog is able to keep them from hurting themselves, or someone else. In that moment, the dog is no different than an antipsychotic or mood stabilizer or cognitive behavioral therapy. But that is classified as an emotional support animal, really that’s about as much of a service dog as you can get, helps with disease/injury and improves persons quality of life.

We all a agree that there is no free pass for a poorly behaved animal regardless of it’s official or unofficial status and that includes the human owners too.

My issue is that what qualifies an individual for having a service dog is too narrow sometimes, it’s not just seizures, blindness, paralysis aka the obvious ones, that’s all.

Never said he had an issue with his dog. I said we haven't seen what he has due to his frequent flights.

The list is long and I just provide the obvious for sake of discussion. A dog that is not trained to provide a service and is not certified no matter what it is is not a service animal by definition!

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Too many human azzholes take advantage of a good program or idea and ruin it for the rest of us. Story told a million times a million different ways over I suppose.

Smuggling a gerbil in your rectum bc it calms your emotionally spastic colon is not legit, (I’m looking at you zoren). :p

Agreed! I just pointing out the discussion took a hard left turn because of his post.

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I agree, but not everyone that could use a service dog can get one, there are shortages of trained dogs a lot of times, but they can get and train an emotional support dog which can can provide a lot of the same support/service. Heck, a lot of times, the calming, steady emotional support IS the service.

With physical issues like stroke, paralysis etc, the service dog is opening doors, turning on lights etc, with psychiatric issues, it really is emotional support, as well as alerting on the stress etc. the training requirements or certification isn’t going to be at the same level, most household dogs with good obedience and socializing training could probably to it.

The VA treats ptsd service dogs as second class service dogs and does not provide the same level of support to them (Ex. vet coverage) compared to physical service dogs. I suppose this issue triggers me bc when I hear “all dogs provide emotional support” or something to that effect, it goes in the same line as when someone treats combat related brain damage and psychiatric injuries as somehow not the same as physical wounds.

The issue is not that you can't get a service dog for some of the things you speak of the problem is the lack of trained and certified dogs. All the programs which provide such dogs survive on donations and it takes a long time to train a dog effectively and then not all dogs are capable of being trained.

I get what you are saying including knowing a little about training dogs as I trained upland bird dogs with a professional dog trainer for years.

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Yeap, professionally trained service dogs are very hard to get and very expensive. I think his issue is the way the VA classifies them. It strikes a nerve because of their lack of providing care for said dogs when the Veteran is in need.

I have PTSD and it was not due to my military service. I got it when I was 9 or 10. I don't like talking about it so I will leave it at that.

Agreed!

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Some folks who need service dogs also can’t get them bc they are not capable of caring for the dog and attending the required training, in cases like this an emotional support dog fills that need/gap and their spouse helps with the care of the four legged family member.

Spooler, sorry about liking that post of yours but not sure how else to show support. :tup:

Also sorry about totally fvcking this thread all to hell, I just get furious about people who claim “emotional support dog “ and are lying. Makes life a lot harder for all the honest folks.

Full disclosure: my wife and I never take our dog anywhere a “regular” pet can’t go bc he is not a service dog and I don’t want to lie, get in trouble, or make things worse for those with certified service dogs. He is my emotional support dog and has been thru obedience training, he’s better behaved than most humans in public, especially most children. I’m very protective of him tho so that could almost backfire and make things worse in some situations.

Back to our regularly scheduled program...

PS.
I had a Dr at work write me up an ESA letter so I can have a dog bigger than 20lbs in my apartment.

That Gracie is a seasoned and welcomed traveler is obvious from your previous pics itt. I apologize if I did not make it obvious that my comment was made totally in jest.

Pepper, SIT! GOOD GIRL!!

pluto :xmas3:

:tiphat:

Road trip (Dog is my co-pilot)...

http://scontent.fsac1-1.fna.fbcdn.ne...15&oe=5F443B36

ICWYDT

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