Original text with the image from the Sonoma County Scanner Updates Facebook Page: Let’s talk about fake service dogs. 🫣
Fake service dogs do more harm than you think. Service Dogs perform tasks that their disabled owners would otherwise have difficulty completing on their own.
Service dogs take hundreds of hours of training and socialization for their dogs to perform their job. Most service dogs take 2 years + to train. Service dogs have countless hours of training that teach them to remain calm and focus on the task and handler while ignoring all distractions. Fake service dogs, do not.
Most people may not realize that using a fake service dog is dangerous to the service dog community.
Misrepresented service dogs are most likely not properly trained to be in a non pet friendly business. They'll behave in ways that will frustrate business owners and others. Inappropriate sniffing, barking, eating off tables or floors, jumping or lunging at others or even pottying in indoor spaces, putting a bad name on legitimate service dogs.
Unfortunately this can cause people with disabilities with well-trained service dogs to suffer the consequences of all of this. This results in added struggle and discrimination against handlers and their service animals. It can even lead to being denied access to public places that do not allow pets.
Fake service dogs may distract a real service dog from their job, by barking, lunging, growling or even just trying to play! they may throw the legitimate service dog off their game. While these dogs are well trained to do their best at ignoring these distractions, you can imagine how hard that is to ignore!
Aggressive or reactive fake service dogs may attack or injure a real one. Any reputable service dog organization will not allow a reactive dog to be a working service dog.
Service dogs are not cheap! Some cost upwards of 30 thousand dollars! All it takes is one wrong interaction for someone to be out their lifesaving companion.
I hope reading this, that some people may understand how serious this can be. Think twice before bringing fluffy into public.
PD: A one-panel comic type drawing of a person in a brown shirt and green pants being led away by a person in a police uniform. The person in the brown shirt is in handcuffs. Closer to the viewer to the right is a yellow lab or golden retriever type dog sitting with its back to us. It is wearing a harness with a red vest with a white circle and a red cross on it. Next to them is a German shepherd type dog wearing a navy blue vest with the word "Police" on it. The Police dog says to the other "No worries, you're not the one who faked it."
DO NOT FAKE IT
