The Life of a Service Dog Handler…
Luna my service dog
“You know you can get a service dog tag or card on Amazon and take your dog anywhere right? That’s what I did!”
This was something someone told me years ago, long before I trained or used a service dog myself, but even then I knew it was wrong and unethical. Especially with the dogs in question, her dog being completely untrained and rude and mine working through some adolescent reactivity towards people and dogs. While I politely declined the “advice” not knowing how to respond, there are many people who wouldn’t have.
Years later the general public is still rather uneducated about service dog laws and how taking advantage and breaking them hurts service dogs and their disabled handlers.
Yesterday my mom decided she wanted to spend her Mother’s Day visiting an art fair. So after our lunch out my mom, myself, and my current service dog Luna hopped into the car to go see some art!
This was an incredibly busy event with hundreds of people coming and going, loads of staff/volunteers, and many signs from parking to entrance indicating that this was not a pet friendly event (something I was already aware of as I always try to check a business’ or event’s policies before showing up to see if there is anything I need to know or gauge if I think it will be a safe environment for my service dog. Service dogs are not technically recognized as pets, they are legally recognized as medical equipment). My mom and I chuckled (and maybe the occasional eye roll for those with a bad attitude) at every kid and adult that made a comment about us having a dog and wishing to pet it or wishing they had their own with, nothing that is new to us at this point.
After a decent walk from the far back of the parking area we finally reached the tent entrance staffed with people to take payment to get in. As soon as we got close I hear someone say “hey, there’s a dog coming.” This isn’t uncommon for us to encounter either and at this point I typically expect it to mean I will be asked the two legally allowed ADA questions “is this a service dog required to mitigate a disability” and “if yes, what task(s) or job has it been trained to perform?” Except this time after I informed the worker Luna is a service dog I was met with “do you have your ID card?”…
When both myself and my mom tried to explain that there are no legal ID cards in the United States and they are all scams and even tried to hand her one of my ADA info cards (which gives our answers to the 2 ADA questions on one side and the ADA service dog laws on the other), she passed us along to someone else clearly irritated and annoyed. Already defensive that we would need to fight for our right to be at the event, we immediately told the person we were passed to that we were told we “needed an ID card”, but that they aren’t a legitimate thing in the US. Thankfully she was aware of the laws and gave us no issues, she was even excited to keep one of Luna’s info cards!
The back side of the ADA cards I carry around when working my service dog
I would also like to mention, Luna was in a perfect heel the entire time, never made a peep or fuss about the crowd around us and was wearing a custom mobility harness and custom collar that both label her as a service dog. Legally she doesn’t even need to be labeled, but it definitely makes life easier for her and for me.
I am grateful it ended ok and we had a great time looking at beautiful art and spending time together, but It wasn’t a pleasant experience and it left my mom and I feeling very anxious and shaken up for the first few minutes.
Thankfully, the person we were passed to knew the laws, but what if she hadn’t? What if we weren’t passed along and the first person just turned us away or forced us to escalate the issue (not because getting into an art fair is that important, but because making sure other teams in the future, who might not be able to fight, don’t have to is important). What if it wasn’t just an art fair?
I saw 2 more service dog teams while there and I wonder what their experience was like getting in… did I just get unlucky? Did they have ID cards? Did they have to stand up for their rights too? From what I saw in the quick passing of the other teams there was nothing visibly disabled about any of us, which can make access issues more difficult as invisible disabilities are just that, invisible (at least if you aren’t looking closely).
So when you go to purchase that ID card, register your dog, or other cheap harness/tag/leash/bandanna/etc from Amazon or a scam website (they are literally all scams) thinking you aren’t causing any harm… please hit the back button and do some more research. If you are legitimately in need of a service dog message me and I would happily help send you in the right direction for legal information, if you aren’t disabled and just want to be able to “take your dog anywhere” please, just don’t.
A jar of Nutella that a fellow service dog handler registered on a ‘service dog registration’ website…
In the United States what makes a service dog is…
1- a disable human
2- a dog that is under control and potty trained (i.e. has basic manners and is not aggressive or reactive)
3- a dog that has at least one trained task to mitigate their handler’s disability
That’s it. It is kept simple to make it accessible for DISABLED people. It is not kept simple for the general public to abuse.
If you want to learn more about real service dog laws and what your rights are as a handler, business, or member of society check out the ADA website!
