Faker Writes Article for Newspaper

[ILGHAUS]

Year of Firsts: In defense of carrying small dogs
by Cheri Matthews/ Press-Banner
Nov 25, 2009

Chancey is a toy “min pin,” or miniature pinscher, and he’s the size of a Chihuahua. ... he can be hyperactive, hypersensitive and hyper-aggressive. ... I carried him into REI in Berkeley the other day, right past the sign that says “Service Animals Only,” and no one said a word. ... He growled, he hissed, he tried to bite anything and everything around him, including the gorgeous collie someone was trying to photograph next to the surf. ... He even attacks me if I get out of bed and forget to turn on the light. Anyone who comes close to abusing his comfort gets it!

We’ve got to go now, as we have some Black Friday shopping to do. Chancey can smell a good deal from a mile away. Like I said, he’s a service dog.

Year of Firsts is an occasional column by Cheri O’Neil Matthews, dog lover and publisher of the Press-Banner, who recently moved to Scotts Valley. She’s a longtime newspaper editor and reporter who serves on the board of the California Press Association.

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[Kayos and Havoc]

Yikes!! I read some of the comments too and most were not happy with this person for faking a service dog.

[Brightelf]

I just noticed that we don't have a tantrum-throwing smiley.

[middleofnowhere]

Originally Posted By: BrightelfI just noticed that we don't have a tantrum-throwing smiley.

But we make up for it with tantrum throwing members!

[Raziel]

I heard someone say they had a "service cat".
Who knew?
That dog sounds like a little butthole!!
I dont like nippy dogs.
& I dont think its funny for her to bring that dog in as a service animal.

[Lauri & The Gang]

I wonder how much of his behavior is HER fault - for enabling his bad behaviors.

[Brightelf]

And yes, the author probably wrote it to tick folks off, in humor, to get a response. But, why give readers ideas on how to make things harder for those legitimate teams? And not just SD teams, but SDIT teams-- those with wiggly pups being habituated and bouncy young dogs who are still learning and making mistakes and working hard with their trainers/handlers at correcting them? ("Your dog DID try to snatch that French fry on the floor as you walked her past-- she must not be a REAL SDIT!") This also makes things harder for those with mixed-breeds ("That must be yet another fake... it isn't a Golden, Lab or GSD...") and those with dogs who didn't come from an agency. Security guards at malls and shopping centers flash back to an article meant in jest, or remember someone else sneaking in a viscious Malti-poo fake SD, and it makes them form associations. Bad associations.

Articles like this increase suspicion to the point of exclusion on the part of shopkeepers, and give bad ideas to the public about "getting away with it" too.

[Chicagocanine]

Originally Posted By: BrightelfAnd yes, the author probably wrote it to tick folks off, in humor, to get a response. But, why give readers ideas on how to make things harder for those legitimate teams? And not just SD teams, but SDIT teams-- those with wiggly pups being habituated and bouncy young dogs who are still learning and making mistakes and working hard with their trainers/handlers at correcting them? ("Your dog DID try to snatch that French fry on the floor as you walked her past-- she must not be a REAL SDIT!") This also makes things harder for those with mixed-breeds ("That must be yet another fake... it isn't a Golden, Lab or GSD...") and those with dogs who didn't come from an agency.

Don't forget the legitimate toy-breed service dogs whose partners I am sure have enough trouble with people not believing they are really service dogs already.

[DogGone]

While I do think it’s a stretch for her to consider her dog a service dog I think there is a shred of truth to what she says. I think in some cases companion dogs are service dogs. I know myself I have a bad back and experience a lot of untreated pain (thanks to Bible thumping witch hunters that make sure that drug addicts get their drugs and make sure that people that need narcotics for legitimate pain don’t get them). Not only do I have extreme pain untreated pain I have partial intermittent paralysis. I’ve had a spinal injury which has caused neuropathy. There seems to be some nerves in my back and in my neck that get pinched varying degrees. So I have varying degrees of paralysis and pain. Sometimes I can walk fairly normal, sometime I can’t walk at all. I have been assaulted; the police have essentially done nothing, not even filed a report. There was an old lady three doors down that was assaulted; I called the police, the police essentially did nothing they didn’t even file a police report.

