Stop Falsely Claiming Your Dog is a Certified Service Animal

Contributed by Amber Martin 

Hello Mat-Su Valley friends! Long story, but this is an extremely important situation. 

I am writing this hoping to make this situation known to everybody out there claiming that their dogs are service dogs. (In no way whatsoever is this the grocery store’s fault!) Recently there was an incident at the Wasilla Carrs Grocery Store with my three-year-old (soon-to-be four-year-old) and a big, beautiful bully breed. My child was in a shopping cart, sitting down with the balloon that we had just picked out from the picture included here. I was walking, with her in the cart, passing the hot food section where you can pick out pizza pockets and burritos, Sushi, corn dogs and all that deliciousness. There was this beautiful tan fawn colored bully on a leash with this lady standing there. The dog was not at a heel by this lady’s side or sitting down waiting as the lady waited for her food. There were two ladies together with the dog. As we are rolling by and slowly approaching this dog, I start to realize that the dog's body language is super tense, and the leash is extremely taught, and he's waiting and watching my child as we are approaching. 

Let me just give you a little bit of information about myself: I am a dog trainer. I’ve trained service dogs for 5 years for the Army, for post-traumatic stress. I now do behavior modification and I go into people's houses and help them with dogs so that they can learn and have tools in order to be able to keep their dogs, and not have to give dogs away that seem unmanageable. 

As I’m walking by, I realized that this dog’s stare is not nice. 

One of my specialties is being able to read a dog's body language and stop a fight or an action before it happens. If you know your dog well enough, you are able to stop your dog from doing the bad behavior. Before I can do anything, this dog starts lunging at my three-year-old in the shopping cart. The owner who is holding the end of the leash is not being mindful of the dog, and he pulls the owner to the cart. The dog almost bites my child in the face, not only once but twice, and I whip the cart behind me and start charging, almost in a stance like a mama bear because if anybody's going to get bit it's going to be me - and I'll be damned if my child is going to get hurt!

I instantly tell this lady that her dog has no business being inside the store, especially if he's going to be acting like that. She tries to tell me that this dog is a service dog. She doesn't know that I'm a service dog trainer. 

A service dog should be desensitized to anything related to children (balloons, loud noises, etc…) to prepare them to help their owner in a public situation. This is why it takes at least 2 years to 4 years to fully train a service dog. 72% of service dogs fail the program. You can tell which puppies will be a good service dog at the age of 6 weeks old. 

Obviously this dog is not a service dog. I offer absolutely no discouragement on any breed... I love all breeds, all animals, all dogs and reptiles. But to claim that your dog is a service dog, and bring it into a store where children are in danger, this is not okay with me. She's lucky that I had my child with me and that the dog didn't try to lunge at me, because that would have been a lot different situation. I was so frazzled by the situation, trying to check myself out, while demanding that a manager come right there at that instant. 

They needed to get that dog out of this store now! 

Other parents and customers are coming up to me trying to calm me down because I'm so frazzled about the situation, telling me that I'm a good mom and I handled it really well. They saw what happened and that it was absolutely insane. The lady with the dog sat there and argued with me profusely about how her dog is a service dog and my child was waving a balloon in the shopping cart. 

No service dog should be lunging and trying to bite my child in the face like that. 

Moral of the story, guys, is please, please, please do not try and pass your dog off as a service dog and bring them into the store. 

First, it is extremely disrespectful to those that are in need of the service dogs for you to abuse the situation, only making the problem worse. 

Second, if you can't leave your dog in the car on a hot or extremely cold day then leave your dog at home. Dogs are going to be a lot safer and happier at home than being in a hot car or a frozen car. 

And thirdly, if another dog comes at my child, this mama bear is going to rip it apart!