Fake assistance dogs cracked down on in B.C., but problem continues across Canada

[The complete service dog ID package offered by the Hawaii-based Service Dogs Canada / Service Dogs Canada]

Guide and service dogs serve a very important purpose, but a proliferation of fake assistance dogs is preventing them from doing their jobs. While some provinces, primarily B.C., are taking actions to protect those with legitimate service dogs, challenges in recognizing those dogs nationally is resulting in even more red tape and headaches.

“The biggest victims of this practice are the people who have legitimate service dogs,” says Peggy Lee, Director of Program Delivery at COPE Service Dogs in Barrie, Ont. ‘It’s definitely making it harder for those with legitimate service dogs that are well trained and well behaved.”

There are plenty of places online that will sell you a cape, harness or ID card for your dog for a price. Little to no verification that your dog has been properly trained by a recognized assistance dog organization, or that you actually qualify for an assistance dog, is needed.

One Hawaii-based site, Service Dogs Canada, offers an “Identification Package,” which includes a vest with embroidered service dog patches, personalized wallet card, personalized metal collar tag and a 40-page booklet of information on how to work with your dog in public. All you have to do is check a box saying your dog fulfills the capabilities of a typical service dog before paying $199.00 plus shipping. After that, you’ll have in a few weeks what is supposed to take at least a year of intense training and testing to receive.

As a result of an increase in fake service dogs, legitimate animals are being prevented from going to places where they should be permitted. When one of COPE’s clients was trying to board an Air Canada flight, the airline questioned the legitimacy of this real service dog thanks to people trying to pass off their pets as service dogs in the past. COPE was forced to supply additional emergency documentation to the airline proving that this client’s service dog was genuine.

B.C. leading the way in protecting service dogs and handlers

Recognizing the proliferation of fake assistance dogs, along with some public spaces and businesses illegally denying access to legitimate assistance dogs, the B.C. government became the first in Canada to address these problems when it introduced The Guide Dog and Service Dog Act on January 18.

Updating the antiquated B.C. Guide Animal Act, The Guide and Service Dog Act allows guide and service dog users to apply for government-issued ID. If their dogs are still refused access after showing the ID card, the police can be called and the officer can issue a fine to the offending business on the spot. In addition, if your assistance dog doesn’t come from an approved organization, you can face a fine of up to $3,000.

Legitimate dogs include a guide dog trained by an International Guide Dog Federation [IGDF] member agency, a service dog from an Assistance Dogs International [ADI] member agency and an independently trained dog that has been approved by and has passed all tests from The Justice Institute of British Columbia.

“It’s a terrible experience for someone when they get refused access, but now their rights are strengthened by the fact that they have government ID,” says Bill Thornton, CEO of B.C. & Alberta Guide Dogs. “Not only that, but if you travel to another part of Canada or the world and you’ve got government ID saying you’re certified, it’s going to be helpful to you.”

Besides stronger, government-issue ID, some other things have changed. First, The Service Animal Act was updated to focus on dogs because no organizations in the province were experts on training other more unique assistance animals, such as monkeys or miniature horses. At the same time, rights of access were expanded to include not only clients with disabilities, but the technical staff and volunteer trainers employed by guide dog and service dog organizations.

“Generally speaking, the public accepted the volunteer trainers because that had been going on for many years, but sometimes puppy raisers were refused access and under the old act we couldn’t dispute it,” says Thornton.

Ontario’s legislation is still a long way off from having the strength of B.C.’s, so COPE is trying to improve legitimacy in other ways, like making their ID cards from hard plastic, which makes them harder to forge. However, Lee knows that will never be as strong as ID cards backed by the federal government. This is why efforts are under way to make legislation across Canada a reality.

“Definitely we have been working towards [legislation] with our fellow assistance dog organizations in Canada. We are a member of the Canadian Association of Guide and Assistance Dog Schools and the members come together once a year to work on national legislation certainly modeled after the new law in British Columbia,” she says.

[Tunstall the guide dog begins his training./ B.C. & Alberta Guide Dogs]

Provincial political will

While B.C.’s access changes are now a reality and Nova Scotia has a similar bill currently making its way through provincial parliament, other provinces laws around assistance dogs are little more than a discussion and a wish list.

