Friend lied about having emotional support dog.

[Otins]

A friend of mine has a dog. He is a pet. She loves him, but he is a pet. Nothing else.

She recently went on a day out to a stately home. Dogs not allowed inside.

She told them it was an emotional support dog and they let him in.

She thought it was really funny and clever to do this.

I told her that I didn’t approve - and we moved on, and it was fine.

But the more I think about it, the more it winds me up.

For transparency, I am not a dog lover (not a dog hater either) and the sense of entitlement I see from many dog owners annoys me, and I think dogs being allowed (emotional support or not) in cafes and shops is inappropriate.

Whatever happened to leaving your dog at home to snooze on the sofa while you went out?

AIBU

Yes - how does this affect you if she takes her dog into places when you’re not there.

No - she was wrong to deceive the stately home in this way.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And in need of some emotional support?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 🙄

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.

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.

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

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.