Entry #13: Kiba

PLEASE LET ME START OFF BY SAYING THAT THIS IS THROUGH MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE;

service animal laws differ per country you reside in - i live in the united states

The Search

When it was first proposed that a service dog might be beneficial for me I knew little to nothing about the community. I thought service dogs were only for the legally blind or for mobility work, but there is a whole spectrum of disabilities that these dogs can help with. My therapist then drafted me a prescription letter stating that she strongly believed I would benefit from a service dog. With this letter I was able to reach out to several programs where I came to learn just how expensive service dogs are. Fully trained program dogs can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000+, but there are also organizations that will help you fundraise for the dog with a minimum amount that you have to raise (closer to the $10,000 range). That’s when I found a bunch of informational facebook groups about owner training, but even then I didn’t know where to start, until I found an organization that helps you owner train your dog with the help of one of their trainers. The organization I found was Service Dog Express, and for those that didn’t have a dog to train, the organization worked with local shelters to behavioral test dogs that might be fitting for service dog work. So first I was matched with a trainer in my area and from there the journey to finding Kiba began.

Finding Kiba

My trainer and I went to see many different dogs but keep in mind anytime my trainer came with me it cost me money, so there came a point were I needed to research the dogs and send the information to my trainer once I thought I found one that may be a good fit; my trainer would either say yes, let’s go behavioral test them or she’d request we keep looking. Eventually, I went to meet a dog at a foster event because I figured that Foster dogs may have a higher chance of success than shelter dogs (because it’s harder to find a ptsd service dog in the mix of dogs that have ptsd). At this event I got super over stimulated and the dog I was going there to see got a little freaked out by my outburst of emotion, but on the opposite side of the room was a dog named Jack that was nearly jumping out of his kennel to try to get to me. My trainer believed that this dog may be too hyper for the job, but I felt an extreme connection to him and I decided to adopt him anyway. The next order of business was to change his name because if you’ve read a previous post - then you know, so Jack became Kiba.

How Kiba Changed My Trainer’s Mind

My trainer was still iffy even after all the basic training. Kiba was picking up on the training really well, but he was still very high energy. The day we started Public Access training came and this is where my trainers perception of Kiba changed. On this day, my symptoms were exposed, but the training session went fairly well. My trainer had noticed that Kiba kept his eye contact on me for most of the session (which is excellent), but what she didn’t know is that was because he was very attuned to my emotions. As soon as we got out to the parking lot where we needed to debriefed about what we did well and what we needed to work on - I hit the ground. I started having a PTSD episode in the middle of the parking lot and Kiba went into a task that he hadn’t been taught yet, Pressure Therapy. Pressure Therapy is a task where Kiba presses his body weight into me to help calm me down. It was at that moment that we knew Kiba was the unicorn we were looking for.

We refer to some service dogs as unicorns because it takes a very special kind of dog to be able to do the work a service dog needs to be able to do. There are 4 breeds known to be good at service dog work that we call the “fab 4” (Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, Standard Poodles, & Collies), but for dog breed outside of those breeds we say that we are looking for the unicorn of the breed.

Anytime I say “we” in this post, I am referring to the Service Dog Community as a whole. Please note that I am just one person in the community and there are differing opinions through out the community, but this is what I have been taught in my personal experience.

Public Access Training

This is the part of our journey that has me questioning if having a service dog is more or less beneficial than the impact the public causes on my health. Kiba is quite well with Public access training - his biggest downfall being his hyperactivity when seeing other dogs or small children (not aggressive, but playful). Though this did get better with age.

