BY FRAN JEWELL
This past week, a flight attendant was bitten by an emotional support dog (ESA) and required five stitches. This is a travesty for all dogs, for service dogs, the flight attendant, as well as the general public. Being exposed to—with nowhere to escape inside a plane—an aggressive dog is a horrible experience. Yet, consistently, people claim their pet dog to be an ESA by buying a doctor’s prescription online, and a vest. Anyone who does this is not only being fraudulent, but they are exposing themselves to legal liabilities from anyone bitten, as well as the airlines. Yes, just because you call your dog an ESA does not relieve you from responsibility for damage your dog causes.
ESAs are not required to have any training or evaluation for temperament. What is critical is that many dogs are not emotionally equipped themselves to cope with the stress of air travel, huge numbers of people in very close proximity or the conditions of altitude change during flights. When we only think about ourselves and our desire to have our dog with us while flying, we tend to not think about whether is it fair to the dog and his/her stress level and capability to cope.
Yes, some dogs can be very graceful about this kind of travel, but many are not. When I train real service dogs, it takes over 300 hours of practice before this dog feels comfortable and trusts the handler enough to participate in air travel. A potential service dog has been thoroughly evaluated for their solid temperament, lack of aggression and ability to perform their tasks in very distractive and unusual situations before I ever consider taking them on a plane.
I do believe there is a place for ESAs, but I also believe that most people have no idea of the personal liability they take when traveling on a plane with a dog, and they pay little regard to the stress it causes for their dog. Never have I had anyone approach me and ask me to evaluate their dog for air travel.
The other thing that is so critical is to understand the difference between ESAs, therapy dogs and service dogs. An ESA is not granted the rights of public access to any place besides public housing and some airlines.
A therapy dog is evaluated by national organizations for their appropriateness to visit, when invited, facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. These organizations will cover you and your dog with liability insurance policies to protect you in the event of an unforeseen or accidental bite incident. These organizations require that the dog possess excellent temperament and obedience skills to handle the stress of doing therapy work as a team with their handler. Therapy dogs are there to provide pet therapy to others, not the owner/handler. A therapy dog is not granted the rights of access to any place the public is invited because they provide therapy to others. They are only allowed into places they are invited. They are not service dogs.
Service dogs are highly trained dogs that can perform tasks to mitigate someone’s disability. If you are not disabled, your pet is not a service dog. Idaho now has very strict laws enforcing fake service dogs and some severe penalties for this fraudulent behavior. Service dogs do have the right of access to any place the public is allowed. But, as highly trained animals, their manners should be impeccable. Again, the owner/handler is still liable for damage a service dog does. A service dog is not a dog to be socialized with. Doing so could cause the dog to miss providing a service to his handler, which could be disastrous or life threatening. Please do not distract a service dog or pet it!
While we all love our dogs, let’s love them enough to consider them and their comfort level when taking them places, not just our own comfort level. Let’s also know the laws that govern animals in public and realize the responsibility if your dog should injure someone.
Fran Jewell is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, IAABC-certified dog behavior consultant, NADOI-certified instructor #1096 and the owner of Positive Puppy Dog Training, LLC, in Sun Valley. For more information, visit positivepuppy.com or call (208) 578-1565.
