Cancer Patient's Dog

[cuttingedge]

Cancer patient's dog may be classified as vicious | The Journal News | LoHud.com

[Jax's Mom]

That's unfortunate... Not good publicity for service dogs.

[codmaster]

That sounds terrible for everyone concerned! Esp. the little girl who was bit in the face.

Does anyone know what kind of training the dog had?

[selzer]

I think I would rather be bitten in the face than to have my dog removed and euthanized. I think this is traumatic for both children involved.

This is a puppy. A GSD at 14 months old still needs a lot of work. How is it a service dog? What are its duties? We know nothing about the incident itself, what type of training the dog had, and whether the owners continued training after acquiring the dog.

NOT GOOD FOR GSDs.

[AbbyK9]

I have found a number of articles on this story, and here's what information is provided -

- The dog is 14 months old and has been "in training for 11 months"
- The dog is trained to help the girl balance / brace her
- The dog is trained to play "hide & seek" with the kids
- The dog was in a choke chain at the time the little girl was bitten

The family claims that the dog is "trained" to play hide & seek with the kids and that, on finding a child, the dog will come forward and lick the child. They claim that this is what happened when the little girl was bitten. They say the dog was leashed, and when the dog leaned forward to lick the little girl, the choke collar tightened, causing the dog to "inadvertently" snap its jaws shut, which caused the bite.

The other family - the parents of the child that was bitten - say the dog had gotten loose and went into their yard. One of the parents came to get the dog, leashed it, and began talking to the mother of the child who was bitten. The dog then lunged forward and bit the little girl. They also said their child has never played with this dog because she is allergic and has been told to keep away from the dog.

The family the dog belongs to says that the dog has been training "for 11 months" and is a Service Dog to their daughter.

[Jax's Mom]

Having had a kid, and cancer, and a 14 month old GSD puppy... I don't hold it against these people to bend the truth about their dog for their kid. It doesn't make them evil people.
Most people have no idea what a loss like that would do to a cancer patient.
It's entirely the parents' fault for letting it happen, it's horrible that people will believe what they want to believe about service dogs and this story just reinforces what they choose to believe, but I'd be doing anything in my power to keep my kid's dog as well.

[AbbyK9]

I don't hold it against these people to bend the truth about their dog for their kid. It doesn't make them evil people.

I don't think anyone said that they are evil, but I think they may well be liars.

I don't know what that is teaching their child - that it's okay to lie if it's in your favor? That you can claim your dog is a Service Dog because you have an illness? That the dog should be treated differently from any other dog who bites a child in the face because it's a Service Dog? I don't know ... I think what the parents are doing is very damaging to their child.

There is absolutely nothing (nothing!) wrong with having an Emotional Support Animal or Companion Animal because they provide comfort and they can even do some tasks. But when a dog is not safe, you can't say it's a Service Dog in hopes that this will change the perception of the judge. That just hurts all the other people with legitimate, SAFE Service Dogs who rely on them to do everyday things.

[Jax's Mom]

I think on a higher level, it's teaching their kid that their parents will do anything it takes to keep their family member from being taken away.
I grew up knowing right and wrong, the difference between "less right" and "less wrong" but I also had the sense of security that my parents wouldn't let anything happen to our family.
I have a vague memory, as a kid, of a man opening the car door while I waited outside for my dad in a parking lot... The man asked if I wanted to go for a walk in the park with him. I told him no and I locked the doors. When my dad came back I told him what happened... After confirming that I wasn't making the story up and which man it was, my dad got out of the car and beat the tar out of the guy. It didn't teach me that fighting is OK or I could sick my dad on people, it taught me that my dad won't let anything happen to me. After that day I wasn't afraid of the monster that lived in my closet anymore because my dad was in the next room.

A kid with cancer is counting on the fact that the adults in their life have all the right answers and won't let anything happen to them like dying of cancer or having their dog taken away. The only thing more demoralizing to a cancer patient having their dog taken away is being told there is no cure for their cancer.

[AbbyK9]

I think on a higher level, it's teaching their kid that their parents will do anything it takes to keep their family member from being taken away.

But ... what if that family member is dangerous? Unprovoked? Even if the parents are at least partially responsible for what happened (remember, the dog supposedly got loose and they came to get it)?

[Jax's Mom]

I think the parents are completely responsible and at the same time, doing a disservice to real service dogs. However, in my opinion, the greater evil would be to take the dog away from the kid. In some cases, kids with cancer don't really need to learn such life lessons because they won't live long enough to use them.