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

So outlining social graces is ‘policing’ now is it?
Gosh that’s dramatic 😁

It's big, big business now. People will spend ££££ on their dogs, they're wise to tap into that burgeoning market.

That’s your inference. Not mine.

The opposite of legal disabilities is illegal disabilities.

If you were so sure of what you were saying you wouldn't have used the phrase.

You told me how I was expected to react.

I'm autistic. I don't react the way a neurotypical person would.

I am can't change to fit in. I tried for years. It did untold damage to me.

you’re obviously free to keep making snide remarks and imagining an agenda on my part to bolster your sense of outrage if you choose. But that’s your choice, and it absolutely does not reflect my intention.

you seem to have missed half of my post so I’ve pasted it above to clarify I’m not ‘policing’ anything. You do you.

i’m sure it’s a genuine error and you aren’t deliberately misunderstanding me

i’m sure it’s a genuine error and you aren’t deliberately misunderstanding me

And you're not being snide towards me.

Do you never make an error of terminology?

must be nice!

I’m afraid I’ve not achieved that level of perfection yet. I’m simply doing my best

@FurAndFeathers not of that magnitude when it comes to definitions under the Equality Act, no. I'd lose my job if I did.

Like I’ve said (several times now) how you behave is entirely up to you 🤷‍♀️

i’n genuinely not sure what you want from me

Saying it's up to me shows you have no understanding of the effects of my autism on me.

You’d lose your job from making a genuine error of terminology that you immediately apologised for, on an anonymous post on MN on a Sunday morning?

gosh, that sounds very high stress! I don’t have those pressures so please forgive me for failing to meet your employer’s exacting standards

Of course I don’t
I’d never presume I understood another person’s lives experience

So now it's my fault that I know the definitions. And my employer is going to sack me for posting on mumsnet.

Right.

If I made an error like that I'd expect to lose my job. I work with these definitions (and others) every day - it's important to be accurate.

*lived experience

Does everything have to be someone’s ‘fault’ ?

I tend to think that to err is human, and move on

i think in terms of accuracy we’ve more than established, and corrected the error. Not sure what else you want really.

This. They forget that the dog might cause mental health issues for others including anxiety .

op, Bottom line is service dogs have legal right to be everywhere but therapy dogs don’t.

So many places allow all kinds of dogs anyway though so it’s not as if therapy dogs won’t be allowed anywhere.

I was at a comedy show and there was a dog behind me wearing a vest that kept pulling. I was a bit on edge as I was directly in front of it wondering if it was going to break free. I thought it was a bit poorly trained for a service dog but now I realise it was probably an emotional support /therapy dog.

I'm a dog-person, and I don't think you're being ridiculous.

There are some genuine therapy dogs. But there are also a lot of people self-declaring their dogs as therapy/support dogs having (allegedly) trained them themselves. I've met several of these locally and they can be some of the least trained dogs imaginable. A quick search online will reveal dozens of organisations that will sell you a 'course' for a worthless certificate as a 'therapy dog trainer' or a certificate for your dog. It's a problem bubbling away that's going to cause a lot of issues for the genuine service dog users before very long.

@Quveas you’ve accused me of bashing people with disabilities and making judgemental comments about people with disabilities.

I genuinely cannot see what I’ve said to trigger those accusations. Could you show me please?

@WiddlinDiddlin thank you for sharing your story.

Therapy dogs and service dogs are not the same.

Service dogs are trained to help with a disability or do a specific task. Guide dogs, PTSD assistance dogs, medical alert dogs etc They are well trained and unobtrusive. You will not see service dogs pulling on leads and making a nuisance of themselves. They will always have a jacket, harness etc stating that they are a service dog and any misbehaviour would be swiftly corrected.

Therapy dogs are just a dog who is a comfort to the owner. They are not trained to do anything specific, sometimes not trained at all! They may wear a jacket with Therapy Dog on it but these are sold on Amazon and hold no weight.

You cannot deny entry to service dogs. Legally they are permitted to enter.

Therapy dogs have no rights to go anywhere any other dog can't. You are allowed to refuse access. Whatever the owner says, it's bullshit. Some places choose to allow therapy animals but it is a courtesy, not an entitlement.

As for the specific example you gave: bollocks. The dog would have been raised to wear the jacket from a young age so would be used to it. If he could not tolerate it, he wouldn't have made the grade as a service animal. She was taking the piss.

Since MN have seen fit to delete my comment o can't remember exactly what I wrote but where it came from was having to wheel through piddle because someone's alleged therapy animal had pissed on the floor of a shopping centre (and, yes, I saw it, and, no, I couldn't go round it).

And kindly don't assume that I have no experience of poor mental health. Why don't you educate yourself to the fact that you don't know the first thing about MY life.

Maybe stop to consider why your comment was deleted

Yay I was wondering when this weeks ‘I saw a dog in a shop!’ thread would appear.

I have PTSD, unfortunately the availability of assistance dogs for those suffering from this debilitating illness is extremely limited. Generally you’ll only get one if you’re a veteran (probably tied up the wider myth only veterans get ptsd 🙄).

PTSD UK recommends self training for this very reason The advantages of having a dog when you have PTSD are widely recognised. When an attack strikes, even just being able to stroke their fur will keep you grounded (something that is extremely important during an episode where people will often head butt or kick/punch walls for the same purpose - I know which I think is preferable) once the freeze has subsided the presence of my dog will stop me bolting, I can connect to something not a threat as the majority of things are at that stage- or at least perceived to be).

Yet there are idiots on here that think I should be imprisoned and my dog put down. It’s time this sort of attitude to mental illness was labelled for what it is, hate speech. There’s a reason I only like people who like dogs.

this thread has made me realise the necessity to get emotional support dogs recognised officially as there are so many completely nasty idiots around.