mar is dead (@szarbles)

The service dog in question? A barking and lunging hound mix on a long line that was trying to drag the handler to my dog. They had to be over 30’ away from me before the dog calmed down. At no point was the dog closer than 10’ to the handler. This dog was clearly not under verbal or physical control of the handler. I told the handler to please control their dog, and they told me my dog was doing the same thing (pulling) by preforming forward momentum pull, on a hands free leash, in a heel. But ok.

I called the location and told the staff member that the ADA requires the dogs to be under basic control of the handler and a dog lunging and pulling on a long line is not that. She said the dog is in training and I have to understand that training takes time and the dog is young. I said if a dog is lunging and barking at me, it is endangering me and my dog. If I have a cardiac event and my dog is too distracted to alert, I could fall and hit my head. On tile? That could be a concussion or worse. It’s happened to me before. The representative hung up on me.

I called corporate immediately after and I think I heard the corporate equivalent of “oh god oh fuck”. In under 2 minutes I was connected to a guest experiences manager who basically comped my purchase in gift cards and said they are very concerned about this behavior from their staff. I offered to provide educational materials to the store that educates them about their rights as employees and how to handle poorly behaved service dogs.

The gift cards are nice, but they don’t fix the problem. I would rather be assured what steps will be taken to correct this in the future.

Service dog laws exist to prevent my dog from missing alerts by educating the public what may be disruptive to a dog’s ability to work.

When you fail to protect service dog laws, public spaces can become very unsafe for the disabled very quickly.

Per federal service dog laws in the USA from the ADA FAQ.

Found in a 120 year old time capsule.