Public Access Training was completely fine when I had my trainer with me, but when out in public without my trainer, I’ve found that the public is less willing to accept that Kiba is actually my service dog. One of my worst experiences was when I was going to meet my trainer at the mall. My trainer was stuck in traffic because it was two weeks from Christmas and everyone and their mom was Christmas shopping. My trainer requested we meet in front of Dillards, but there was a miss-communication as she meant the outside entrance and I went it to the inside entrance which was directly behind pictures with Santa. I had Kiba on momentum assistance which is a crowd control task (in basic terms it means – he was pulling me through the crowd). When we finally got out of the crowd, Kiba alerted me that my heart rate was spiking. In the middle of Kiba’s second attempt to alert me - this time by jumping up to me (we did train him to do this), a man approached me and asked me if Kiba was my service dog and without giving me a chance to answer told me that he wasn’t allowed to behave that way. I told him that my trainer was on her way and that Kiba only jumped as to alert me to sit down. He then cut me off by telling me that he was only trying to help me - that he saw the way Kiba was pulling me through the crowd and when I tried to tell him that was Momentum Assistance… he shut me down by saying that isn’t a thing. In the process of him talking to me he kept inching closer to me to which I gave Kiba a signal to Block him, but of course the man thought Kiba was misbehaving more and began to raise his voice at me. He pointed back at his family were his service dog was sitting next to his wife and he shouts, “That! That’s how a service dog is suppose to behave.” I then just apologized and asked if he could please go away. At this point my hands were shaking and Kiba was trying to pull me towards the wall as I was currently in the middle of the mall. Once I got to the wall, I started hyperventilating, crying, and disassociating - Kiba was doing his best to pull my attention back to him and ended up laying all his body weight on me which allowed me to wake up long enough to call my trainer. This event caused me to disassociate for 45 minutes – in this state I walked out to a random parking lot, hyperventilated more because I couldn’t find my car, and sat myself in the middle of the parking lot under a random tree rocking back and forth while bystanders tried to offer me water, but my mind wasn’t fully there enough to thank them, but ask them to give me space. My trainer found me about 5 minutes after fleeing to the parking lot, but it took about 15 minutes after that for me to fully come out of this episode. That day we decided not to train at the mall and my trainer treated me to food while Kiba sat patiently underneath the table.

Another experience that happens more often than not is when someone insists that they are helping him train by coo'ing and saying, "bad dog" every time Kiba would turn to look at them. It’s gotten bad enough that I pointed them out to management. The store's manager would speak to them, but most of the time that made it worse and they would be more determined to distract Kiba. There has been occurrences that management ended up finishing my shopping with me until they were escorted out of the store. This is illegal – it is illegal to distract a service animal. And, Yes, all of these occurrences cause some kind of episode whether it be just anxiety or disassociation.

How the Covid-19 Pandemic Effected Us

Kiba Graduated Public Access Training late November 2019. The pandemic had us in “stay at home” 3.5 months later in March of 2020. This halted Kiba and I from going absolutely anywhere except walks around the complex. Not to mention that in June 2020, I got covid – you can read about my experience in the post “Tested Positive” – and one of my side effects was brain fog. Meaning that when I was released from the hospital, I didn’t remember I owned any animals. There was a complete disconnect between not only me and Kiba, but my cat (retired ESA) and other little dog as well. Covid put me out for a month, so that was a month of absolutely no training, no walking Kiba (my roommate took him out for me and fed him), and no bonding. Even after that month was up and I was able to walk and feed him again, it took time for me to fully come out of the brain fog.

Kiba at the workplace

Kiba was denied access at my at-the-time job for the following reasons: my letter from my therapist stated that I would “benefit from” having a service dog not that I required one, it wouldn’t be fair to others that may have pets at home, there isn’t an accessible way for me to get my service dog to my office and they had no intention of making an accessible option, and they’re lawyer said they didn’t have to since I had already been providing excellent work without needing a service dog. Even though I had been discussing this with HR since I even started training with Kiba – but that HR person left the company before I felt Kiba was ready to come to work with me.

Are these legal reasons to deny a service animal? No.
Did I fight it? Also, no.

So not only did the pandemic halt us from going anywhere, but Kiba also didn’t go to work with me, so it was almost like he was just a dog with lots of (expensive) training. Until… June 2021 I started a new job. Kiba comes to work with me 3 days a week (Monday - Wednesday) and works on keeping up with training Saturday and Sunday. Service Dogs never stop training because repetition is very important with K-9 memorization (or at least it’s that way with Kiba).

Kiba Today (as of Nov. 2021)

Kiba rarely goes in public with me anymore unless I have him with me and need to run an errand or I am making an appointment that he needs to be at (vet, therapy, grooming, extended outing…etc.). He typically does not go on vacations with me because of my past with negative public attention and he is not airport trained – BUT– he does still go to work with me three days a week and he trains/works on Saturday and Sundays. Thursday and Friday are his “off” days.

