What Do You Do When Denied Entry With Your Dog?

[Abhean]

This is my normal course of action when denied entry to most places when I am accompanied by my service animal.
Denied:

• Hand them an ADA card (we always have a few stored in the dog's "crash bag". I will normally start recording this interaction. Yes, this is legal.
  • Still refused
• Hand them a copy of a handout from the PSYCHIATRIC SERVICE DOG PARTNERS. https://forums.servicedogadvocate.com/resources/gatekeeper-guide.18/. Again I have a couple of copies of this.
  • Still refused?
• Ask to speak with the manager and repeat the above.
  • Still refused?
• Call law enforcement and look up the service dog laws (you will want the statute numbers) while I wait so you can allow the officers to look it up for themselves. Local cops can not enforce federal law.
• When cops arrive, explain the situation and give them the statutes you looked up and explain to them what you read. Most beat cops do not know service dog law.
• Allow them to try to mitigate the situation. If they can not ask for a card and case number so they will do an incident report. This is legal evidence that you can either turn over to the DOJ for resolution, take to a lawyer for legal actions, or even use to get the interest of local news reporters to socially punish the business.

If you simply walk away not only do they (the business) feel justified that their policy is/was correct, but you could be making it harder for those SD teams behind you later down the line.
Post actions:

• Go to every review site you can think of and leave a true and honest review bout your problems. You will be very surprised how much the chains pay attention to the review areas.

What do you do?