[nagdu] Small house, Big yard, I don't think PET is the right word.

[Buddy Brannan]

On Jan 4, 2009, at 4:09 PM, Mardi Hadfield wrote:

> Buddy, a pet does nothing except love it's owner.
> Most people don't even train their pets . I think that psyc. animals  
> are
> trained to do some things but not to the same level as a guide dog  
> or a
> mobility dog. I don't think they are the quite the same thing.

Task training should be the operative thing here. If a dog has been  
trained to do some specific thing to mitigate a disability, it is a  
service dog. On the other hand, I have (in my recent capacity as  
membership coordinator for the IAADP) received calls from people who  
want their dogs classified as service dogs, when all the dog does by  
the callers' own admission is "calm me", one presumes, by its mere  
presence or by some natural thing it does. It is an established fact  
that pets are good for you. They calm you, give some people a reason  
to get up in the morning, what have you. But those things don't make  
an animal a service dog, valuable as those benefits may be. Such  
animals that one might call "emotional support dogs" or some other  
thing, whose sole purpose is to calm or ground a person by their very  
presence, shouldn't be called anything more than they are: pets.

--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 746-4127 or 888-75-BUDDY
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