Kiba is tasked trained to do the following: Heart Rate Alert, Breathing Response, Grounding/Reality Check, Episode Interruption, Self-harm Interruption, Alert to sit, Counter Balance, Pressure Therapy (Deep and Light), Mitigate Migraines, Momentum Assistance, and Interruption of Phone Use.

Tasks that we hope to have are pushing handicap buttons, retrieve dropped item, retrieve water bottle, Help and Get-Out (where Kiba leads me to leave a situation).

Tasks that we would like to improve are our interruption tasks, recall, and stay (especially when passed out).

Service Dog Laws and References

First and foremost, in order to have a service dog or an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) the person must be disabled. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Knowing the laws is probably the most important thing of having a service dog so that way you don’t get scammed or discriminated against.

There are many laws that pertain to service dogs federally, state and local. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is one of the most important. The ADA is enforced by the DOJ. Please click here to go to the ADA’s Frequently Asked Questions page and please click here to go to the ADA laws on service dogs. The Fair Housing Act (FHA), which is enforced by HUD, and the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), which is enforced by the DOT, also have portions dedicated to assistance animals. They are also the most common laws other than the ADA people refer to regarding assistance animals. Please click here to be redirected to the service animals in housing link.

To be federally protected and accommodated with a service dog by ADA law, 3 things must be met:

1. Is the hander disabled per the ADA definition?

2. Does the dog have trained task(s) to mitigate the handler's disability? Comfort is not a task. It must directly related to the handlers disability, something you trained the dog to do that you cannot/have a hard time doing by yourself.

3. Does the handler have the dog under control at all times?

In the US we have the right to train our own service dogs but I highly recommend seeking out a private trainer to assist you. Knowing the laws can help with people trying to scam you. It’s important to know that in the United States there is NO SUCH THING as a service dog registry. Some professional service dog training organizations have their own registry/certification but they hold no real legal standing. They basically just say that the dog was trained within their organization.

Emotional Support Animals are NOT service animals. Though, it’s important to know that Emotional Support Animals (ESA’s) are federally only protected in non-pet housing. They are not a protected accommodation for public access which means they do not get to go into public with their owner like a service dog can. Also, Public access laws can vary from state to state when regarding Service Dogs in Training (SDiT), so please familiarize yourself with your state’s laws.

ADA law’s surrounding public access: When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff CANNOT ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task. Allergies and fear of dogs are not valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to people using service animals. If a person who is allergic to dog dander and a person who uses a service animal must spend time in the same room or facility (example: a classroom), both parties must be accommodated. A person with a disability cannot be asked to remove their service animal from the premises unless: the dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it. Establishments that sell or prepare food must generally allow service animals in public areas even if state or local health codes prohibit animals on the premises. People with disabilities who use service animals cannot be isolated from other patrons, treated less favorably than other patrons, or charged fees that are not charged to other patrons without animals. In addition, if a business requires a deposit or fee to be paid by patrons with pets, it must waive the charge for service animals.

Service animals are not “pets” and are legally referred to as medical equipment. Tampering with medical equipment is illegal so as distracting a service animal.

In addition to the provisions about service dogs, the Department’s ADA regulations have a separate provision about miniature horses that have been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.

Another resource for ADA laws is: Excerpted from the "ADA Title III Regulation 28 CFR Part 36"

Influencers for more Service Dog information

• The TRUTH About Service Dogs on Facebook and Instagram

• Molly Burke on YouTube (specifically for Guide Dogs)

• Dog Training by kikopup Service Dog Playlist on YouTube

Programs that I am aware of

Alabama: Service Dogs Alabama

Texas: Service Dog Express

Useful link for finding programs in your state: Please click here.

I will be making other posts about Service Dog etiquette and a post that goes into more detail about each of Kiba’s tasks. This post was more based on introduction and law orientation.

THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME SHARE A BIT MORE OF MY STORY WITH YOU!

I HOPE TO CONTINUE SHARING; HAVE A BLESSED DAY.