What is a service dog?
The Americans with Disabilities Act, (ADA), defines a service dog as “a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability.”
Beginning on 15 March 2011 under titles II and III of the ADA, only dogs are recognized as service animals.
Title II and III entities must permit service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas where members of the public are allowed to go.
*State and local laws may define service animals more broadly than the ADA does. Check with the state attorney general’s office for information about where you reside.
Interference/disruption of a service dog while performing in its capacity is a Class B misdemeanor.
Service dog fall under three main categories,
Psychiatric service dogs, (PSDs), medical alert and mobility/physical assistance dogs.
PSDs:
PTSD
Depression
Fear/phobia
Autism
Anxiety
Medical Alert:
Type 1 and 2 diabetes
Neurological distress
Night terrors
High blood pressure
Mobility/Physical Assistance:
Wheelchair bound
Amputation
Blind/deaf
Muscular dystrophy
All service animals must be under control of its handler. The ADA requires that all service animals must be leashed, or tethered, unless the handler’s disability prevents use of such devices, or if these devices interfere with the safe, effective performance of tasks.
General ADA rules and compliance relating to service animals:
Staff members may inquire about a limited amount. 2 questions: (1) is the service dog required for a disability, and (2) what task or work the dog is trained to carry out. Staff cannot ask about the disability, medical documentation, special identification card, documentation for the service dog or demand that the dog demonstrate its trained tasks or work.
Fear of dogs and allergies may not be used as valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to persons using a service dog. If a person with dog dander allergies and a person using a service dog must share time in the same room area or facility, in example, a classroom, office space, both persons should be respectfully accommodated by assigning them different rooms or locations opposite one another within the same room.
Only 2 circumstances allow for a person with a service dog to be asked to remove the dog from the premises: (1) the dog is out of control and the handler does nothing to correct the dog’s behavior or establish and maintain control of the service dog or (2) the dog is not housebroken. If the staff have justifiable reasons to have the service dog removed, the handler must still be allowed an opportunity to utilize the goods and services offered without the service dog present.
All establishments that prepare or sell food must allow the service dog access to any publicly accessible areas even if local and state health codes prohibit animals on the premises.
Persons with disabilities requiring use of a service dog cannot be separated from other patrons, treated differently or lesser than other patrons, or charged any additional or hidden fees that would not be charged to patrons without service dogs. Additionally, if a business charges a fee or deposit to be paid for patrons with pets, the business must waive those fees or charges for service dogs.
If a business such as a hotel normally charges patrons for damage they cause, customers with disabilities requiring a service dog may also be charged for damage they or their service dog cause.
Staff members are not required to provide care, supervision of or assistance with any service dog. The service dog’s needs and responsibility for are to be provided by the handler or any person designated by the handler to assist them with the service dog.
Service dog etiquette
Do not approach or attempt to pet a service dog without permission from the dog and handler.
**if you see a service dog without their handler, follow it to where the handler is. Many service dogs are trained to go and get help if their handler is unresponsive. **
small children should not be allowed to approach a service dog or strange dog without supervision.
When greeting a new dog for the first time, a person should allow the dog to come to them willingly and not place their hands in the dog’s face or encroach upon the dog’s personal space.
If allowed permission to interact with a service dog, limit the interaction to a paw shake and a few minimal pets to not distract the dog from the tasks it is to perform.
What is a dog’s superpower
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!!! That is what truly defines the magical superpower dogs hold over us and why they will always Love you more than they Love themselves. And there is nothing magic about love aside from how it makes you feel. So, what is unconditional love? The definition is simply “Love without strings attached.” Even simpler, loving just to love, and that is truly our purpose while here on earth living in this human condition. So, if our purpose here is to love without conditions and to do so just to love then we must know what love is to do so…
Science tells us that all human emotions resonate with a specific frequency. While the human emotions we experience resonate in the range of 90-150 hertz love stands alone at 528 hertz frequency!!! If we look further into the science of vibrational energies, we see that love as one of the human emotions, is far greater than the rest. Looking at an earthquake, we know that vibrational energy is powerful and can destroy less vibrational energy it encounters. So, love is a powerful human vibrational energy that truly can conquer all the remaining vibrational energies within the human condition. Anger resonates around 150 hertz, still not a match for love!!!
“LOVE has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get- only with what you are expecting to give- which is everything.”- Katherine Hepburn
When we enter this human condition, we do so from a place of love for a newborn human life knows nothing but HAPPINESS JOY and LOVE, (HJL), with no ego yet manifested within them that is all they must share with the world around them. That love energy is so powerful that even the most callous of human personalities have tear filled eyes when holding that newborn life radiating that HJL from their souls. As we enter this world, we have a soul filled with HJL as we grow into ourselves and our conscious manifests into and ego, we slowly begin to ebb away from our true purpose while enduring this human condition which is to love one another, elevate, support, and encourage each other so that collectively when this human condition is over the energy within our souls can elevate to a higher purpose within the universe. When we die, all our soul takes with it is the love we gave Unconditionally while in this human form on earth. The only way we must ensure there’s room in our soul for this LOVE is to give it Unconditionally to ourselves, other humans, and all living things in our universe.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Where there is LOVE there is LIFE.” The truth is that it is true!!! All life begins and ends with unconditional love! Plants and trees make the oxygen we breathe, not for themselves but for all living creatures on earth. A river never keeps or uses any of the waters that flow within its banks, and a caterpillar does not molt into a butterfly to satisfy its own vanity. Everywhere we look LOVE is there silently veiling us in all its warmth and splendor.
The best part of Unconditional Love is that each one of us is born with souls filled with it and everything we must live a life from a place of love is within our souls. We need to remind ourselves every day to remember and use it over that troublesome ego and Lead with LOVE.
“The giving of Love is an education in itself”- Eleanor Roosevelt
What a dog shows us through their relentless selflessness and giving back to us solidifies the idea that we need to give as much of the HJL found within our souls to make room for all the HJL our souls will take with it when it leaves the human form. Doing so reminds us daily, as an education to oneself, that we are here to elevate, support and help each other unconditionally through that love that connects all living things on this earth.