A few weeks ago I got into a conversation about having service dogs that were themselves disabled. I have never put much thought into the problems of having a service dog that had problems themselves, but it seems there is a pretty large group of handlers out there that are largely against this practice, to say the least.
The conversation was with me and at least 2 others. One the prospective handler, and the other one of the mods from the board in which the conversation showed itself. The prospect had a dog that she was thinking about having trained as a service dog for herself. During the conversation, the prospect shared a picture of the dog. The dog was missing an eye. For me, I did not see a big deal in it, but the mod let us know quickly that training a dog with disabilities was not an approved activity to be talked about on that board. Well, I let the conversation drop. While I did not see the logic behind that rule, it was not my board.
But, it did get me wondering about the subject as a whole. I started going around and checking out the rules for all the boards and quickly noticed that this is a rule on a lot of boards out there.
Some of it I could understand, something like the dog that suffers from seizures or something that really limits its ability to do service work. But for something like a dog missing an eye or leg? I have seen many dogs that have had disabilities that could run circles around other dogs. I have a friend that lives near me that has a diabetes service dog and she lost an eye a few years ago due to cancer. That has not hurt her ability to alert her handler at all. I think I even saw a deaf (the dog being deaf) service dog on YouTube a while back.
For me, as a disabled vet, it just feels wrong that we, as a group of disabled people actually look down on something else that is disabled. I know what a God-send Dougal was for me to be able to get out and see the world again. Could that not be true for a disabled dog? Yes, I know I am humanizing a dog, but if someone could find a dog with the right temperament, the right smarts, and everything else that goes into the good makeup of a service dog, but has a disability that would not cause a problem with its working as a service dog should that disability be the determining factor that it can not be used in service work?
What do you think?
The conversation was with me and at least 2 others. One the prospective handler, and the other one of the mods from the board in which the conversation showed itself. The prospect had a dog that she was thinking about having trained as a service dog for herself. During the conversation, the prospect shared a picture of the dog. The dog was missing an eye. For me, I did not see a big deal in it, but the mod let us know quickly that training a dog with disabilities was not an approved activity to be talked about on that board. Well, I let the conversation drop. While I did not see the logic behind that rule, it was not my board.
But, it did get me wondering about the subject as a whole. I started going around and checking out the rules for all the boards and quickly noticed that this is a rule on a lot of boards out there.
Some of it I could understand, something like the dog that suffers from seizures or something that really limits its ability to do service work. But for something like a dog missing an eye or leg? I have seen many dogs that have had disabilities that could run circles around other dogs. I have a friend that lives near me that has a diabetes service dog and she lost an eye a few years ago due to cancer. That has not hurt her ability to alert her handler at all. I think I even saw a deaf (the dog being deaf) service dog on YouTube a while back.
For me, as a disabled vet, it just feels wrong that we, as a group of disabled people actually look down on something else that is disabled. I know what a God-send Dougal was for me to be able to get out and see the world again. Could that not be true for a disabled dog? Yes, I know I am humanizing a dog, but if someone could find a dog with the right temperament, the right smarts, and everything else that goes into the good makeup of a service dog, but has a disability that would not cause a problem with its working as a service dog should that disability be the determining factor that it can not be used in service work?
What do you think?
