Ask Lemmy

Guide dog user here. My life and those of other guide and service dog handlers have been made much more inconvenient by the abuse of the "emotional support animal" label. I don't want to dismiss the concept wholesale, as my guide dog has been a tremendous emotional anchor in addition to a mobility aid, and I wouldn't want to deny others that benefit.

However, as wonderful a dog as Brownie surely is, can he traverse a grocery store without sticking his nose in the produce? Can he tolerate walking inches away from cars going past at 30 MPH? Will he get back on track if distracted by other animals? Can he board and ride an elevator, escalator, bus, or plane without panicking? Will he tolerate a fixed bathroom schedule and can he hold it for hours if that schedule cannot be met? Can he ignore others trying to pet or feed him? Will he lie still and quiet in an unfamiliar place? Traditional service dogs are bred and trained to handle these things, and not every dog is cut out for service work. I have trained with three guide dogs, and every time someone in my class has had to swap dogs because the dog they were first given showed resource guarding behavior, or raised its hackles at another dog, or was too flighty around cars, etc. And this was after selective breeding, puppy screening, a year's worth of socialization with a puppy raiser, and months of professional training.