But there are also other types of service dogs.
- Hearing Dogs help deaf people by alerting them to sounds such as a phone ringing, a fire alarm, or an alarm clock.
- Seizure alert dogs help people with problems like epilepsy by warning them that they are about to have a seizure. There are also migraine alert dogs.
- Mobility assistance dogs help people with physical disabilities by doing things like pulling wheelchairs, carrying and retreiving items, assisting with balance, and bracing to help a person stand up. Mobility dogs are used by people with many different conditions, including spinal injuries, multiple schlerosis, fibromyalgia and arthritis.
- Psychiatric Service Dogs help people with conditions like PTSD, panic disorder, bipolar, and depression. These dogs can alert to panic attacks and flashbacks, much like seizure dogs. They also help to ground a person who is flashing or having a panic attack by providing distractions such as licking, pawing, and nudging, which help the person deal with their symptoms.
Some service dogs are trained by programs or organizations, but many are also owner-trained or privately trained, because the waiting list to get a "program trained" dog can often be years long.
Access Rights:
It is illegal under both federal and New York law to discriminate against a person who is enjoying or seeking to enjoy a place of public accommodation solely because that person has a disability and is accompanied by a guide dog, hearing dog, or other service animal. Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §12101 et seq.; 28 C.F.R. Part 35 and Part 36, §36.302(c)(1); 49 U.S.C. §41705; NY Civil Rights Law §40c, §40d and §47; NY Exec. Law §§292 and 296; NY Transp. Law §147; NY Ag. & Markets Law §108; and NYC Admin. Code (Human Rights) §8-102 through §8-124; 56 Regulations of the City of New York ("RCNY") (Department of Parks and Recreation) §1-04; 21 RCNY (Miscellaneous) §1050.9(h)(3).Service dogs must be permitted to accompany disabled individuals to all areas where customers are normally allowed to go. The service animal must be admitted without charge and the disabled person may not be segregated from other customers.
A service dog is not a pet, and must be permitted access even in places which have a "no pets" policy.
Not all disabilities that require the use of service animals are visible. Many are hidden, such as epilepsy, heart disease, lung disease and those that are of a psychological/emotional origin. A person with a disability is not required to give you any verbal or written confirmation to establish his/her disability and is not required to show proof that the animal is a service animal.
A disabled individual should not be separated from his/her service animal. Separation interferes with a disabled person's ability to use and enjoy places of public accommodation. Separation is harmful to the relationship between the individual and the service dog since a service dog regards such separation as punishment.
A service dog may be in a harness or on a leash but need not be muzzled, and need not be crated for transport.
When city, state and federal laws conflict, the law that gives the greatest protection to the person with the disability prevails.
TYPES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS:
Public accommodations include:- Food or drinking establishments including restaurants, bars or breweries;
- Places of display or collection including museums, libraries or galleries;
- Places of exercise including gymnasiums, health spas, bowling alleys, golf courses, swimming pools, tennis courts or beaches;
- Places of exhibition or entertainment including theaters, concert halls, sports arenas, or movie theatres;
- Places of lodging including hotels, inns, motels or camp grounds;
- Places of recreation including parks, park buildings, amusement parks, playgrounds, zoos, picnic areas, casinos, race courses, flea markets or fair grounds;
- Government offices;
- Public or private transportation including taxis, buses, subways, trains, boats, airplanes and all other public conveyances operated on land, on water or in the air , as well as terminals, depots and stations;
- Sales or rental establishments including grocery stores, malls, shopping centers, bookstores, or video rental stores;
- Service establishments including dry cleaners, banks, gas stations, professional offices of health care providers, accountants, or lawyers, hospitals, or clinics.
SERVICE DOG ETTIQUETTE:
- Please speak first to the person, not the dog. Always ask permission before touching a service dog. Touching the service dog might distract it from its work.
- Please do not feed the service dog without its handler's permission.
- Please do not be insulted if the handler does not want to answer questions of a personal nature about their disability.
- If the service dog barks, growls, or otherwise seems to misbehave, please find out what happened before taking action. Was the service dog stepped on, poked, asleep and dreaming, performing its job (some alert their owners to oncoming seizures by barking once or twice)? If the dog's behavior is threatening or destructive, you may ask the person to remove it from the premises.
MOCHA AND ME
I am 36 years old, and have lived with chronic radicular pain from multiple herniated discs, and post-traumatic stress disorder, dysthymic disorder and panic disorder with agoraphobia, since an elevator accident that occurred when I was 27. I have pain running from my neck into my right shoulder and elbow. The first three fingers of my right hand are numb more often than not. I have arthritis in my neck. My lower back aches from the funny way I hold my head to compensate for my bad neck. I get killer headaches. I was an active, healthy young person when I walked into that elevator, and I suddenly had the body of a 70 year old woman. I have not gone one full day without pain in over 9 years.
I don't sleep, I dream the accident, and I wake up several times a night with the feeling that I am falling. I have flashbacks and panic attacks, and I am scared to death of having one out in public, all alone. For years, I would not leave the house unless my husband was with me. Which means I mostly hid out in my house, afraid to go out. Most of the time, my neck and back are screaming in pain. Often I am so depressed about being in pain, being limited, being what alot of people would call crazy, that I feel sorry for myself. Its hard to go from being productive and successful, to being unable to get out of bed some days.
One day, when I was hiding out at home and goofing around on the internet, I decided to find out more about search and rescue dogs. Coincidentally, I came across information about psychiatric service dogs, and mobility assistance dogs, who help people with my kind of disabilities. So I started doing research, and learning as much as I could from people who trained these types of service dogs for themselves or others. I found a large community of disabled owner trainers, and learned from them how to train specific disability mitigating tasks. Then I took my already obedience trained German Shepherd Dog, Smokey Mochachina McMutt, Mocha for short, and trained her using what I had learned.
Mocha gives me the confidence to leave the house- I know if I flash or panic, she will be there for me, and will perform a set of trained behaviors to ground me and help short circuit the attack and reduce my symptoms. Even more importantly, Mocha is incredibly intuitive and instinctively knows in advance that I am about to have a flashback or panic attack.
She comes to me and whines and then escalates her alerting behavior if I don't understand immediately. This allows me to take medication to hopefully prevent or minimize the attack.
Mocha can also help me to get up from a seated or prone position by bracing; and can help steady my balance when I am dizzy or disoriented.
I am hoping to train her to retrieve dropped items, because bending is difficult and painful for me. But its been hard going, because she has no natural inclination to retrieve. My little Scottie, on the other hand, is a natural. I may reevaluate and train Piper (the Scottie) for the retrieve-related work.
Of course, beyond service dog tasks, I am also thankful for my dogs, because they refuse to let me forget
how to have fun. At least occassionally. Mocha and Piper are such clowns they sometimes manage to cheer me up on my
darkest days. I would be lost without them.
ADA Information Line, U.S. Dept. of Justice :
(800) 514-0301 (voice) ; (800) 514-0383 (TDD).
New York State Office of Advocate for Persons with Disabilities:
(800) 522 4369
NYC Commission on Human Rights: (212) 306-7500; (212) 306-7686 (TDD)
Text, photographs and graphics copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Michele C. Petitt. All rights reserved. MOCHA AT WORK: PHOTOS
MOCHA AT PLAY: PHOTOS
SERVICE DOG LINKS:
PHONE NUMBERS FOR MORE INFORMATION:
How to contact me:
You can email me at the address above. Or snail mail me at:
P.O. Box 188
Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520