“The Government of British Columbia has a mandate that by 2024, they want to make B.C. the friendliest place in Canada for persons with disabilities and this fits into that agenda,” says Thornton.

The Guide and Service Dog Act is only the latest example in the B.C. Government’s efforts to make life easier for people with disabilities. A legacy of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the province saw its public transportation system become fully-wheelchair accessible. Plus, in 2013, Vancouver announced it was banning doorknobs and replacing them with levers on all new construction to make access easier for those with limited mobility.

“The Guide Dog and Service Dog Act is one more step toward making B.C. the most progressive province in the country for people with disabilities. These certification changes will enable people who rely on a guide or service dog to enjoy the same protected rights and opportunities as every citizen,” says Mike Morris, B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

But it’s not a lack of political will that’s preventing a federal version of B.C.’s Guide and Service Dog Act from being implemented across Canada. It’s something much more controversial.

Evolving roles of guide dogs

Currently, only service dogs and guide dogs are considered legitimate assistance dogs. The industry agrees that therapy dogs – dogs that provide comfort to those in hospitals, retirement homes and those with autism and other emotional needs – are not considered service dogs. As a result, they are not afforded the same rights of access and are not protected under B.C.’s new law or existing laws of a similar type across Canada.

However, there’s one category of dog that has yet to be defined as a legitimate service dog, those who assist with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD]. These are called Psychiatric Service Dogs and they make up most of the current increase in the number of assistance dogs out there.

Discussions organized by the Canadian General Standards Board [CGSB] are currently underway with stakeholders in the guide dog community, including Thornton, that aim to standardize the rules for training and access for all assistance dogs and then hopefully lead to recommendations for a federal law.
The role that Psychiatric Service Dogs would have is one hotly-debated topic.

“Psychiatric Service Dogs actually perform tasks that could give a person independence again,” says Lee.

For example, they can turn the corner before their human partner with PTSD and indicate whether it’s safe for their human to do the same. They can watch their human’s back when while the human is sleeping and they can search a room before their human enters.

[Working dogs helping veterans with PTSD are not always considered legitimate service dogs under Canadian law/ pawsitiveintelligence.com]

Many in the assistance dog community believe that because these dogs perform specific tasks that can significantly improve the independence and quality of life of someone suffering from a recognized psychiatric disorder, they should receive the same access rights as service dogs who help those with mobility disabilities, guide dogs who help those who are blind and hearing dogs who help those who are deaf.

“The interest of a guide dog user is that all service dogs no matter what kind [of] disabled person they’re helping out should be properly trained along with their handler,” says Christine Duport-Switzer, secretary of Guide Dog Users of Canada – a non-profit organization representing the interests of guide dog users. Along with Thornton, Duport-Switzer says her organization is one of 25 voting members represented in the current 45-member discussion.

“We want to know that another guide or service dog that we’re going to meet out in the world is not going to attack our dog, is not going to attack us, is not going to make a fuss and is not going to relieve themselves all over that public space.”

Divergent interests

Much of the debate over what a standardized federal plan would look like comes from conflicting interests from the various stakeholders. Duport-Switzer says that some members of the community, including Thornton, run businesses and would be afraid of losing customers if PTSD was included in the national designation.

“Bill Thornton, as the CEO of a school – and he’s not the only one – is concerned about losing business because existing guide dog trainers that are out there have no idea how to train a PTSD dog.” says Duport-Switzer.

If PTSD dogs become standardized in their training and accredited as legitimate service dogs, Duport-Switzer explains, stakeholders are concerned that this will open up new training and accreditation schools and nothing would prevent these new schools from also having guide dog trainers, which would impact the business of existing guide dog schools.

“Bill and other schools like his are very much opposed to this federal standardization process and there is a bias in what he told you because as a stakeholder he has a lot to lose,” says Duport-Switzer.

Thornton says nothing could be further from the truth, and that he is in full support of PTSD dogs being recognized as accredited assistance dogs (as they are under B.C.’s new law) and he is currently mentoring a new organization on Vancouver Island exclusively training PTSD dogs by providing them with technical expertise, administration skills and policies and procedures, so they can become a member of Assistance Dogs International.

