Friend lied about having emotional support dog.

I'm a massive dog lover and she was being a complete prick.

Also, emotional support dogs aren't service dogs, so they could actually have turned her away anyway. Dogs that are trained to perform a task the handler can't do (such as guiding a visually person, alerting a hearing impaired person to a fire alarm, helping someone physically disabled with tasks like picking things up and carrying things, or alerting a person that they might be about to have a seizure) are service dogs and have to be allowed into places for accessibility. Emotional support dogs don't have to have any training and are just there to provide comfort/confidence/calmness to someone. Anyone can claim their dog is an emotional support dog. It doesn't entitle them to bring the dog into places where only service animals are allowed, because they are not service animals.

Again, as I have said before in previous comments, as a current Guide Dog owner so much of this is just completely untrue. It's really harmful to spread this kind of incorrect info about Guide Dogs. Please see my previous replies to your comments.

I have a friend that does this with her dachshund. He goes everywhere with her. She just says he’s an emotional support dog and so far, she’s never been challenged. He’s even been to the cinema with us.

I love dogs but I think some dog owners are very entitled.

I'm in my 40s and don't know when the societal switch happened where pet dogs had to be taken everywhere the owner goes.

I work in the public sector and 3 people in the last 2 years have had to be told by management it isn't appropriate for them to bring their dogs to work. And a couple were really indignant and arguing about it!

I have a spaniel so a chronic sniffer on Saturday we took him to a lovely open space so he could go off lead he spent 10 minutes sniffing a muddy puddle you just can't stand there all day and let them do what they want !

Your friend is a moron. You are not being unreasonable.

Mine poos on our patio despite us having a massive lawn and small area of woodland for her to go in! Dont think she can be bothered to walk that far!

Others have mentioned beagles and sniffing. I grew up with a beagle and they are scent hounds, born to sniff. All the advice is to let dogs do what they have been bred to do and that it's cruel to do otherwise

Well aware of the needs of beagles, mine is currently undergoing scent work training. My point was just that if I let her sniff as much as she wanted, we would be out walking all day. We have had breed specific training and loose lead training is essential to get her moving (after a reasonable period of sniffing). She is our third beagle, all have had breed specific training.

It’s funny how there’s so much dog poo on the pavements if dogs find defecating on concrete so traumatic.

@Abeona you do know that this isn't your "friends" pet of course there is going to be restrictions to who this pup Can mix with your dog could injure the pup, I mean my dog sometimes shits on my garden path tbh it's easier to pick up. I think you are being over dramatic and your "friend " can hand back the pup to guide dogs at any point if they think it's unethical and cruel !

Absolutely true: my friend has her guide dog puppy now and is training it per current requirements. The dogs are taught to poo on concrete only because it's easier for the owner to locate and pick up the poo (many officially blind people still have some sight) from concrete. Also lots of blind people live in flats where they may not have easy access to suitable gardens/ parks so the dogs have to get used to pooing and peeing on concrete. (For ref, most dogs naturally prefer to defecate in undergrowth or on grass)

My friend has been instructed only to socialise the dog with a small number of other guide dogs/ approved other dogs. I haven't been permitted to take my steady older dog to visit or exercise or walk with the pup. No hours of racing round the park off-lead learning to play with strange dogs and learn doggy ways. There are rules about the dog always having to walk by the side of the fosterer and not being permitted to stop to sniff or behave normally and say hello to other dogs. This is because when they are working, they must be aloof and ignore other dogs or the natural urge to sniff. Only my friend is allowed to walk the puppy. No one else in the household is allowed to take it out. So when she had pneumonia recently, the puppy didn't get a proper walk for a few days.

Others have mentioned beagles and sniffing. I grew up with a beagle and they are scent hounds, born to sniff. All the advice is to let dogs do what they have been bred to do and that it's cruel to do otherwise. Collies and beagles need loads of exercise. Beagles need to sniff. Collies need work and mental stimulation. Terriers need to be able to dig and hunt. My friend — who has had several happy, well-behaved retriever-type dogs over the years — has found it quite upsetting that her guide dog pup hasn't been able to have the relaxed, social sort of early life her previous puppies have enjoyed. She says she feels as if she's been given the job of 'breaking' the dog. She won't be volunteering for this again and she says that she'll be the first to celebrate when dogs are replaced by robots.

This! A 1 mile walk with my beagle would take 4 hours if I didn’t guide her away from things she was sniffing.

And you know dogs sometimes have to do what we want or they would sniff the same blade of grass for bloody hours! This is why we appropriately train them.

