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Originally Posted by SoCalyorkiLvr Thank you for the opportunity to once again reiterate what the law actually says. The more people read and understand the scope of the law the better for everyone. I am glad you are in good health and do not need to use your dog to assist you in your daily activities. Many of us are not so lucky.
Actually, you are not correct about the training required. The law does not require any "formal" training, whatever that might mean. Service dogs do have to be trained to assist the person with the disability in some way, but the owner can train the dog. It is not "stretching it" to do so. It is perfectly acceptable and encouraged even. I do not know what you mean by "actual" service dogs but I assume you mean "seeing eye dogs since you have referred to them in previous posts and, depending on the severity of the disability, and the nature of the task being trained, a professional trainer might be necessary, but not always.
Yes, you are correct that there is a difference between therapy animals and service anmals and I have always made that clear when the issue has arisen. Therapy dogs are not allowed access like service dogs are. I have never used the term therapy animals once in my discussions regarding service dogs except to point them out as being different and not subject to the same privileges.
The law which allows service dogs access to all public places is a federal law and supercedes all state and local laws so it is the controlling law in every state in the country and whether the sign in an estblishment opent to the public says "service dogs" or "guide dogs" is irrelevant. This law was enacted in 1990 and it allows all service animals who are assisiting a person with a disability.
I have done extensive legal research on the subject to the point of reading the majority of the case law. There is no "twisting the law" as you describe. These are legitimate uses of dogs that are allowed under the law and to imply otherwise is actually misrepresenting the nature of the law in my opinion.
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I agree there are a lot of other problems out there that you would never imagine that people need service dogs for. a lot of people do use them for migrains. some use them if they have arthritis, MS, in a wheel chair, or if they just can't move the right way. just because a problem isn't as serious as someone who can't see doesn't mean its not improtant and needs to be addressed. so socalyorkilvr really seems to know what she's talking about and also has a lot of expierance so i agree with her 110%!!!! if every single service dog had to go through "formal" training that means the owners would have to wait longer for help and the dogs might not become service dogs . if the owner can train them to do what they have to do then no extra training is needed.