Preston Radtke is someone who relies on a service dog, a seeing-eye dog. He said that he used to be a cane user. The dog named Burton helps Radtke avoid obstacles. He’s not just a service dog but also a friend.
Radtke expresses his concern about the growing number of fake service animals. Because more and more people need physical assistance which certified dogs can provide, opportunists pretend to have legitimate service animals. This undermines what real service animals do. Radtke shares the fact that real service animals go through intensive training – not to mention 120 hours of skilled training. Burton himself spent 2 years in training before he became Radtke’s helper.
The director of the Disability Services at Ball State mentions that service dogs need to undergo training to be qualified. Also, acquiring a service dog can be a lengthy and expensive process. These things explain why in the United States, there are only 10,000 service dogs.
It’s not easy being frequently questioned when you have a real service dog just because of growing fake service dogs. According to the ADA law, one way to tell whether a dog is a service dog is to ask these two questions:
- Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
- What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
Do you own an assistance animal? Register your pet.
The Service Animal Registry of California invites you to have your assistance animal registered in order to designate its status. We also encourage you to take our online classes so you can be fully aware of your rights and gain more knowledge about your support animal.
Finally, we present to you our book entitled, “ASSISTANCE ANIMAL LAWS: LEARN YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING SERVICE ANIMALS, EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS, THERAPY PETS, AND OTHER DOGS, CATS, AND ASSISTANCE ANIMALS” to provide you with a complete education on assistance animals.
Purchase your copy of the book by clicking the text or image below.
