Therapy dogs in shops and restaurants

[Humpback21]

Where I used to work we had a rule of no dogs except assistance and guid dogs etc. in the last few years at that job we get dogs coming in as “therapy dogs” with coats for the dog saying therapy dog.One lady would bring her big dog pulling on the lead I questioned her and politely said no dogs allowed she claimed it was a therapy dog but it didn’t like to wear its coat and collar. I recently saw a dog outside the supermarket with therapy dog written on its coat waiting with its owner and all their shopping. There are no dog charity’s that train dogs to be assistance therapy dogs. I know of charities that bring therapy dogs into hospitals and care homes. Are people really buying fake coats for their dogs so they don’t have to part with them. I’m all for dogs and am a massive dog lover but surely dog owners have to realise that a trained assistance dog in a public or private space is trained to be

Therapy dogs are not assistance dogs. Only assistance dogs have right of access.

I don't care where therapy pets go as long as it's not a snake.

There's a touch of judgement here in some posters referrs to people who have neurological/mental health conditions and whom rely on their dogs to get out and about. I mean how dare they say their dkg isbhelping them unless it's an assistance dog. OMG call the police. The fact tgat you challenge a person and make them explain tobyou when they wouldn't have the bloody vest on the dog unless they felt they needed to. Given how judgemental society js about mental health and hidden disabilities as it is, ot take alot of courage to admit in public that you need your dog to help you! My dog is not an assistance dog but if I'm not with him I can't do what I need to do. Thankfully most places near me love dogs and aren't arseholes who panic at the mere sight of a tail. Just let well behaved dogs in the bloody cafe regardless and stop questioning people like some overlord.

There's a touch of judgement here in some posters referring to people who have neurological/mental health conditions and whom rely on their dogs to get out and about. I mean how dare they say their dog is helping them unless it's an assistance dog. OMG call the police. The fact that you challenge a person and make them explain to you when they wouldn't have the bloody vest on the dog unless they felt they needed to!
Given how judgemental society is about mental health and hidden disabilities as it is, it takes alot of courage to admit in public that you need your dog to help you! My dog is not an assistance dog but if I'm not with him I can't do what I need to do. Thankfully most places near me love dogs and aren't arseholes who panic at the mere sight of a tail. Just let well behaved dogs in the bloody cafe regardless and stop questioning people like some overlord.

*soz about the previous typos, abit angry and love dogs 😅

Seriously??? You’re one of those people who tell people with mental health problems to pull themselves together aren’t you?

My dog is registered as an emotional support dog. I had crippling depression and anxiety from 13-28 and ended up in psychiatric care. Him being registered as emotional support meant that he can be with me at all times and if I was to go down the council housing route, they have to house me somewhere that is suitable for him too. He has helped me more than any human or medication when it comes to panic attacks and feeling suicidal. Your attitude isn't really a nice one to have.

Do you have an issue like PTSD. Do you know how scary it is? When you can be shopping and all of a sudden you’re picked up and dumped into the most traumatic experience of your life, Do you know the massive difference a dog can make to someone who at times can only think of suicide? Is the lifeline that stops me making my son motherless at times ridiculous to you?

why don’t you educate yourself what it’s like to live with mental health problems and the difference animals can make.

I don't know why some people are giving the OP a hard time. A dog is not a service animal unless it is trained to perform an actual service and is registered.

Once again there is a very vocal contingent on Mumsnet who seemingly don’t think mental health issues exist and that if they do exist they can be controlled on demand. interestingly they seem to also be the dog haters.

Because one person love dogs doesn’t mean everyone does, including others with mental health issues. Plenty of people have phobia/ptsd involving animals. Plenty of people have allergies. They have to put up with it for assistance dogs, not for any other dog in an area which doesn’t allow access to dogs.

So what’s the difference. Presumably you would like to see guide dogs banned from those places too and are annoyed about a law letting them in.

I love dogs and have one myself. I think assistance dogs who are trained and registered of course should be allowed into shops and legally they are. Emotional support animals- dogs, Guinea pigs, whatever they be should not. Only animals who have been properly trained and registered should be able to enter shops that don’t allow animals otherwise. I’m guessing assistance dogs who are registered have paperwork to prove it but I don’t know if this could be asked for from people.

Haha I can imagine this leading to a situation where you would need to take your dogs credentials with you everywhere to show he’s had training 🤣🤣

I feel really uncomfortable with the subject matter of this thread , it's like discussing what disability is valid to having a dog which assists you in your life . Whether it be a mental illness or a physical illness/disability , they are all valid .

