This one’s interesting I haven’t read this yet I saw the news the headline and I wanted to check it out so..
“A bill would find people for using fake service dogs, Alton Missouri. Misrepresenting a dog as a trained a service dog could soon come with a hefty fine under the terms of a new proposal in Springfield House bill 3905 would require a person to have their dog professionally trained to wear anything indicating the animal as service dog or be brought into any business that only allows service animals”
I don’t like that professionally trained because the dog training industry is already kind of a crapshoot and anybody, I mean you can you can train your own service dog and say yeah you’re dog trainer. I mean I guess technically there wouldn’t be a problem with that if you were ballsy enough to do that but most people are not. I do have a problem with the dog having to be professionally trained.
I know people who train their dogs by themselves however I don’t recommend that if you’re not very proficient in dog training, consistency, and follow through with your own life goals. And even if you are I would always recommend finding a professional dog trainer to work with that you know and you trust, and has a long history of positive experiences with their dogs. Someone who doesn’t fail the dog, doesn’t blame the dog, those kind of things because if a dog fails it’s your fault as the trainer, it’s not the dog’s fault. There’s always a way to train behavior positively without use of force, fear, or punishment. It just kind of comes down to the creativity and the skill set of the person. Believe me, when it comes to dogs we have it so easy when we when it comes to dogs compared to undomesticated species.
“The second time someone is found to have misrepresented their pet as a service animal they could be fined hundreds of dollars. State representative la Sean Ford D Chicago told the House Judiciary criminal committee that this practice can be dangerous. It’s very dangerous from real service dogs and their handlers .”
“When you have a misrepresentation of a dog that is represented as a service dog, that’s a public nuisance and could cause harm to the public. The Department of Transportation is proposing to crackdown on people who misrepresent their pets as service or emotional support animals to allow them on flights.”
And we talked about this bill back in January, that the DOT started and we talked about this I think on the first or the second late-night chat. So you can look this up on the d-o-t website to find out exactly what the requirements are. The requirements are a little backwards because they also require certain certifications for emotional support animals and psychiatric service dogs. So other kinds of service dogs were just psychiatric which does not follow the a ADA guidelines so there’s a lot of incongruence with the other laws in the government.
“The bill is an initiative of one of Ford’s constituents who train service dogs.”
I wonder who that is…
If someone who is pushing for this bill says you have to go through someone that trains service dogs, it’s just going to boost their business. I mean it’s a good business move but it is not helpful for the people out there who may not be able to afford a dog trainer. Which if you’re a professional who knows what you’re doing they can cost a lot of time, a lot of money, and not everybody has all the money in the world.
“State representative Anne Strava-Murray of D-Naperville opposed the bill. She said some dogs are comfort animals that are partly trained.”
What? Do you mean ESAs? But ESAs don’t have to be trained. I always suggest you should train your ESA but it’s a little ridiculous that this is the point she brought up.
“People have access to animals that are functioning in their lives as service dogs” she said. Adding that “A formally trained dog could cost too much for some people to afford. This would put them at risk of being fined.”
Wait, how does she figure?
You can be a first-time owner of a service dog and you’re probably not going to be stellar at it but you’re going to be educated enough to know what the standard of behavior is.
The ADA says that if your dog doesn’t meet their standard of behavior businesses can kick you out. And they should! If that is the case there should be no issue.
I mean we’ve gone over people who are “professional service dog trainers” or are “service dog providers” and they can’t produce a good service dog. People have been scammed out of thousands and thousands of dollars because of this. Just because a dog has been “professionally trained” doesn’t mean that the dog is following ADA guidelines.
“We’re now nearing the definition of a service dog to be a very specific training program that a dog has to go through.”
The Bill a passed from committee but it was contingent on if Ford changed it to reduce the up to one thousand dollar fine. It was updated to a maximum of five hundred, The fines would go to fund that would offer grants to help low-income people afford the cost of service dog training.”
That’s awesome! I really love that.
So it’s really taking the money from people who are fraudulent, after getting caught more than once, and if it happens again they are going to be fined and it’s going be put towards money to help people with service dog training.
Again this is a bill proposed by someone who is pushing for their own business. They want to have people to have to go through registered vendors and those vendors would be getting that money from people who are using fraudulent service dogs.
That’s interesting to see what’s going on. I mean definitely a smart business opportunity but not fair to the common people out there.