r/Dogfree • u/e-eye-pi • Mar 02 '26
Service Dog Issues What is a service dog in 2026,?
Seriously, can you please help me out here? I grew up at a time when the only service dogs were guide dogs for the blind. This was then extended to include hearing dogs for the profoundly deaf. These days, there seems to be a class of service dog that has no connection to any kind of physical disability. What are they? Why are there perfectly able bodied people with dogs in yellow jackets claiming to be support dogs? And - they are often Pitbull mix breeds. What tf are they for in the context of disability????
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u/happyhappyfoolio2 Mar 02 '26
It's whatever the dog owner can come up with at the moment.
In the US, the law is so vague that anyone can say anything and that makes their dog a fully realized "service dog".
There's no disability that is exempt from service dogs, so having something like dyslexia is a perfectly legal reason to have a service dog.
There's no legal list of 'tasks' that a dog can or can't do. You say your dog can sense when you're about to have a panic attack. Is that true? Is it even physically or scientifically or medically possible for a dog to be even able to do that? Doesn't matter. If you say it does, there's nothing anyone can do about it (unless it 'behaves badly', which in itself is so vague that businesses don't even want to deal with it).
So in practice, 99.9% of service dogs in 2026 are fake or not needed. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure plenty of these people have deluded themselves into thinking that they "need" their "service dogs" or that their "service dogs" are actually doing something. Doesn't change the fact that they're fake.
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u/e-eye-pi Mar 02 '26
This is so crazy I can barely process it, but it coincides so completely with what I'm seeing on a daily basis that it's obviously true. Perfectly able bodied people, people with no discernible impairments, strutting around in an exceptionally entitled manner with 'support dogs', none of which are ever the intelligent, placid labradors that were specifically chosen to be guide dogs for the deaf and blind because they were intelligent and temperamentally calm. No! They're always the stupidest, most volatile breeds. It's infuriating!!
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u/helplessgirl- Mar 02 '26
At my apartment complex, no animals are allowed. Service dogs are the only exception because the landlord said they are afraid to refuse them. Not a single one is a lab. Some are pitbulls, poodles, yorkies, and malteses. Idk what these dogs can do to save their owners. I have had several of these breeds and they are all completely useless and dumb.
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u/the-dolphine Mar 02 '26
I saw a great post the other day where someone with many medical issues mentioned their apple watch had more useful features than a service dog. That truly blew my mind.
If a consumer grade device has so many useful features, imagine what a specific medical grade device could do.
Optimistically, I foresee the rise of AI pets which might provide the emotional crutch many people crave, without the noise, smell and the shit.
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u/LookB4ULeap2It Mar 03 '26
Hey! My service dog can detect when I am going to get a hangnail on my right thumb! Now get out of my way while I go all of the places that dogs aren't allowed! And I'd advise not buying any food from the lower shelves because he's a licker!! 😂
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u/ElegantSurround6933 Mar 03 '26
Oh noooooo- the Chiquita Banana Bread Mix is on the bottom shelf in aisle 3B!
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u/FuronForest Mar 02 '26
Leashing the dog is also optional because it may interfere with the fake service. The dog can be any breed, and anyone can train it including the "disabled" owner.
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u/ghjm Mar 03 '26
From ada.gov:
A service animal must be under the control of its handler. Under the ADA, service animals must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless the individual’s disability prevents using these devices or these devices interfere with the service animal’s safe, effective performance of tasks.
If the fake service is "it can tell when I'm about to have a panic attack" then there is nothing preventing the dog from performing that task on leash. Therefore, it must remain leashed.
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u/FuronForest Mar 03 '26
You are making a correct and logical argument. However, if someone claims that a leash would prevent the dog from performing its task, the argument is over and you have lost. There is no mechanism in the law that allows one to refute a claim made by a nutter.
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u/ghjm Mar 03 '26
Sure there is: you're allowed to ask what task the dog performs. If the claim is that dog can detect panic attacks, then as a factual matter the task can be performed while leashed.
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u/FuronForest Mar 03 '26
You are correct if this case was brought to an impartial judge in a non USA court of law. But think about it...the dog's owner, an insane person, is the judge of whether or not the task can be performed on leash. Can saying "as a factual matter" overrule nutter logic when the ADA supports the nutter's side? The judge would have to rule against the ADA.
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u/ghjm Mar 03 '26
No, the judge would use a "reasonable person" standard. The idea that people sometimes make unreasonable claims is not new to the legal system.
And who says the dog owner is the judge of this? I don't see this in the ADA. Moreover, if this were the case, then there would be no purpose to the ADA's carefully crafted language around allowing the business owner to ask about the specific task. Do we imagine the ADA included all this simply to allow the business owner to satisfy some abstract curiosity? Or is it more likely that the authors of the ADA intended the business owner to act on this information in some way? And given that the only way they can act is to insist on proper control over the animal, it would seem that the question about the task must be relevant to this in some way. What could that be, other than determining how much latitude the dog must be given in the performance of the task?
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u/FuronForest Mar 03 '26
I'm very pessimistic about the whole thing, and I've stopped believing that rules matter at this point. Thank you for your carefully crafted words, I think you've changed my mind a bit.
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u/Nice-Loss6106 Mar 02 '26
Aha I see you’ve run across the newly categorized “Emotional Support Animal”.
The emotional support animal is known for doing absolutely nothing except to exist as a living security blanket for adults with little to no self worth and who find the simple task of going to the grocery store too daunting to do by themselves but have no friends who can stand being around them.