I have a family member who fostered guide dog puppies until. Proper training a and nothing you have said is true well not in my experience the pups were socialised trained to toilet in gardens on actual grass who would have thought ! Take to play with other puppies allowed into shops to socialise and lots and lots of lovely experiences so they could go on to train to do a job. You clearly have no positive experience to say the things you did.

TRAIN them so they don't get anxious when left.

If you ever find a way of doing this you’ll make more money than you could ever spend. Particularly if it was transferable to humans. 🙄

Oh, and also while, yes, Guide Dogs are trained to avoid sniffing when working, the importance off sniffing, using their nose, etc is made very clear to Guide Dog owners, which is why we all give our dogs time to go on "sniffaris" - non working lead walks while we use a cane, which gives the dog a chance to do these behaviours. This is in addition to the minimum of 3 off lead walks I mentioned in an earlier reply. We also use snuffle mats, frozen kongs, etc. Things that I doubt even the average pet dog owner bother to give their dog.

Again this is absolute rubbish. All the incorrect information you've shared can very easily be disproven by looking at the Guide Dogs website.

Also showing complete ignorance about the Guide dog you saw on the tube. I can guarantee you that a guide dog with an owner working in an office would be given enrichment during the day, including a walk at lunchtime (probably off lead) and various toys and food puzzles to keep it occupied. Again, this is standard expectations of Guide Dog owners to ensure their dog's wellbeing. You've just made an assumption based on you seeing a dog walking into an office with no actual evidence of what happened afterwards.

No. If their mental or physical condition is severe enough, then they would have a proper assistance dog.

This is nonsense. I am a Guide Dog owner and my family have also puppy raised for Guide Dogs. Guide Dog puppies have as much freedom to play and explore off lead as any other dogs. In fact this is an important part of their socialisation. Working Guide Dogs must have off lead time at least 3 times a week to go for a free run. I had to agree to this in order to be deemed suitable to be given a Guide Dog. Guide dogs are trainined to pee and poo on grass and concrete, so you're wrong on that too. Vast majority of Guide Dogs work for a couple of hours a day, and the rest of the time they are just ordinary dogs having a nice life. They are absolutely some of the best looked after dogs in the country. They are always with their owners, never left alone all day to be miserable like many pet dogs are. Honestly your post is incredibly ignorant and offensive. Guide Dog breeds are highly intelligent and love having a job to do. If any individual dogs don't show a passion for the work, they are withdrawn and become a pet dog. The training is 100% positive reinforcement based.

That's because you haven't seen the distress a puppy goes through when it's forced to pee and poo on concrete when it would far rather use grass. Or when it can't come off the lead to play with other puppies, when it's desperate to burn off some energy. (Strict rules about when you can and can't [mainly can't] let a guide dog puppy off the lead). Think about how a normal lab retriever type would naturally want to stop and sniff all the time it's being walked: they get that natural instinct firmly trained out of them. I always used to feel sorry for the guide dog that I used to see every day travelling on the tube and then disappearing into some vast office block to spend the day sleeping under a desk. Not a great life. They don't get much autonomy. I'm a decent dog owner and my dogs aren't my servants and are allowed to follow their instincts.

I thought of getting my dog trained for my son as he was a nightmare when younger to get out with his ASD. As it was the training company prefer to train the dogs themselves and it’s complicated. It’s disgraceful to masquerade a non trained dog as a working dog.

Please people keep taking your dogs wherever you can, they deserve a better life than being stuck at home
Just what dog lovers need. Stupid comment like this to fuel dog haters even more!

I have a dog who can't stay home alone for two long. I do take them out as much as I can. However I only take them where it is allowed and they are trained to be extremely well behaved.

I would NEVER lie about them being an assistant dog. It's abusing an entitlement that is there to support disabled people for the benefit of that disable person, not their dog.

More and more places are allowing dogs. Please, stick to these and don't take the piss pushing luck even more.

This. Anyone who has spent anytime on social media will have seen the videos of people going into shops with their pets calling them emotional support animals and the second a staff member questions it they pull their phone out and start recording about how their being discriminated against and then post it all over social media.

Really, I think guide dogs are very happy animals. They get useful work to do and are with a human most of the time. The dogs I feel sorry for are the ones that are left to bark alone in flats and houses all day every day.

I doubt they are happy about the dog coming in. A member of staff will have heard the words "emotional support," been unsure as to what that meant, been afraid of being accused of discrimination or whatever, and decided to just let the person in.