Assistance Dog Etiquette
What is an Assistance Dog?
An assistance dog also called a Service dog is not a pet under federal law. “An Assistance Dog” is a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability.
Assistance dogs are trained to perform tasks that assist a life-functioning need such as:
Guiding
Signaling
Performing physical tasks
Alerting to seizures and other medical conditions
Alerting to psychological/psychiatric disabilities
An individual need not have a visible or discernible disability in order to be partnered with and benefit from the use of an Assistance Dog. All categories of Assistance Dogs are granted public access by Federal and State Law. Public Access means that the assistance dog may accompany the hander in places where pet animals are not allowed. The Disability Discrimination Act, 1992, Sect 9 outlines the definition and requirements of an assistance animal.
Assistance Dog Categories
Assistance dogs fulfill many support roles, including but not limited to -
Guide Dog – Assist people with vision loss. The dog has been or is being specifically trained to lead in harness and serves as aide to the mobility of a particular blind or visually impaired person. A guide dog will usually lead in harness.
Mobility Dog – Retrieve items, open doors, push buttons, also assisting people with disabilities with walking, balance and transferring from place to place.
Hearing Alert – A hearing dog has been specifically trained to alert their deaf or hard of hearing person to certain sounds.
Seizure Alert/Seizure Response – Also known as Medical Alert - alerts to oncoming seizures and is trained to respond to seizures such as “Get Help” or stay with the person and cushion them to prevent injury.
Medical Alert/Medical Response – Alerts to impending medical conditions, such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, epilepsy, panic attack, anxiety attack, post-traumatic stress disorder. Alerts involve getting the person’s attention, calming them with deep pressure therapy, blocking to create space, blocking to prevent motion, fetching help, fetching test kits and/or treatments, early warning of impending issue to prevent severity,
Therapy Dog - a dog that will provide companionship to therapeutically benefit the life of people with a disability, illness or need. This category includes dogs for children with disabilities, utilized as a parenting tool for the therapeutic benefit to the child at home and dogs taken into hospitals and nursing homes to provide comfort to the patients and residents. Therapy dogs do not have the same access rights as assistance dogs and can only enter premises with the permission of the business or department.
Etiquette
When you meet a person with an assistance dog, please remember that the dog is always working. You do not want anything to interrupt the dog from performing his tasks because this could jeopardize the health and safety of the dog’s handler. A distraction may cause the dog to miss the signs that it needs to alert, or it may undo the hours of training that the team undergo by encouraging the dog to expect attention. A distracted guide dog may accidently fail to negotiate an obstacle safely.
People with disabilities have the right to be accompanied by an assistance dog in all areas open to the general public. An assistance dog is individually trained to perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability. Here are some tips to follow when meeting or approaching a working assistance dog and his or her handler:
Don’t be afraid of the dog. Assistance dogs from organizations like Paws for Diabetics Inc and other assistance dog programmes are carefully tested and selected for appropriate temperament. They have been professionally trained to have excellent manners. In fact, most are specifically trained to ignore everyone but their handler.
You should never pat, interrupt or talk to an assistance dog as this could distract them and put their handler in danger. Do not whistle or make inappropriate noises at the assistance dog as this may also provide a dangerous distraction.
Never feed an assistance dog. Food is also a distraction to the assistance dog and may jeopardize the working assistance dog team. The handler may be seen giving the dog treats to reinforce their training, but that is the handler’s prerogative and not an invitation for you to participate.
Speak to the person, not the dog! You wouldn’t talk to someone’s wheelchair or walking cane! Some handlers don’t mind talking about assistance dogs and their dog specifically if they have time but please do not be offended if the person does not feel like discussing his/her disability or the assistance the dog provides.
Please remember, these dogs are there only to provide vital support to their handler, not be an attraction for you or your children to fuss over. The extra work involved to take an assistance dog everywhere with you does not compare to the perceived pleasure you may think it would be to be able to bring your pet dog shopping with you. If you could do that, it would be by choice. Having an assistance dog is out of necessity. Comparing your pleasure to someone else’s need can be disrespectful.
Put yourself in someone else’s shoes and consider how you would feel being constantly approached by strangers, asked personal questions, have people touch your belongings or comment on how pretty, appropriate or useful they are. Are you the first or the tenth person to interrupt their day to ask questions? Are they comfortable with being spoken to? Not all disabilities are visible or obvious and can be easily affected by stress or confrontation. Never make assumptions about the individuals’ intelligence, feelings or capabilities.
You can’t tell by looking at someone what that person’s disability may be. Sure, it may look like the dog and handler are just hanging out but the dog may be a diabetic or seizure alert dog, or a hearing dog and what looks like the dog just wants to be patted because he nudged his handler so he gets patted anyway, but it may in fact be the dog alerting to the handler. If seated, the dog deserves to rest when it can, so leave it alone! But even when resting, the dog is alert and watching for when it is needed, so don’t distract it.
Be polite and ignore the fact that there is a dog in the room! They are a working pair going about their daily lives. Act as if the dog is nothing more obvious than a red pair of shoes! Educate your children to look but not touch and why that is important. Be respectful and treat the handler and their dog with the same considerations that you, yourself, would appreciate. By all means smile and admire the wonderful job this dog does and the incredible difference it makes to the handler’s life. Appreciate the dedication and hard work that goes into being a successful assistance dog team. But above all, leave them alone and let them get on with their day.