06/03/2024
The other day, Leerie and I had an extremely bad experience at a Walmart. As we walked in the front door, there was a man with a small dog in a stroller that barked it’s fool head off the entire time we were within eyesight as we scrambled to get away as fast as possible. The store was crowded as all get out, which was my fault for choosing to go on a Saturday. As we complete our shopping as fast as I can possibly go, we of course get nearly a dozen catcalls, babytalk, cooing, waving, shouting—you name it, people do it. When we went to check out, there was a dog in a vest that stared us down the entire time while his people cooed and awed and said “oh look Chip, another service doggie!! Look!!” Even the self checkout aides squealed about the dogs, though they commented that Leerie was afraid (I’d told her to leave it and she returned her attention to me instantly).
Now, I’m not telling you this to complain. This is my reality as a service dog handler. The multitude of us deal with situations like this and so much worse on a daily basis. What I want to bring to the forefront of your attention are the two dogs, and the impact that pets in public places has on service dog handlers.
Any public place that sells grocery items is not pet friendly for certain. This includes Walmart, Target, Kroger, etc. It is a food safety issue. However, service dogs are considered by law in America to be necessary medical equipment. They also undergo significant training to be under control and perform tasks. A pet dog does not undergo this training and is not protected by law. Bringing your pet into a non pet friendly establishment is against the law.
Aside from that, you and your pet now pose a safety hazard to a disabled person and their medical equipment should you lose control of your pet and allow them to assault/accost/distract a service dog team. You are unthinkingly destroying YEARS of hard work and thousands of dollars invested in a dog that is someone’s lifeline. Should that service dog be unable to work again because of your mistake, that service dog now has to be washed or failed from work and the handler has to start from scratch.
And finally, even if there are no service dogs at the establishment when you bring your pet, you are still impacting service dog teams. The employees of the establishment and those also using the store are looking at your dog and assessing it’s behavior. They make assumptions based on how your dog behaves that all dogs coming into the establishment will behave like that, and it will reflect in their future choices regarding legitimate service dog teams. A service dog team could be denied entry or service, treated differently or even harassed. All because you decided to take your dog into Walmart.
I would also like to add that the above paragraph can be applied to pet friendly venues as well. Your pet is welcome there, however should their behavior become a nuisance to the staff or other patrons, you could very well be the reason the venue chooses to stop being pet friendly. Don’t be the one who ruins it for everyone else.
As a final footnote, I am uncertain as to whether or not the dog in the vest was a legtimate service dog or not. His focus and engagement were not on his handler, however he did walk nicely on a leash and stayed relatively close to his handler. In my professional opinion, had I seen that as their trainer or handler I would revoke the dog’s public access for the time being and return to pet friendly venues to build upon their engagement until they could disengage their dog. For those of you training service dogs, it is a privilege and not a right if you have public access rights with your SDiT. Please ensure your dog is ready for the environments you put them in because your dog has the potential to ruin it for other teams too.
And finally, finally, please for the love of god, do not put service dog vests or ‘working dog’ vests on your dogs and take them into non petfriendly places. Even if your dog is well behaved, if you’re allowing them to be pet or perform tricks for people, the public is learning it’s okay to harass service dog teams because of you 🙂
