Yes, I Have A Real Service Dog, and Yes, I Need A Service Dog.
“You Need A Service Dog? You Don’t Look Like You Have A Disability.” “Oh, she’s a ‘service dog’. Yeah, I had a friend who got an online certification for a service dog but she didn’t really need one.”
These are all things I’ve heard when I tell people (or someone finds out) that Millie is my service dog. First, let’s start by defining what a service dog is.
So What Is A Service Dog?
According to the ADA, “Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.”
Back Up, There's A Difference Between Work and a Task?
Yes! This alone can be confusing. “Work” is something the service animal has been trained to recognize or respond to without a direct command. “Task” is something they have been trained to do in response to a direct command. For example, Millie performs “work” when she interrupts oncoming panic/anxiety attacks, disrupts nightmares by pawing and nudging me, and shoves herself in between someone sitting too close to me. She can do this because she’s been trained to recognize my body cues and she responds accordingly, without me giving her a direct command. She performs “tasks” when I tell her to “search” and she goes into our apartment and searches each of the rooms to make sure no one is there or when she lays on me for deep compression therapy.
The last sentence from the ADA excerpt makes the distinction of ESA’s vs. Service Dogs. You can have a disability and still just have an ESA. If the dog hasn’t been trained specifically to help you with your disability, but you find that it helps your anxiety to just have your dog around, that’s an ESA. If you find that you just naturally feel safer having your dog with you on runs or walks but they haven’t been trained to do something specific for you, for example, stand behind you to check for threats, or come in between you and someone approaching, it’s an ESA.
But How Do I Know It's A Real Service Dog?
To determine if a dog is a service animal, according to the ADA staff of an establishment can ask two questions.
The website states: “In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific questions:
is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
what work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person’s disability.”
Full stop. Read that last sentence again.
I have had friends of mine respond surprised when I tell them the two questions people CAN ask you to determine if you have a service dog. They felt it was intrusive to ask point blank if the dog is in relation to a disability. I don’t feel this way. I personally really appreciate it when I encounter staff who ask these questions because it signals to me that they know the law and are well educated on service dog FAQ’s. It’s painfully clear when people don’t know the law: when they consistently ask for proof, when they say they only allow “guide dogs”, when they say you can only sit in a certain area of the restaurant, and on and on.
Also, please note: this is specific to staff who are working somewhere that animals are typically not allowed. If you are a patron, bystander, stranger or a member of the general public, you have no right to approach or ask someone with a service dog these questions.
Things You Cannot Require
You cannot require “proof via document”, “certification”, or “papers”. You also cannot require the dog to be wearing a vest. The ADA also states, “There are individuals and organizations that sell service animal certification or registration documents online. These documents do not convey any rights under the ADA and the Department of Justice does not recognize them as proof that the dog is a service animal.”
The ADA does not require that the dog be professionally trained. People with disabilities have a right to train their own dog and while organizations performing training services for service dogs are wonderful, they are extremely expensive and prohibit many people with disabilities from ever being able to utilize a service dog.
But What If The Dog Is Misbehaving?
The ADA states that there are 2 scenarios where you can be asked to leave with your service dog:
the dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it;
the dog is not housebroken.
When there is a legitimate reason to ask that a service animal be removed, staff must offer the person with the disability the opportunity to obtain goods or services without the animal’s presence.
To Answer The Very First Question:
“You need a service dog?” Yes.
Through her work and her tasks, she helps me tremendously. She makes me brave. She lets me live. It took me 30 plus years to finally start asking for what I need and receiving the help when I get it. And I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Happy Advocating!
Merry and Millie
