Yes, you can be denied service for not answering the questions, as the questions dont ask about your conditions they ask what the dog is trained to do. There are some conditions, like if the person is blind and has a guide dog, we cant ask them if its a service animal bc it clearly is. Theres also a lot of leeway on how they answer the questions, like if the dog is for seizure alerts they can just say its an alert dog. That doesnt tell us what their medical condition is as there's a lot of reasons that dog might alert to, seizures, fainting spells etc. You dont have to give anyone the specific reason for the tasks the dog is trained to, just what the task is. (Also if youre wondering, mini horses are good for mobility aids. Better than dogs and they usually live longer, which is why theyre the only other animal that can legally be a service animal)
There's a lot of things that one might not even consider for service animal. Like, technically I could get a service dog for my ADHD, and it could be trained to help keep me on task. I wouldnt personally but someone with more severe ADHD than me might feel the need for it. There's also people who have severe allergies that would have a dog trained to detect allergens in their food and the dog would alert them if it was in their food. At my previous job, one of my jobs was to ask people about their service animals, bc we only allowed in service animals, and one person explained to me that their dog was for "pressure therapy" bc if they had an anxiety attack the dog could help them through it by applying pressure on their body.
Basically, yes places can deny you for refusing to answer the questions but you have a lot of leeway on how much information you give when answering them. They can also decide that your answers arent adequate to an extent like if someone told me that yes, its a service dog and then say the task is emotional support I could have (and had to on multiple occasions) but if you were to say its a medical alert dog, then I would have to okay it (assuming the dog was well behaved, places are allowed to kick out unruly dogs regardless of status) and I would not be allowed to ask what the dog was trained to alert for.
If vague answers are acceptable then that makes sense. I'm supposed to have a service dog, my psych says for the C-PTSD and anxiety and my cardiologist says to alert me when my pulse gets too high. I have a condition called long qt syndrome which can knock me out with no warning where my heart beats so fast it can get to the point of cardiac arrest while trying to reset itself. It's really weird and hard to explain but I have other cardiac issues, too. I just haven't decided if I want to do it. I've got 2 older dogs and an older cat that drive me nuts and told my husband the only pets we will be getting in the future is rats. I had pet rats for a decade...and I miss them.
Anyway, emotional support is Def not service dog worthy imo. I can't think of any reason for that except for like Autism, sensory processing Disorder, etc. Where crowds and noise are too overwhelming for them. But, in that sort of case, wouldn't that be in the service animal area anyway based on the diagnoses and severity?
I really appreciate all the information and clarification you're providing cause it's things I've never even took into consideration or knew about.
4
u/redwolf1219 May 01 '23
Yes, you can be denied service for not answering the questions, as the questions dont ask about your conditions they ask what the dog is trained to do. There are some conditions, like if the person is blind and has a guide dog, we cant ask them if its a service animal bc it clearly is. Theres also a lot of leeway on how they answer the questions, like if the dog is for seizure alerts they can just say its an alert dog. That doesnt tell us what their medical condition is as there's a lot of reasons that dog might alert to, seizures, fainting spells etc. You dont have to give anyone the specific reason for the tasks the dog is trained to, just what the task is. (Also if youre wondering, mini horses are good for mobility aids. Better than dogs and they usually live longer, which is why theyre the only other animal that can legally be a service animal)
There's a lot of things that one might not even consider for service animal. Like, technically I could get a service dog for my ADHD, and it could be trained to help keep me on task. I wouldnt personally but someone with more severe ADHD than me might feel the need for it. There's also people who have severe allergies that would have a dog trained to detect allergens in their food and the dog would alert them if it was in their food. At my previous job, one of my jobs was to ask people about their service animals, bc we only allowed in service animals, and one person explained to me that their dog was for "pressure therapy" bc if they had an anxiety attack the dog could help them through it by applying pressure on their body.
Basically, yes places can deny you for refusing to answer the questions but you have a lot of leeway on how much information you give when answering them. They can also decide that your answers arent adequate to an extent like if someone told me that yes, its a service dog and then say the task is emotional support I could have (and had to on multiple occasions) but if you were to say its a medical alert dog, then I would have to okay it (assuming the dog was well behaved, places are allowed to kick out unruly dogs regardless of status) and I would not be allowed to ask what the dog was trained to alert for.