“We’re completely in favour of PTSD dogs being recognized with the same rights of access as guide dogs and mobility service dogs. I myself am a veteran and I think it’s an amazing thing that they’re doing this,” says Thornton. “I’ve never interacted with [Duport-Switzer] but she should have a conversation with me because she clearly doesn’t understand my position.”

Who’s in charge of certification?

The CGSB’s standardization project is funded by Veteran’s Affairs Canada, which recognizes that many veterans have assistance dogs that are poorly trained and denied access because of their current status as a grey area across Canada, so it wants federal standardization as soon as possible.

“B.C. & Alberta Guide Dogs has a simple agenda. We just want Veterans Affairs to recognize ADI and IDGF as an approved standard alongside the standard they’re trying to develop because ADI and IGDF is recognized standard in various provinces where it is embedded in law, as well as in other countries such as Australia,” says Thornton.

The next Standardization Project meeting is in February 2016 and the project is estimated to take two years before it is hoped that agreed-upon standards governing all assistance dogs across Canada will be put in place once these discussions are concluded.

“Once these standards are in place training of the dogs will be done not by the IGDF or ADI, but by an independent third-party,” says Duport-Switzer. Once an assistance dog passes this evaluation, they will receive an identification card endorsed by the federal government that will include security features that make the card tough to duplicate.

A federal ID card is especially important for Canadian residents who may have obtained their dog in the U.S. or other country before moving back to their home province. A federal card is also crucial on a plane when dogs and their partners are in transit between jurisdictions.

“An untrained, fake service dog is especially dangerous on a plane because there’s nowhere to go if a problem arises and the airline staff is not trained to deal with or recognize a fake service dog,” says Duport-Switzer.

How to spot the “not”

Fake assistance dogs confuse business owners and the public by presenting themselves as guide or service dogs in appearance, but acting like pets in behaviour.

“It’s going to protect the public when service dogs that are out there are not going to pose a danger or a disturbance to them and the only way to guarantee that is to ensure the dogs are graduated from reputable schools,” says Lee.

Since those who’ve had bad experiences often can’t tell the difference between the two, legitimate assistance dog owners are often illegally refused access in a misguided attempt by business owners to save themselves and their customers from what they assume will be another exasperating experience.

But what these business owners don’t realize is if a proper assistance dog is doing their job, they and their customers shouldn’t even notice them.

“The greatest compliment a graduated dog or a dog-in-training can receive is when the handler leaves a restaurant and the dog comes out from under the table people say, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know there was a dog there,‘” says Lee.

So the next time you’re out to eat (or anywhere else) and you spot an assistance dog, here are a few behaviours real assistance dogs must display:

• No barking or making other noises unless their handler asks them to.
  

• They should not be aggressive.
  

• They should not seek attention from people unless given permission by their handler.
  

• They should not groom themselves in public.
  

• They should not take up a lot of room in public.
  

• They should always stay out of the way of other people.
  

If the dog is not practising these behaviours while on the job, you may be looking at an impostor. If you have information that leads you to assume an assistance dog is a fake, you can always contact a legitimate assistance dog organization in your area and tell them what you saw.

UPDATED Feb. 12, 2016: Christine Duport-Switzer reached out to us with the following clarifications:

“I mentioned PTSD dogs because they are the reason why Veterans Affairs is funding the project lead by the CGSB, but the standards will apply to all service dogs.

I did not say Bill was against PTSD dogs, but that the IGDF and ADI will no longer be the only accrediting authorities if standards are developed and become federal law.

This is when the interests of users and producers (CEOs of training schools) differ greatly.

To the users of guide dogs for the blind, what matters is that Fluffy is properly trained, and that Fluffy’s handler has control over their dog’s behaviour.

But, for CEOs of training schools, it does mean competition, and it also means that the fact they belong to IGDF and ADI will no longer be sufficient to guarantee accreditation.

They would need to contract with an independent third party for final evaluation and certification, which will then lead to student/dog teams being issued a federal ID card.

If more people can train service dogs and new training centres are opened, they will be subject to the same evaluation and certification criteria, and nothing will prevent them from training guide dogs for the blind without belonging to the IGDF or ADI.”