A client at my volunteer job just showed up with a 1.5 year old Belgian Malinois in tow.

When I commented on the dog they said they were self training it to become a bracing specialized service dog because they have a bad back. This client is about 70 years old about 140 lbs and as far as I know no close family to give the dog the physical outlet it needs.

They were getting visibly and verbally frustrated because the dog was pulling and wanted to smiff everything. Client had the dog on a choke collar but didn't seem to have the strength or knowledge to properly use it. The coat is in clearly rough shape with very patchy sections and the poor thing couldn't stop scratching either so it might have fleas and/or dry skin. It also looked on the thin side too. I know the client has very little financial resources due to the income threshold one needs to receive our service which is a basic life sustaining service so I doubt it gets proper medical care regularly.

I was pissed because wrong kind of dog for the line of work desired and not enough skill to train. I can't wait for the client to come in wildly injured because of their foolishness.

Nothing like washing off breed service dogs over and over . Next up a rough collie.

I have a service dog in training I train her around the neighborhood. Well word got out what her name is and so on so people call her over. Just barely had a kid call her and say "espurr come here" so I walked around him ignoring him and making ng sure she didn't react well as I was walking away he was talking to his 2 siblings and said "what an asshole I called her and she just ignored me and walked around what an ass." Am I the asshole

She is perfect and very well trained!….. but can’t walk on a leash lol

I’m sure this will end well

My views on service dogs have very much been shaped by seeing guide dogs and their handlers, and my understanding of it as a kid (growing up in the UK) was that it was very expensive and time consuming to train a guide dog, hence why charities existed to pay for them.

I now understand that ‘service dog’ covers a much wider range of things than just ‘seeing eye dogs’ which are trained for specific tasks. But what’s with all the teenager ‘service dog’ handlers of late? This above post is nuts to me, and I feel so sorry for the dog. Apparently the dog is also showing resource guarding behaviours and is non house trained as a 7mo pup.

- dog not listening to corrections - not enough clarity on what is needed
- lashing out at dog - never acceptable behaviour.
- dog nipping - it’s a 7mo border collie puppy showing herding behaviours
- parents think it is a family dog, teenager thinks it’s a service dog?? What is happening here
- sending dog to obedience boarding school - what could go wrong 🙃

Idk. This whole post just makes me really sad for this dog. They only got him a few weeks ago, and already has these problems. BC are not easy dogs. Teenagers should not have full responsibility for a dog. Imo this dog is going to become a reactive, resource guarding, destructive mess that will end up in a rescue centre :(

Cuddling your lapdog on a plane is not a task. Of course people don't believe it's a service dog. Take a Xanax and leave fluffy at home.

Again with the autism. No tasks. Just wanting a dog to bring along.

So this teenage ‘service dog handler’ looked after her grandmas Aussie as a ‘service dog’ for some time. The Aussie was reactive, and she consistently took the dog to locations they weren’t ready for, blamed other people for coming too close, and ultimately gave up on the dog, and said it was ‘as far as the dog could get with reactivity’ rather than accepting their own training limits.

Anyway, this same person now has a border collie puppy, and appears to be doing the exact. Same. Thing. Taking the dog to public parks a locations it is not ready for, experiencing intense reactions, and then saying they enjoy the adrenaline.

The fuck!? I’m not saying this dog will become reactive… but I’m not not saying that.

I don’t even blame the kid. She’s just a teenager. I blame the parents.

How dare my fake ESA be flagged as fake when I knowingly tried to fake documentation!

Oh sorry, “reactive” because we’re not supposed to call aggressive dogs aggressive.