Any aspies have a service dog?

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Hello!

I am seriously considering getting my son a service dog. I am meeting with a local trainer who is going to work with me.

Anyone out there have one or thinking about getting one?

Thanks!

Megan

Hi Megan,
I am not a parent but I happened by your post. I used to be a dog trainer, and have done service dog placements. My current dog went partially through the training, not for autism but something else, and I got to see firsthand what the pitfalls of the system are. My dog did great, but the idiots with boundary issues drove me bonkers. Some people think they are immune to the working vest and may interrupt and pet, and often at the worst moments.
I would encourage you to ask yourself...what 3 specific tasks could this dog do? Can we find some other way to meet those needs for under $10-15k? If the dog is really worth it, then pursue it.

If you want to pursue it, it is not an easy road. It is not cheap to properly train a dog well suited for SD work. They cannot do everything...like escalators are super specialized training. Most people with SD's must avoid them. Once you get one working you need to know the federal law well and be prepared to run into a lot of ignorance on the subject. There is so much bad information out there, and so many bad examples too.
Feel free to PM me if you want.

Thank you for your reply! I am still researching and making sure that this might be a good option for us. I have a local trainer that will train and have a dog certified for public access for around $3500.00.

I meet with the trainer on Thursday so I may come back and ask you some more about your opinions. If that his ok.

thanks!!

Well, we have one poster who claims she has an iguana thats a service animal and that she makes people let it in when they don't want to.

I'm just saying

_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

Yep, that's ok.
Certification for public access shows the trainer did a competent job, and it is a sign of good effort and seriousness on your part. Some places (merchants, etc) will say they require it to grant dogs access, but my question to them is...certification by what agency? They never know because it isn't regulated. Federal law does not require certification.
It is very nice to have if you end up in court over access though.

I meant "That's Okay" to Megan to ask questions later, not to the iguana as a service animal, lol.

I used to know somebody long ago who was "off" who took her iguana everywhere with her too. It could do no more for her than a stuffed animal iguana, so I would call it a comfort animal, not a service animal. She was definitely a lot calmer with it, in a literally off-her-antipsychotics kind of way, so we allowed it sometimes.

In past years the ADA did not have it specified what types of animals were service animals, so some people did have some odd ones, but merchants complained they could not be expected to reasonably accomodate every type of animal. It was financially an unreasonable burden, unhygenic, and sometimes bad for business. EMS workers complained of a variety of issues trying to help people with service animals (like getting bitten). So in March 2011 the ADA revised the Law so only dogs qualify as service animals, and miniature horses only where facilities already exist to accomodate them.