Re: [QUAD-L] dog training

[River Wolfe]

I guess I have the animal in mind here.  Like the monkey situation, in 
which the monkey was never intended to go out, his stupid owner took 
him out and the the "monkey" reputation gets scarred.  I hate to see 
people take advantage of animals like that.  I was at a concert once 
and there was a couple with a CC service dog and they treated him like 
he was a circus act.  I wished I could have reported them.  It was 
awful.  You know that is very confusing to the dog and promotes 
misbehavior in the future.

I think I need to give it up, as I'm simply an animal lover and not a 
SD user.

River
On Aug 27, 2004, at 2:25 PM, Dana Miller wrote:
You were wrong "and" right!  A person with a disability as decribed by 
the
ADA may train their own dog.  BUT it must have a TRAINED task that 
will help
with the persons' disability.
There are dogs that are trained for people with mental disabilities, 
but
there is a fine line between what a "pet" can offer and what a trained 
task
is.  That is the big question.  It has caused many an argument in the
service dog world.
A person who uses a SD "is" responsible for any destruction and "is" 
liable
for everything the dog does, but the dog "should" be extremely well 
trained,
have a stable temperament and should cause no attention towards itself.
The ADA does not require certification, but really frowns on fraud!!  
And
people with SD's know a fraud when they see it.  I personally like my 
SD to
be 'dressed', as in a harness and do not pet cape.  Others do not.
One thing is for certain--THERAPY DOGS ARE NOT SERVICE DOGS!!
I'm not yelling, I'm emphazising extremely well!
I am aquanted with Pets and People and feel they are an up and up
organization.  There there are a few fraudulent organizations, one in 
which
the vice-pres. diagnoses disabilities on line.  It is more or less 
based in
the Seattle area, but the veep travels all over supposedly helping 
people
with SD 's in accessability issues.  He flaunts a Ph.D he does not 
have and
the state of Florida has forbidden him from using it.  He  doesn't--in
florida, but if he can get away with it elsewhere he will.

Anyway, it was a good question to ask!  Glad you did!        take care,
Dana and ?
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "River Wolfe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "quad" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 9:00 AM
Subject: [QUAD-L] dog training

I have a question for all of you who have service dogs.  Recently I
encountered a person on another list (freecycle a place where you give
away and ask for unwanted items) who asked for a service dog vest, as
she was training her own dog for service.
I ignorantly replied that there were special requirements for dog to
earn their vests and that she couldn't train her dog on her own, as 
she
would be liable for any damages incurred by the dog etc...

Now I know differently and was throughly chewed out by her.  So I'm
asking you all who may know much more about this than I do.  How can
this be?  It appears that from this website:
http://www.petsandpeople.org/resource.htm  Than anyone who "trains"
their dog as a ehlper can buy a tag, vest or whatever and then go out
in public with that dog.  I see that some states have certification
guidelines, which I think is a GOOD thing.
Am I out of line to be concerned that dogs may not be "trained" well
and my misbehave in public and thus give "throughly trained" dogs a 
bad
name?  Or am I over-reacting here?

This particular person has PTSD and agoraphobia, I assume she is using
the dog to ease her inability to cope with public places etc...
Thanks for the input.
River