It seems that the police are lazy and don’t want to take the appropriate action and to even bother to fill out a report. It seems that part of the reason that they don’t want to take a report is if things go bad down the road that they don’t want to leave a paper trail that could possibly be used to demonstrate that they did not take the appropriate action. I think they also don’t bother to report crime to keep their crime statistics artificially low to make the community look more peaceful than it really is. I feel that the local police are derelict and corrupt.

Though my dog is not officially trained or listed as a service dog in some respects I consider her to be a service dog. Physically she is probably about as much of a hindrance as she is a help. When I have her on a conventional leash and she pulls it hurts my back; that’s why when as often as possible I try to use a professional version of an Ecollar. It causes me pain and a lot of work to clean up after the dog (GSDs tend to shed a lot and all dogs especially large ones tend to track in mud). However there are times where she does physically help me; there are times when I can’t get up or need stabilization that she is helpful as acting as an improvised ledge to help me get up with aid.

I also feel my dog is a service dog in that I feel that her looks alone is enough to keep most thugs from trying to assault or rob me. The one time I was assaulted was one time that I left my dog home so I wouldn’t appear threatening so I could confront the husband of the woman that assaulted her sister.

I’d be less likely to go out in public if I didn’t have a dog. I feel safer with a dog. I feel that if I fall down to the dog and help me get up or keep warm or help attract attention. If I didn’t have a dog I probably wouldn’t get as much exercise and would probably be even fatter than I am now. The more pain that you’re in, the less you want to exercise, the more you gain weight, the more that there is pressure on your joints causing you even more pain, as you get fatter and less exercise you get more prone to things like diabetes, which can cause even more pain and paralysis. That’s where I seem to be. My pain and paralysis makes me exercise less so I gain more weight which has made the pain worse, since I exercise less on getting fatter and I think I’m developing diabetes.

I have been betrayed by my family, my clergy, my government and many of my friends; about the only thing in the world I feel I can really trust is my dog. I trust dogs more than I trust people.

I feel even the local post office is discriminatory. They have a sign on the door that says seeing-eye dog only. What about seizure dogs or other help her dogs? I tried to get the post office to deliver mail directly to my trailer instead of having to go up to the communal mailbox. It’s somewhat problematic to walk up to the communal mailbox because I feel it puts me at vulnerability to being attacked and I also feel that is somewhat impolite because the other dogs in the neighborhood often bark when they hear or see my dog and I’d rather not cause a ruckus in the neighborhood every time I go up to get the mail. The post office refused to give me door delivery citing that it would take too much time and cost too much money; yet there are vast areas of suburbs that there is door delivery where the vast majority of people are not handicapped. I feel it is unfair and discrimination to give door delivery too rich able people; but to deny door delivery to handicapped people. There are probably three or more houses in my very small trailer Park that also have people that are disabled and can’t reasonably get to their mailboxes; yet the post office refuses to deliver the mail to the door in this neighborhood. One of the old ladies from my former church had her purse stolen at the post office. Some woman cut the straps off her purse and took off with her purse and the lady from church didn’t even realize what had happened till afterwards. The post office didn’t have a camera on the customer side of the post office business so there was no way to identify the woman that did it. I would think allowing dogs or <span style="color: #CC0000"> [removed rest of post as it was in violation of the 1,000 word post limit. Removed by Admin. Wisc.Tiger]</span>

[AbbyK9]

Quote: I think in some cases companion dogs are service dogs.

I said this in my comments in the article, but I will write it here as well. It is true that many companion or pet dogs are providing an important service to their humans - they provide companionship, they can even lower blood pressure and calm a person. But that does not make them service dogs.

"Service Dog" and "Service Animal" are legal terms that describe very specific dogs that fill a very specific function.

In order for a dog to be considered a Service Dog, he has to have a disabled handler whose disability makes the dog a necessity in order to do normal, everyday things that the rest of us take for granted and can do without our dogs. A person with mild depression, for example, may benefit from the companionship of a dog, but that does not make the dog a Service Dog.

The other requirement that needs to be met for a dog to be a Service Dog is that he is trained to do SPECIFIC tasks for the person to mitigate the person's disability, and is able to perform them on command. Even dogs primarily used to detect a medical condition, such as low blood sugar, or an oncoming seizure, are generally trained to do other tasks for their handlers, such as bringing medication, calling 911 on a special phone, and the like. Tasks that are trained and can be demonstrated.

I think it's wonderful your dog does many things for you that help you, and that your dog is making some things easier for you than they are without the dog, but unless your dog meets the legal requirements to be a Service Dog, it is not a Service Dog but a pet.