With that in mind, I reached out to one of the Facebook communities I am a part of and asked them what they wished they had known before having their service dog on the road.
As with everything in life, there is the good and there is the bad, it's a mixed bag. If you have followed me and my SDA website I talk a lot about the positive effects of having a service dog to mitigate our disabilities, but, there can be negatives that are as important to know about when someone is trying to decide on if a service dog is right for them.
Family/Relationship conflicts:
I have written about the agreements you, the prospective handler should make with your family before getting either a prospective SD or a service dog. The Road to Having a Service Dog. Having a service dog you are bringing in a new family member with all that entails. Planning on how it will accompany you and those you are traveling with.
Your lifestyle is going to change! Everything you do post-dog is going to have to be thought about and planned out.
Going on a trip? Have all the animal supplies you need? Planned for rest stops so the pup can relive itself?
Even everyday norms will have to change. Dog walks, training time, playtime with the dog, feeding time, grooming, veterinarian appointments.
The Public, in General:
While service dog handlers understand the love and need, we share with our dogs the general public may not share those understandings. To some they love their pets, some disdain animals in a public forum, and to some they see our animals as unclean animals that should never be kept as pets let alone used as tools to help. We, as handlers, should always understand this.
Service dog teams make up less than 0.1% of the population. Most people have never seen a real service dog team at work, let alone know the laws and rules that surround them. This is what causes most public access problems, people simply not understanding. This is very pronounced when the handler has an invisible disability.
I always give this topic its own entry as it was one of the biggest things I had to learn. Having combat-related PTSD one of my biggest coping methods was to insulate myself away from people. No people meant I didn't have to constantly be on the lookout for threats and the like.
On the surface having a service dog should help me cope with dealing with other people, right? To a point. I found out very quickly that having a well-trained dog at my side brought more attention to me, in public, than I ever did alone. It was hard! I had to back up, regroup, and train myself to focus on the dog instead of all the prying eyes and stealth photographs the mundanes were taking.
If you do not like attention, you really need to think about this.
Education:
As I said before, most people do not know the laws and rules for service dog teams. Yes, this even includes law enforcement. You, as a handler, have to be ready to not only advocate for yourself but educate. We have already talked about "Social Anxiety", and this can tie directly into advocating for yourself.
Whether it is simply handing someone an ADA card or having a conversation you will be surprised how well this can help future interactions, but also help SD teams in the future. All those patches will only do so much.
Think it is easy to get an employer to allow you to bring your service dog to work, or even better get a new job having a service dog?
Discrimination happens, but being able to prove it is completely different. Bringing a service dog onto a work site is covered under Title 1 and allows the job much more leeway in deciding if the service dog will be allowed. Things that may be requested are things like a note from your doctor, notes from your trainer or your own training logs, show and tell, and list goes on and on.
Obtaining a job? Coming from recently having to look for a new job I will say I am pretty confident that out of the 30+ interviews I did many of those turned me down simply because I mentioned "service dog" during the interview. No, I did not take him to the interviews as there are some legal opinions that an interview is not considered a public access area.
Cash Expenditures for the Dog:
Getting a service dog is expensive the typical base cost is about $20,000.00 and if you are self-training for an average of 2 years, time expenses and equipment costs tend to be in the same area. But the money does not stop there, you the handler must make sure that cash is on hand to provide for your dog.
What happens if your dog gets attacked in a public access area? Have insurance? Have the cash to get the animal to the vet? Most Vets do not work on credit, they tend to be cash only. I know we must have a separate line item in our budget just for animals.
In Closing
While due to the topic, this sounds like a completely negative article, it is not meant as such. More as a warning. These are some of the things handlers wished they had been told before having their service dogs. Not that would have changed anything only simply prepared them for what was to come.
Many of us will honestly say that our dogs have saved our lives more than once. The bond between Dougal and I is like nothing I have ever experienced and would not change it for the world. It was one of the best decisions my wife and I ever made regarding my problems.
Please feel free to comment here about the things you agree or disagree with below, if I missed something let me know.
