"Imposter" Service Dogs---Is Your Business Prepared?

I am an international access consultant and disability advocate.  For the past ten years, since first becoming partnered with my own service dog, I have fought for the rights of service dog handlers who experienced illegal access denial (the illegal refusal of an establishment to grant entry to a partnered team).  

The common denominator in all access denials is lack of education.  Unfortunately, many businesses do not make it a priority to educate their employees in disability rights and sensitivity training; and as a result, suffer very costly lessons for their oversight.  An employee’s ignorance of access rights does not excuse the denial of those rights, and will not prevent incurring the stiff penalty that violating them carries.  

Access denial is a huge, widespread problem throughout the service dog community, and not surprisingly, handlers with invisible disabilities have the most issues with access denial.  However, just because you can’t see someone’s disability, doesn’t mean that they don’t suffer from it; and all the challenges that it presents. 

For ten years I’ve been advocating for handlers’ rights, mediating in pre-court cases, and educating businesses about disabilities and their rights and responsibilities towards their disabled clientele.  I’ve worked tirelessly to preserve the rights of service dog handlers everywhere, and to promote the wonderful benefits that service dogs provide for their partners with disabilities in order to help foster a more compassionate and accepting attitude towards these incredible canines. My work has opened many doors previously closed to service dog teams, and I am fully committed to opening many more. 

Recently, I’ve gained a new and unexpected clientele—business owners who believe that their establishment had been visited by (and in many cases, damaged by) “imposter” service dogs. 

“Imposter” or “fake” service dogs are a growing problem throughout America.  This is the canine version of illegally parking in a handicapped parking space.  Many people have forgone any type of morality and have obtained vests and attached patches to illegally gain entry to public places with their pet dogs. 

As unbelievable as it sounds, some offenders believe that their dog should be allowed to go with them everywhere and can’t see the harm in passing off just one dog, others know it is illegal, but do it anyway because they lack any sense of wrongdoing; and still others believe that they are truly justified because they have an emotional disorder and having their pet dog with them eases their symptoms.  Many of the latter have notes written by their doctors testifying to the fact that their dog helps to ease symptoms of emotional disorders; and so, they feel fully justified in having their dog in a public place, claiming it to be a service dog. 

No matter what the reason, the simple fact of the matter is this:  passing off any dog that is not specifically trained as per the Americans with Disability Act, state, and local laws is illegal (a federal offense) and carries federal penalties.  

In the case of the emotional support dog, these dogs (while serving a great and positive purpose); are not service dogs.  Many people have taken the ADA’s version of the law and twisted it to fit their own situation---but they’ve missed a very important fact:  In order to meet the legal requirements needed to earn the title of service dog, the dog must be individually trained as a service dog, and the dog must be specifically trained to do tasks.  If a dog does nothing more than accompany a person into an establishment to “keep them focused” or “ease anxiety”, they are not in compliance with federal law that specifically requires task training. 

It costs $15,000-$20,000.00 to train a service dog.  The high cost reflects intensive and high level training that takes hundreds of hours that ensure the dog to be obedient and able to perform its job in a variety of situations.  Pet dogs are simply not equipped to deal with many unforeseen public distractions that service dogs have been carefully and meticulously prepared for. Owner-trained service dogs who have not met the same training standards are ill-equipped to deal with such stressors, and oftentimes, their handlers have not been educated in all of the laws and responsibilities that they are required to adhere to.  This combination is an accident waiting to happen.  

It is infuriating that while most service dog handlers invest the large cost and countless hours to properly train their service dogs, a growing number of imposters are simply mail ordering vests, slapping on patches and claiming their pet dog to be a service dog—then having the audacity to dare anyone to confront them on it; claiming protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the very law that they themselves are in violation of. 

In the past week, several “faux” handlers, claiming to have had their “rights” violated by a business or establishment, have contacted me for access representation.  Upon closer inspection in each of these cases, the dog in question damaged property (one bit several people), created a disturbance, or defecated and was asked by management to leave. None of these dogs had task training, and none had any formal training of any kind on record.  

These were pet dogs whose owners decided one day that now they were going to be service dogs, got a little note from their doctor (who is not versed in service dog law), and illegally sited the ADA as protection from eviction from a public place—and then contacted me to advocate for them!  Guess what?  Doesn’t work that way. 

Congress is fully aware and outraged at such behavior and is currently working on a bill that tightens the ADA’s definition of a service dog and increases the severity of penalties in response to this growing, and potentially dangerous problem.  

Pet dogs that have not received the proper socialization, high-level obedience, distraction and task training are apt to misbehave or even bite in high stress environments.  Their ill behavior gives real service dogs a bad rap, and service dog handlers are having even more difficulties with access.  In addition, business owners who have had experiences with “imposter” service dogs are less than jubilant to see a real service dog come into their establishment, and the business-client relationship is strained. 

This is not an article that I could ever have imagined myself writing.  I am a staunch advocate for service dog handlers; and have a reputation for my successful access award cases.  To imagine myself on the “other side” representing Corporate America against a handler simply boggles my mind---but then, I could never have imagined that people could be so untruthful and so morally corrupt as to take advantage of a law that protects the rights of people with disabilities.  

 The immorality of this issue propels me to set out on a new mission to right a tremendous wrong that is being played out against real service dog handlers throughout this country; ones who have taken the time and expense to abide by the law and painstakingly trained their dogs (and themselves) to the letter of the law. 

For business owners who feel you may have been invaded by an “imposter” service dog, you are not expected or required to sit idly by while an untrained and illegal imposter causes your business damage or threatens the smooth running of your establishment. 

There are legal steps that can be taken to stop these imposters in their tracks, and assistance in helping you to recoup damages.  Current law provides for stiff federal penalties—even for first time offenders; and I’ll be more than happy to assist bringing each one to justice on behalf of service dog teams everywhere. 

If you are in doubt as to whether a dog is a real service dog, you may legally ask the following: 

1. Do you have a documented disability? (Note: you may not ask what the disability is)

2. Is that a trained service dog?  If the answer is yes, and you still doubt the validity of the team; you may ask what the dog specifically does for the person with disabilities. 

Any properly trained team has been fully versed in the law, knows their rights and responsibilities and will have no issue answering such questions.  Alternatively, if a person balks at answering these questions, or becomes unreasonably defensive; you may be dealing with an imposter.  You may want to consider phoning the police to intervene. 

If the dog enters your establishment and exhibits any type of behavior not expected of a service dog (urinating/defecating, damaging goods, sniffing/bothering other customers, barking, growling, snapping, ect…) you are well within your rights to ask them to leave.   If the handler gives you any trouble; call the state police barracks nearest your location. 

For illegal handlers with “imposter” or “non-task trained” dogs; beware---Uncle Sam, the entire service dog community, and myself are onto you, and we’re cracking down.  

--Kimberly Carnevale