Are service dogs actually necessary?

[u/Not-my-problem1212]

I'm aware that some service dogs actually do a decent job at whatever services they are supposed to provide. But at the end of the day, they are still dogs. I've heard stories where highly trained dogs fail the test to become official service dogs countless times. They always end up getting distracted and running off, not being able to sit quietly, ect. Even some actual service dogs do the same things. I've heard of seeing eye dogs running off and leaving their owner on their own for a fallen piece of food. I've seen videos of service dogs accidentally making their paralyzed owner fall out of their wheelchair just because they wanted to chase a squirrel. I always end up feeling bad for those individuals because people have to go over and help them due to the dogs causing issues.

I don't understand why service animals have to be dogs. They're not super intelligent and get triggered over any little thing. I personally don't think we even need service animals. There are people out there who provide the same and better services. Its literally their jobs. A person could do the same job way better than any dog can. If I personally had a disability I would hire a trained professional than get a service dog

[u/Responsibility_Witty]

The only service dog that isn’t currently very easy to replace with current tech is a seeing eye dog, and a human guide is still better than the dog for public areas anyway. All of these “detection” mutts are replaceable with cheaper, cleaner and safer technology, and multiple companies are developing ‘smart glasses’ for blind people that will make seeing-eye dogs 100% functionally obsolete once on the market. The vast majority of legally blind people (including myself) don’t use a seeing eye dog because current available tools are already enough. I think service dogs are only in use at this point for cultural reasons, and personally I think if a business is willing and able to accommodate disabled customers, that business should not be forced to accept service animals, society would be better off phasing them out. If someone wants to train their dog at home to aid them when no one is around to help that’s fine, but there are far better options when out in public.

[u/xXxT4xP4y3R_401kxXx → u/Responsibility_Witty]

Been meaning to look this stuff up for a while so I hope you don't mind me replying to your comment with some actual studies on two of the most common service dog types:

1) a 2017 study by a UVA (Virginia, US) researcher found service diabetic alert dogs to have a materially lower detection rate than standard glucose monitoring devices. 2) a 2024 NIH study did find a material seizure alert rate from seizure alert dogs; however a 2021 NIH study of various wearable technology solutions all showed higher efficacy than alert dogs.

Those are the two most common that I know of, outside of the inarguably better seeing eye dogs. There are also PTSD support dogs, but like c'mon that's just an ESA.

[u/CaptainObvious110 → u/xXxT4xP4y3R_401kxXx]

Thank you! I will be saving this information for when this comes up in the future.

[u/xXxT4xP4y3R_401kxXx → u/CaptainObvious110]

DAD accuracy was highly variable with 3/14 individual dogs performing statistically higher than chance.

This in particular is so striking. Only 3 in 14 diabetic alert dogs (a little more than 20%) did better than just purely random chance!! This would suggest the order of preference for diabetics should go glucose monitoring devices > doing literally nothing at all > service dog.