Friend lied about having emotional support dog.

And in need of some emotional support?

I have to agree. The friend who is on her third support dog has loved all of them to bits, but the fact is that they don't really get to be proper dogs. I've felt quite distressed at the fact she's taken them to concerts and to places where it's been very noisy and disorientating for an animal. When she's been ill or in hospital they spend all day in the house, with a couple of short walks by dog-walkers.

I know someone currently raising a guide dog puppy. She's found it quite distressing because it's not allowed to play and run around as freely as any lively puppy of its age. There are all sorts of rules, like it having to pee and poo only on concrete. And of course, because she knows she's going to have to part company with it after 18 months, she's trying really hard not to get too attached to it. Once it leaves her it will go off to 'college' where it will live with other dogs and be trained intensively before going to assist a blind person for possibly 5 years or so, at which point it will be retired. She has said several times that she feels she's bringing the dog up to be a servant. I understand that a guide dog can be immensely valuable for a blind person but I'm not sure it's not, fundamentally, quite exploitative.

I feel the same way, @Luio. The emotional support rabbit that this student had was living in a dorm when it needed to have an outside space to exercise /graze in-I had rabbits as a child and they had a run in the garden. It was downright cruel.

My dog is very friendly, but he doesn’t like crowds, has to take anti-anxiety meds for longer car journeys and would definitely struggle being on a plane. We need to look after our dogs, not stress them out.

The rights of humans are more important than the rights of dogs. You want to have a pet, fine. Just don't expect everyone else to be delighted about it.

Oh what utter cobblers. Dogs are ANIMALS and should be living life suited to the needs of animals. They should have their lives enriched by things that appeal to their nature, not stuffed under your arm and carried round a shopping centre or stately home.

TRAIN them so they don't get anxious when left. Don't impose your dogs on other people, who have every right to go about their daily lives without having to put up with bloody dogs everywhere.

Dogs have feelings too, they actually get anxious being left at home on the sofa, if you can bring them out and let them be with you and enjoy life so be it, i think it's great dog's feelings are now considered more and they're being brought into family life more, if you can't afford a dog sitter while you're at work not get one.
Also dogs are a fantastic support to people and help with anxiety and mental health.
Please people keep taking your dogs wherever you can, they deserve a better life than being stuck at home.

When I go to these places, I'm going to start saying that I need to have the emotional support of knowing that there are no dogs, because I'm likely to scream blue murder and punch its owner if it comes near me.

It's a lie, but what the fuck? Everyone else seems to be doing it.

Not saying these people weren't lying, but aren't some assistance dogs epilepsy alert dogs, or diabetes alert dogs, in which case how would anyone know? Surely they'd just be hanging round like any other dog?

I went to a festival last year. Had to make elaborate, expensive plans to have my elderly dog looked after for three days because no dogs were allowed on the festival site. There were several people, including a couple of families with little children, who had dogs with them. When I asked how they'd arranged it, I was told they were support dogs. They were clearly just pets. I have a friend in a wheelchair who is on her third assistance dog and I know how they're trained to behave. These dogs weren't trained.

A member of staff I spoke to said that it was really pissing a lot of people off: they'd had an unprecedented number of complaints.

There is a lady in my town who is on a mobility scooter, and has 3 "support dogs" (they all have vests on). They bark and want to fight other dogs, and often get into a scrap amongst themselves too.

Wasn't there a lady who took her "emotional support" hamster on a flight... she was denied having it there, so she flushed it down the loo,

Nope. You can need the dog and the partner, they could have been doing something else before so had the dog with them and so it would need to come in with them, they could have been separating after the shop so the dog needed to be there.
There are so many things an Assistance Dog can do for a person, please don't presume to know best.

Yanbu. I know someone who does this all the time, she even has a lead saying "assistance dog". She's a wheelchair user so no one questions it or stops her, but the dog is not a service dog, it's barely trained to the level.of a family pet to be honest. It's a snarly little thing that has sadly suffered trauma in the past. It's really unfair on those who actually rely on service dogs as people will start to question their validity.

Emotional support dog 😂 isn’t that why people get dogs?! For emotional support. If you just cared for it and got no emotion back in return then you may as well get a hamster.

Pisses me off!! We have an assistance dog for our ASD child with TS, she's in training (nearly there!) and we're really careful to take her training seriously and not be CF and abuse that privilege

There is no official proof.

@Otins Going back to your OP, I wouldn't continue my friendship with this girl. She sounds like she'd happily lie to me about anything and that's the bottom line for me

YANBU in that she shouldn’t have said that the dog was an emotional support dog.

However YABU saying dogs shouldn’t be allowed in pubs and cafes - that is up to the pub or cafe owner. A lot of pubs and cafes find that allowing dogs benefits their business- especially if they are in a walking area - so it’s great to be able to take dogs to these places. As an owner of a dog who doesn’t like being left alone this also makes life much easier - we would always choose doggy friendly places. If you don’t like it then you can choose to go to a different establishment - or sit in the no-dog area.

Your friend lying about her dog is wrong.

But in cafes and shops it’s entirely up to the business whether they let dogs in. If you don’t like it don’t go to dog friendly ones.

She was wrong to deceive the home in that way. Emotional support animals are not thing in the UK as far as I am aware.
To me, all dogs offer emotional support to their owners, but not to the point they need to go with you everywhere because you can't cope without them. At that point of need, they should be highly trained with specific tasks in mind. There is already a system for such dogs.

However, YABU to insist dogs are left at home when their owners go out. I am off on holiday this weekend with my dog. I will have to take her in shops and cafes (and of course only in the dog friendly ones).

About a year ago I was at work in a shop and a customer came in insisting her dog was an emotional support animal it clearly wasn't it went crazy it ran off pissed on the floor was barking and growling at all the customers. Considering the customer apparently needed it with her to help with her anxiety it caused such a scene she became the centre of attention and suddenly a good 50 people are at a standstill staring at her why she's chasing after her dog trying to grab it. It was actually really funny hopefully she learnt her lesson. 😂

I think having emotional support animals is cruel as it often seems to lead to animals being put in situations that they would find stressful (cats carried around in supermarkets, birds kept in captivity and carted about). It isn’t fair on the animals and the owners are clearly irresponsible as they aren’t thinking of the animal’s needs. I think having a suitable pet such as a dog for a companion is fine but only if the owner is up to looking after it properly. The owner is responsible for the pet, not the other way round.

Agreed. My dd has a lot of mh challenges at the moment. Her dog is the only thing that calms her. He is NOT a legal emotional support dog. He is a pet.

Sorry, I meant to abbreviate to ESA ( emotional support animal), not EAA.

I live in the US and even here, where EAAs are recognized, it’s very subjective.

I’m diagnosed with anxiety and I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to take my dog on a plane, I could say that he provides me with emotional support and get him on a registry or get a letter stating this, without much effort. Of course, some people really do have EAAs, but in my case, my dog is a pet and if I want to take him on a plane, I should pay for him.

A friend’s daughter had to share a dorm room with her roommate’s EA rabbit that liked to poo under her bed. I wish I was joking, but that’s what she told me!