What You Might Not Know About Service Dogs. Etiquette & Facts From Trainer Jennifer. Toledo Pet Photography.

Written by Jennifer Morris

Service Animals are defined as dogs (or horses) that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Emotional support does NOT qualify as a task for Service Dogs. They must be task trained to mitigate a disability.

What is a disability? The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

Let me start this by saying that having a Service Dog is not a privilege and often a burden. Every time I go out in public I am subjected to stares, glares, huffing and puffing and even insults. I’ve been harassed and even assaulted just for having a service dog. Does every disabled person deal with this? I’ve heard it is pretty common which angers my soul. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of positive interactions as well but the bad interactions have been so bad. Something needs to change. Disabled people are getting hurt because people don’t understand. So we are trying to spread the word on etiquette.

Ajax was a huge step in my independence. He has saved my life more times than I can count. But if I had to count how many times people tried to distract Ajax from doing his job and harass us I would probably lose count. You see, we as a society love dogs. And that’s amazing and great but we don’t always act appropriately when we are around dogs that don’t belong to us. So here are some general rules when interacting with a Service Animal.

Etiquette Tips:

If you see a dog (in general), always ask the owner before you interact with it. You don’t know that dog. My dog is not a pet, he is a highly trained piece of medical equipment. Would you pet a wheelchair or a cane? No. Do not touch my service dog without asking.
Talk to the handler and not the dog. Service dogs have a very important job to do. Do not distract them. This means kissy noises, baby talk, cooing, staring, touching, etc. Just ignore the dog.
Do not ask the handler about their disability. This is a huge violation of privacy and personal information.
If you have a child, please teach the child to ignore the dog. The dog is working.
Please don’t tell us about your dog passing. Although sad, this may cause stress to a handler and trigger an episode.

There are lots of things that are important to know about service animals that many

people don’t know!

Facts about service dogs:

You can ask 2 questions: 1. Is the dog a service dog? 2. What task does the dog perform?
Allergies or fear of dogs are not valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to people using a service dog.
A person with a disability cannot be asked to remove their service dog from the premises unless***: 1. The dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it 2. The dog is not housebroken ***The person with a disability must be provided another opportunity to obtain goods and services without the animals presence.
Any breed can be a service dog.
Service dog vests are optional, which means it’s completely legal for a service dog to work “naked”.
Faking a service dog is illegal and punishable by a fine and possible jail time.
Registration is not required and often a scam.
Service dogs can be trained for many conditions; PTSD, hearing loss, visual impairment, cardiac and neurological conditions, diabetes, mobility conditions, autism and more.

About Jennifer: After graduating high school, she held an internship at the Toledo Zoo in the Educational Animal Center. She then went on to study Animal Care and Pre-veterinary at Kent State University where she became a veterinary assistant at a nearby Animal Hospital in Talmadge, Ohio. It was not until moving back to Toledo that Jennifer realized her true calling: dog training and dog handling! She has been training dogs ever since! She is a Canine Good Citizen Evaluator and strives to help others understand dogs and the way they think, learn and love!

Jennifer Owns and Operates Central Kennels in Sylvania, Ohio with her husband, Andrew. She offers boarding, daycare, and training for a variety of behaviors and goals.