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Originally Posted by 4OC  No a service dog does NOT have to be trained to two tasks. All they must do is mitigate a disability. ADA does no require any specific number of tasks. Some training facilities make that requirement but not the ADA.
You can call the ADA hot line for more info about this. The number is (800) 514-0301. They do not give legal advice but will answer questions such as this. Most states do not allow ESA animals public access due to the fact the ADA does not allow public access. |
Few people obtain their dog with a history of his ancestral emotional, temperamental heritage or breeding history, which can be a future nightmare under any given circumstance. Without some type of prolonged training in all kinds of distracting, stressful situations to judge and hopefully condition the would-be ESA dog to a learned reaction to staying calm, working his way through his anxieties appropriately, how could one know if their ESA animal can handle all that stress w/out getting aggressive, hostile or learn to fear those situations, evacuate his bowels, bladder or break himself and begin to fear all outside life? Without proper observation of the dog's temperament by a trained dog handler over time, proper assessment and conditioning to sudden, frightening, overwhelming pressure, how could you possibly know how the dog will likely react? Some type of sustained training, assessment, trial and error of the dog's temperament and reactions must always be weighed unless the dog-owner is only worried about themselves.
Consider totally unprotected, unsuspecting children, old, ill, other disabled people or beloved pets in the immediate area of the unassessed minimally trained ESA dog who may be horribly frightened or attacked by an untested, untrained ESA dog? They have rights to their peace and well-being and a future also, may be dealing with just as much anxiety and stresses of their own as the ESA dog's owner.
Of course with toy dogs, one has much more control but even 20 - 25 lbs. dogs can wreak havoc or break themselves psychologically if they lose it under pressure. And even the trained, most expert dog assessor can be wrong in their evaluation of any dog's sudden reaction under any unexpected situation so the more ESA dogs there are out in public around the unsuspecting public, the more everybody else or the unassessed ESA dog itself could be at risk of long term damage and at some point, businesses are going to pressure legislators to make reasonable rules that cover all people out in public and make life even harder for the emotionally disabled who truly need an ESA dog.