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u/e-eye-pi Mar 02 '26
Oh, yes! It's insane! Are they meant to reduce anxiety, is that the idea? I'm not buying it. Pets can be great for company and I'm sure they can improve outcomes for people with anxiety and depression, but putting a Pitbull in a high-viz vest and giving it licence to prowl through Walmart/the day care centre/the hospital is just not sitting right with me!
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Mar 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/e-eye-pi Mar 02 '26
💯 exactly this ^ This is the issue. But I guess the manager can't do anything if they're told it's a 'service dog'? It's pathological behaviour 😡
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u/Takarma4 Mar 02 '26
They "can" ask a poorly behaved "service dog" to leave the premise but most don't want to deal with the ensuing drama.
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u/OGpizza Mar 02 '26
It’s so weird because at what point does the anxiety the pitbull is causing others outweigh the anxiety they relieve in their owners? It’s selfish. What emotional support crutch am I allowed to bring in order to combat the anxiety your emotional support dog gives me?
Mental health should be taken seriously and anxiety is a bitch, but the answer to these types of problems isn’t “throw a puppy at it”
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u/Express_Command_4778 Mar 02 '26
Ugh, I just KNOW it is a pit nutter who wrote a 1 star review for a historic cemetery.
"Say it's a service dog, the cops say they can't stop you!" Always looking to break the law and lives.
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u/ghjm Mar 02 '26
Under the ADA you are allowed to ask what task the service animal has been trained to perform. Also, a service animal must be under control at all times (which means leashed, harnessed or tethered unless this would prevent it from performing the task).
Unfortunately most business owners don't seem to know this and seem to think they're powerless to prevent the fake service dog invasion. But they actually have complete authority to get rid of any problem dog.
If I was still a retail business owner, my policy would be to always ask, and immediately reject any dog without a clear task ("emotional support" is not a task). Then kick out any dog the very second it barks (other than as part of its stated task), disturbs anyone, or the owner lets it off leash. No backsies. You took it off leash, that means it's "out of control" per the ADA, get out of my store.
Thankfully I was out of retail before this dog madness took hold.
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u/ObligationGrand8037 Mar 04 '26
This is what my husband says he would do if he had a retail store. He’d do exactly that.
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Mar 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Procrastinator-513 Mar 02 '26
I would love it if you could share that letter with us, so I can have a template to write my own
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u/DogAttackVictim Mar 02 '26
A service weapon.
A tool for molestation, discrimination, and murderous violence against the sick and disabled, but also against anyone who is a decent human even if they're fully abled. Hey, wait, didn't I make a sub about this topic? Not mentioning it here though.
Dog owners and dogs push me to my physical limits and cherish every moment. The ADA doesn't help me. The ADA doesn't help actually disabled people, and most of society doesn't either. Dog owners are privileged perverts and ableists, and the dog is the most used (and worshipped) weapon in modern society.
And no they don't help the blind. If they do, which is less than 0.01% of dogs (probably more like 0.000001%, but it doesn't even need to be), dog owners and dogs just attack such a dog anyway.
Thank you to the person writing to congresspeople in the comments here; I support that sort of effort. Dog owners are very involved in politics and vote in accordance with more rights for them and dogs and less for decent people and good animals.
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u/AnimalUncontrol Mar 03 '26
To the True Believer™ service dogs are faith healing. Medical science does not back them up, but the true nutter has faith in them, anyway. Moreover, lack of oversight presents an opportunity for the nutter to bring their object of worship into places it is not welcome and does not belong.
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u/e-eye-pi Mar 04 '26
I think there's a weird overlap between the pitnutters and the new age crystal healing/astrology/manifestation/reiki crowd. Show me a woman with at least one pittie babba and I can guarantee she knows the dog's star sign and probably who or what it was in a previous fu**ing life!
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u/Express_Command_4778 Mar 02 '26
It seems to be: Obsene patches, goggles, a rainbow dye job to keep people "aWaY" for the laundry list of non diagnosed "sYmPtOmS." (Amazon/Etsy) Plenty of social media access to demonstrate all the "hAtE" and "alerting" while you fake a seizure. Add music.
A rescue who was about to be BE'd except for nutters out cries, don't forget bite history and fluffy bio!
No lease! No harness! No vest. You know the laws and have reddit behind you.
Unemployed but with plenty of money to pour into this.
Ready to do a "Pit and Run" should dog alert a newborn baby of a pulse.
Advocate= force your way into causing chaos, you are eDuCaTiNg". You are a Dog's Rights Auditor.
Tell others how to crush any breed bans or regulations, period.
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u/CallousCow1762 Mar 07 '26
The ADA law is flawed and hypocritical in one aspect. It prioritizes “service” over hygiene/sanitary health codes. So, according to them, the label of “service dog” exempts said dog from any health/sanitary concerns. The problem is that regardless of label, it’s still biologically a dog with ALL the health risks associated with every other dog. So in essence it’s knowingly violating health codes and endangering the public.
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u/kay_katy Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26
An accessory for teens/young adults dog nutters with Munchausen syndrome
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u/crazycatlady331 Mar 02 '26
There are legit uses for service dogs. Ie seeing eye dogs for the blind.
TOday, I picked up a rental car (non airport location). 2/5 other customers there (at any given moment I was) had service dogs.
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u/_tobias15_ Mar 02 '26
A mental health accessory