[nagdu] What is "disruptive" to a business?

[Jenine Stanley]

In this whole discussion of fake service dogs, I'm reminded that it is truly
all about behavior. Or is it? 

For me personally, it's insulting that someone thinks he or she must fain
disability, something I live with and have no choice about, to be able to
take even a well behaved pet into places where I can take my dog, because he
assists me. There is a strong part of me that wants to say to people who do
this, "Good, you get the rest of the things that go along with having a
disability, like un or under employment, often being thought of as a child
or not equal to others, general ignorance, etc." 

Then I ask myself about our own community. Do we realize that our dogs too
are under these same conduct standards?  I don't want to blame the victim at
all here and I know that most of us try very hard to keep our dogs under
good control. 

Here's an interesting situation though, and it's totally fictitious. What
would you do if you were the business owner? 

A person comes into your business regularly with a legitimate service dog,
doesn't matter what the dog does for the person, that person has the right
gear and ID and has answered the questions you can ask legally about the
dog. 

The person always gives the dog water at the table, allowing it to drink out
in the aisle where people walk. The person makes no attempt to clean up the
water left after the dog drinks. This makes the floor very slippery for
everyone and the staff must clean it up. 

The person sits while talking and grooms the dog with his fingers, flicking
the fur onto the floor. This makes a huge mess as it's a long-haired dog. 

The person allows and encourages everyone in the place to pet and play with
the dog, taking it out of harness for this activity. As a result, other
customers think it's OK to bring their pet dogs in and to pet other service
dogs who come in with their people. 

As the business owner, this is very disruptive and we want to ban the person
from bringing the dog in. Thoughts? 

Yes, our office actually got this call. I won't tell you what we said as
that's confidential, but I'm curious to see your thoughts. 

I'll admit, when nervous or bored, I will do that finger grooming thing. I
caught myself the other day and began feeling around for fur and collecting
it into my pocket. :) 

Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com
http://www.twitter.com/jeninems