Pets Used As Fake Service Dogs Is Starting to Become A Serious Issue

Apr 25, 2019 by apost team

Service dogs are a truly incredible innovation. They help their humans in countless ways and help them to live happier, healthier lives. Additionally, service dogs help humans to deal with a vast variety of physical and mental health issues.

From combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder to amputees learning to re-adjust to life with a handicap, service dogs are amazing animals that put their human above all else in their life.

True service dogs are specifically trained to execute a wide variety of tasks and assistance efforts for their human companion.

For example, service dogs are able to help provide balance to disabled people, emotional support for people in recovery or suffering from depression, and they can even be trained to alert their human companion to an oncoming seizure. Service dogs are able to perform these behaviors thanks to niche training by specialists.

The certified trainer also works one-on-one and in groups with service dogs to teach them how to behave. Trainers teach service dogs a level of obedience that supersedes the typical well-trained dog and they teach them things like not to bark unless in a circumstance they have been trained to bark during.

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This helps service dogs to be completely focused on their human companion at all times, keeping them from getting distracted by distractions in their surrounding environment.

However, the extremely serious problem of fake service dogs has become a growing trend across the United States. Real service dogs wear a specialized identification tag and typically have on a special vest that serves as the official uniform of a service dog.

However, online entities have made it fairly easy for people to purchase everything they need to pass any dog off as a fake service dog.

The number of fake service dogs cropping up throughout the country is a very serious issue. Not only do fake service dogs discredit the exceptionally positive work that real service dogs do, but they are also untrained and can exhibit negative behaviors.

Some fake service dogs have even been known to attack real service dogs that are trained to be submissive to others. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) provides specific outlines for service dogs, their training and the openness to locations where they can be taken by their humans.

How does the fact that people use fake service dogs simply to be able to take their dog places they shouldn’t make you feel? Have you ever seen a dog that clearly wasn’t a true service dog? Let us know your thoughts on this article. We always love getting your feedback!