Of course not, registered guide dogs are assistance dogs. They have access rights. The difference is only registered assistance dogs have that right and it’s not up to an individual to decide where their dog is allowed if they are not an assistance dog. If you read my post it wasn’t actually written in the first person and I think it was quite clear it wasn’t about assistance dogs

It’s nothing about the medical condition. Assistance dogs are recognised to have legal access rights that other animals don’t have. Your dog needs to fulfil the criteria to be an assistance dog, if it doesn’t it doesn’t have a right of access

My friend's daughter has ASD.
My friend decided that their pet dog should become a therapy dog so that the daughter wouldn't get anxious going into shops.
My friend then said in the next breath how the dog didn't like waiting outside shops and becoming a therapy dog was the best solution.

I told her the best solution was probably to leave the dog at home rather than use the "therapy dog" coat she put on the dog that she'd bought from eBay.

People on this thread have raised objections of dogs for mental health condition assistance dogs and don't deem then necessary .

I love dogs. Own a few myself but people definitely are taking the piss with these therapy dogs
They should make people carry paperwork like a license or something

I'm out .

@WiddlinDiddlin omg I never knew the dogs could be trained so explicitly. Amazing! Thank you for explaining my mind is blown!

It’s not a cafe but does have food areas due to the uk law “adequate procedures are to be in place to control pests. Adequate procedures are also to be in place to prevent domestic animals from having access to places where food is prepared, handled or stored (or, where the competent authority so permits in special cases, to prevent such access from resulting in contamination)” as it’s full of open prep food areas it’s not possible. It’s hard to describe with out outing where I work which was a niche place. I also didn’t question on the jacket of the day I merely said as she walked in I’m really sorry we don’t allow dogs to which she replied it’s an assistance therapy dog it does have a jacket in my bag but he doesn’t like to wear it.

I know an adult in the US who has an official autism support pug
I misread that as a support pig. Now that would get some Mumsnet feathers ruffled...

We once had a patient who was insisting she could bring her emotional support pet into hospital. If it was a dog I'd have understood it, but it was a hedgehog! The powers that be said no.

I trained him, however I did so after almost 20 years as a qualified trainer, and I started with a scent hound which made it significantly more likely he would naturally indicate without training.

From there I built on his skills so offering him samples of blood/saliva/breath, and rewarding the right indication for the right samples (to my knowledge he's never actually been wrong but we had to wait whilst my condition changed to teach him about hypos, hypers were easy as I had them a lot).

He's actually my second but my first girly died suddenly aged two so by the time he'd arrived id already spent nearly 2 years bringing on and training an assistance dog (same breed) so it was just typical daily life at that point.

Public access work is a matter of having that in mind when socialising/habituating a puppy, so we were careful NOT to let all and sundry greet him and started early on with one harness for 'work' (at that point simply 'not greeting strangers') and one for 'not work' where he could meet people.

We're lucky here that loads of stores would let him in to train with prior permission so he got to practice 'ignore the people' and actually the hardest part of training him has been 'you do NOT need to tell everyone else about their blood sugars thanks!' but as we got the 'we don't talk to strangers' lesson in really early, it was only friends he'd try this with.

DPT again is easy, the breed are known for being keen on close contact and cuddles so a case of reinforcing it when offered, then putting it on cue and making it specific to me and his natural willingness to offer it when I spasm anyway.

Once we got to where I thought he was good, I took him through the ADUK criteria for public access (its just a suggested list of skills) and had another trainer observe him tasking and coping with those set situations.

The downsides of his breed are that he is hairy and dribbly, so everywhere we go he has to be brushed out well before hand and we take a cloth. He is also long in the back with a long tail, and not overly great at tidying himself away so I would not take him on public transport unless I absolutely had to.

There are now lots of trainers assisting owner-trainers, I have done a bit myself before I retired from physical training - but it DOES concern me that there are people attempting to owner-train without outside assistance, when their health issues mean they are struggling to do the thing they are teaching their dog to do (particularly anxiety based stuff!) and then there are the people who have got wholly unsuitable dogs having put their preference for that breed above the need for the dog to do the job!

If you are a business - you CAN ask a team to leave if you have strong reason to believe they are a danger to you/staff/other shoppers as a result of the handlers or dogs behaviour - so dog off lead, growling at other dogs, barking at or lunging at passers by (caveat SOME dogs are taught to find a human and alert them but this is rare and you'd generally know as there dog would be asking you to follow so perhaps barking and turning away to take you to their person).

Obviously you'd be standing on no legs if your decision is based on 'someone might have a dog allergy' or 'that dog looks like a dodgy breed I don't like'.

I'd also say there is a strong case for asking someone with a filthy muddy minging dog to leave whilst they clean up their dog - shedding hair is unavoidable but expecting to bring a dog dropping visible mud/foxpoo/filth everywhere is not!