[nagdu] In question please

[Julie J.]

It would be up to the place of business to ask if the dog was a service 
dog, not every other person all day.  That would feel like harassment, I 
think.  There are some very specific and legal questions businesses can 
ask to ascertain if a dog is a service dog.

I get asked at Wal-Mart pretty frequently if Monty is a service dog.  
The other day the front door greeter asked the service dog question and 
then told me that she was the only employee allowed to ask and if anyone 
else bothered me about the dog to let her know and she'd take care of 
it.  This is new.  Perhaps there's hope for Wal-Mart?

A vest or harness is simply a function of what the dog needs to do for 
the handler and the preferences of the handler.  There is no legal 
requirement for any sort of dress for the dog.  If the dog was alerting 
the man to a medical condition probably through some sort of body 
contact or position, it wouldn't need a harness to perform that task.

I do agree that wearing something that makes it obvious that the dog is 
working would help identify the dog, but it isn't required. I also don't 
think requiring a vest or harness would somehow cut down on the 
instances of pets in public.  You can purchase that stuff from a load of 
different web sites or make it yourself for pretty cheap.  It's the 
training and behavior that sets a service dog apart.  It sounds like 
this dog was behaving appropriately, but the other service dogs were the 
ones with the problem.

I've been in that situation.  It is very uncomfortable both when your 
dog acts up and when other dogs misbehave around your dog.  For me it's 
even more uncomfortable when other dogs act up around Monty.  I don't 
want to cause them problems, but I also want to go about my business.   
When it's Monty I can do something about the situation, but when it's 
the other dog my options are pretty limited.

In my humble opinion the man did the service dog community proud.  He 
had a well behaved dog that assisted him and wasn't a bother to others.  
Isn't that what we all strive for no matter which program or no program 
our dog came from?

Julie


On 11/5/2012 9:54 AM, d m gina wrote:
> Thank you for helping me understand what is happening, yes the folks 
> corrected their dogs, where all felt uncomfortable in the room when 
> the groweling happened.
> If it is ok for this person to walk around with this saint bernard 
> with no harness of any kind to indacate that it is a service dog, then 
> they need to be questioned.
> Or anyone can do and say the same thing.
> How do we keep this in control?
> This is why I ask questions.
> The persons dog was in contro. each time I saw the team.
> Thanks again.
>
> Original message:
>> Yes, there are dogs that can alert to changes in blood sugar levels.
>> There is even a program that trains this type of dog.  I'm remembering
>> it's in the northwest, Washington or Oregon?  Of course the dog wouldn't
>> have had to come from this or any program to be trained to alert to the
>> guy's medical condition.
>
>> It is kind of odd that he changed his story about the dog over the
>> course of the weekend.  Perhaps the guy is uncomfortable talking about
>> his medical issues and was trying to evade what he perceived as
>> intrusive questions?  I don't know.  I do know that sometimes I give
>> people answers that aren't 100% honest because I am simply tired of
>> talking about it and would like to end the conversation.  Or it could be
>> that he was a bit insecure about having trained the dog himself.  I went
>> through that in the beginning.  People would ask how long I had my dog
>> and I would answer with how long the dog had been working, which of
>> course was shorter than the time I had the dog.  You can get a lot of
>> brutal comments from people when you announce training your own dog.
>> Sometimes I am just not in the mood to have that conversation, so I
>> avoid it.
>
>> When you say that several dogs took a disliking to this dog, do you mean
>> that the other guide dogs were acting inappropriately or the diabetic
>> alert Saint Bernard?  Because if the other guide dogs were acting up but
>> the Saint  Bernard was not, then that is not the Saint  Bernard's
>> handlers issue.  That would be up to the guide dog handler's to control
>> their dogs.
>
>> Julie
>
>
>
>> On 11/4/2012 10:21 PM, d m gina wrote:
>>> hi there,
>>> Over the weekend we did get to our convention that was a success.
>>> Looking back on it, and conversations we had with a gentleman who
>>> claims his dog was first a seeing eye dog but not a seeing eye dog,
>>> but now a diabetic dog, but the dog knows how to walk on the left.
>>> That was when I went into wonder mode.
>>> This dog is a saint branard.
>>> Sorry I don't know how to spell the name.
>>> The question was asked if he was a type one or two diabetic, this was
>>> not done by staff just you and I visiting.
>>> There was no harness on the dog just a collar.
>>> Are there dogs out there doing this, and it was the first time I saw
>>> it happen?
>>> The guy i guess is blind/ I don't know the person at all.
>>> What I do know, is there were dogs who took a dislike to this dog, and
>>> they wanted to start a dog fight.
>>> The groweling was truly out of place.
>>> They did't take issue with any other dog that was there, just this one.
>>> I am guessing that this person does this kind of thing allot.
>>> Everyone questioned if this was really a service dog.
>>> then the same person gave another guy a different story, that was why
>>> I was wondering what was happening.
>>> I felt I was doing well to keep my dog in control.
>>> Thanks again, I just needed to know if this was something out of
>>> control, or really a dog out there who would let you know if you were
>>> having a problem.
>
>
>
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