Mike Reicher
During the throes of the pandemic in 2020, Amy Fellows struggled to get her then-11-year-old autistic child, who has severe anxiety, to leave the house. She thought a service dog could help.
Fellows soon found herself mired in a booming, but largely unregulated, industry catering to people with disabilities.
She first tried an Oregon nonprofit that trains dogs to assist people with autism, but it had a three-year waiting list, Fellows said. So when she learned the Spokane-area business Dogology NW could get her a service dog in a matter of months, she was eager to sign up.
After receiving help from her mother with the $18,500 cost, she and her child went to pick up the "newfypoo" puppy, a Newfoundland and poodle mix, named Beep. But they soon realized Beep had problems, she said.
He was scared of a hotel cleaning cart. He cowered and shook on trips outside the house. Even today, after Fellows paid a different trainer thousands of dollars, Beep and her child still can't share the same room. The service dog growls at her child.
Amy Fellows' dog Beep shows signs of panic and terror, including panting, trembling and startling, during outings to Home Depot and PetSmart. Fellows won a small claims lawsuit against a Spokane-area trainer after finding that the dog she purchased for her autistic son was terrified of everyday situations.
Fellows is one of the customers who sued Dogology NW, which changed its name to Unleashed Academy after a trademark lawsuit, for selling a dog she said was unfit to help people with disabilities.
Their cases, and similar ones around the country, highlight how trainers bound by few legal standards can leave vulnerable customers feeling wronged by the service dog industry.
At least three lawsuits target Spokane-area dog trainer Mary Davies or her business entities, including Dogology NW, Dog Sciences LLC and Unleashed Academy. They include a lawsuit from two customers who are seeking class-action status, a breach-of-contract case and an employment law case brought by a dog trainer who said she and others were misclassified as independent contractors. The state Attorney General's Office has also received multiple complaints.
While Unleashed Academy places dogs around the country, many are in the Pacific Northwest. The plaintiffs range from a Seattle woman with anxiety to a San Francisco Bay Area woman with autism, anxiety and depression. They all brought home the dogs, which cost up to $40,000, and allege they didn't have the temperament or weren't trained to be service dogs.
Davies and her lawyer defended the company and the quality of its dog training; she said some people who sued and complained about the company had unrealistic expectations.
"Unfortunately, a lot of people who call us think these are robot dogs, and they're going to solve their psychiatric problems," Davies said. "But they can't."Fellows, who lives in Eugene, Ore., eventually won a judgment in small claims court last year for about $10,000, the maximum amount allowed in small claims court.
"Beep was not remotely sufficiently trained, not suited to public access conditions," a Spokane County Superior Court judge's order found.
Adam Karp, the Bellingham lawyer who represented Fellows in a small claims case and also filed the class-action complaint alleging fraud, said that based on allegations he's received, he believes there are more than a dozen people who may have a claim.
"It's not just a single fluky problem or a difficult client," Karp said. "It's apparently a more systemic issue."
"Let the buyer beware"
To qualify as a service animal under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a dog must be "individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities," which can include everything from pulling a wheelchair to calming a person with post-traumatic stress disorder during an anxiety attack.
Amid this lack of government regulation, the industry has boomed in recent years, particularly for dogs intended to help people with autism and PTSD. There's an industry accreditation body with strict standards — Assistance Dogs International — but it only approves nonprofit training programs, leaving room for companies to sell service dogs without oversight.
"If you're a family that has an autistic child, you are desperate to find solutions," said Lynette Hart, a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine whose research focuses on service animals. "They are very vulnerable to someone who is claiming to provide a well-trained dog."
She paid $18,500 for a WA service dog but became the dog’s ‘emotional support human’ instead
A Spokane-area company that specializes in service dogs for people with PTSD and autism faces lawsuits claiming the expensive dogs weren't properly trained.
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