JCarlson and BellasMommy bring up very good points about service dogs not being just for seeing and hearing. All of us love animals and can only imagine the wonderful things they can do to help us. Personally, I think the stereotypical "service" dog is a guide dog, but I know that people who have service dogs for other purposes, like the ones they mentioned, want those dogs to be just as recognized as service animals. And THAT is why we can't all just get our dogs registered. Because if people start to abuse the system then it will become even more difficult for those less obvious dogs to be recognized. Not everyone can afford to pay for a $25,000 professionally trained animal, but that doesn't mean that those dogs perform less of a service. The seizure dogs are the best example of that. |