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#1
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HELP: Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
Since I got my maltese terrier 2 months ago I have been taking her with
me to my doctor who is treating me for anxiety and depression as well as fibromalgia. Anyways she considers my dog for me as a comfort dog during my appointment and helps with my anxiety. She is one of several doctors in this facility and I know other patients brings their dogs as well as a doctor who brings her big poodles. The poodle doctor though is moving to a completely different location then my doctor and the others. Ok my doctor and the other doctors in her practice are moving to another building. This building will not allow any dogs in. My question is this. Is this not an interference by the owner of the building of my appointments with the doctor. A dog is considered medicinal for many patients myself included so isn't the owner interfering with my treatment? Legally can this building owner interfere with my bringing my dog Holly to my doctors visit. To me this is interference in health care by a nonmedical person. I know there are some laws regarding interfering with a patient and a doctor.. To me this is interference and an undue burden. I go to the doctor every other week. This building they are moving in is not a medical facility but an office building. BTW I do have firm control of my dog and often just hold her in the waitng room and carry her when needed. This also is not helping my anxiety and depression. Any suggestions? HELP |
#2
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HELP: Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
wrote: Since I got my maltese terrier 2 months ago I have been taking her with me to my doctor who is treating me for anxiety and depression as well as fibromalgia. Anyways she considers my dog for me as a comfort dog during my appointment and helps with my anxiety. She is one of several doctors in this facility and I know other patients brings their dogs as well as a doctor who brings her big poodles. The poodle doctor though is moving to a completely different location then my doctor and the others. Ok my doctor and the other doctors in her practice are moving to another building. This building will not allow any dogs in. My question is this. Is this not an interference by the owner of the building of my appointments with the doctor. A dog is considered medicinal for many patients myself included so isn't the owner interfering with my treatment? not unless your dog is a service dog, and mitigates your condition in some way. |
#3
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
Where are you located... it might help if you were to get a vest for her
that say 'therapy dog in training, do not pet'... When I was training my dog, no one questioned it... ever... even when I just had her little blue seatbelt holder on her, or her backpack. *needed her to get use to jingle sounds like meds and such, so I filled her backpack with sound like objects...* as well, st johns ambulance may have a program in which your dog may be classified as a therapy dog, and in some places you can have a therapy dog as a working dog, but papers have to be gotten from the province/state, and in some cases they are very strict, although the standards vary from place to place... wrote in message ... Since I got my maltese terrier 2 months ago I have been taking her with me to my doctor who is treating me for anxiety and depression as well as fibromalgia. Anyways she considers my dog for me as a comfort dog during my appointment and helps with my anxiety. She is one of several doctors in this facility and I know other patients brings their dogs as well as a doctor who brings her big poodles. The poodle doctor though is moving to a completely different location then my doctor and the others. Ok my doctor and the other doctors in her practice are moving to another building. This building will not allow any dogs in. My question is this. Is this not an interference by the owner of the building of my appointments with the doctor. A dog is considered medicinal for many patients myself included so isn't the owner interfering with my treatment? Legally can this building owner interfere with my bringing my dog Holly to my doctors visit. To me this is interference in health care by a nonmedical person. I know there are some laws regarding interfering with a patient and a doctor.. To me this is interference and an undue burden. I go to the doctor every other week. This building they are moving in is not a medical facility but an office building. BTW I do have firm control of my dog and often just hold her in the waitng room and carry her when needed. This also is not helping my anxiety and depression. Any suggestions? HELP |
#4
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
Drachen wrote: Where are you located... it might help if you were to get a vest for her that say 'therapy dog in training, do not pet'... When I was training my dog, no one questioned it... ever... even when I just had her little blue seatbelt holder on her, or her backpack. *needed her to get use to jingle sounds like meds and such, so I filled her backpack with sound like objects...* as well, st johns ambulance may have a program in which your dog may be classified as a therapy dog, and in some places you can have a therapy dog as a working dog, but papers have to be gotten from the province/state, and in some cases they are very strict, although the standards vary from place to place... i do think it is unethical for someone to try to pass a pet off as a service animal. Some people do, and I think if those animals aren't well trained, it compromises the access of people who legitimately need dogs to help them While businesses aren't allowed, by law, to harrass them, illegitimate claims do make it harder. And, while therapy dogs may have some more priviledges in certain places than pets, they are not service dogs and are not covered by ADA. And can be barred from any place that pet dogs can be barred from. |
#5
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
very true, but in some cases, such as this persons case, a therapy trained
dog CAN get legitimate licensing for the particular purpose that the dog seems to help with. I do know of a dog in town, *I've met him... nice lab* who is only a therapy dog to help her owner get out of the house, as she suffers from agoraphobia... it is not a 'working' dog persay, but it has passed all it has to for public safety and the person did take out insurance for the dog in case something did happen in public, which all working dogs should have. Usually through the training organization but insurance is available for non working dogs too. Also, there is no real strict organization that says, you must pass all these etc etc # of training, hours, etc... all groups are different as the dogs are trained differently as well... some don't start training til they are full grown, but until then they are raised byfamilys, inmates, etc... some are raised by the trainers... check out various organizations and see about having the dog trained as a therapy dog for public purposes. Particularily in this case, as mentioned earlier, I do know of a dog that passed the st johns ambulance therapy test, has a certificate, and is classified by our province, under special situations to have public access with its owner. the main part IS the training... and the CONTINUAL training of the animal... I never let my dog just lay still if my son has a seizure... for a few weeks at a time he'll be seizure free, and for a while he was only have seizures at my husbands place when the dog wasn't with him, so for almost two months the dog wasn't around seizures and she did lose her enthusiasm for it... so retraining *which just included running happily into the room when he finally DID have a seizure* was required. I constantly make sure she is use to children, and we go out in public every so often... NO one knows she's under the table when we leave a restaraunt... its kind of amusing... the dog should be trained for various purposes, and very specific things... my dog can open all the doors in the house, find my son when asked, get his meds, alerts us to his seizures, and I'm working on training her to turn on the lights, as well as she's trained to 'pick up' whatever I point to... *came in REALLY handy when I pulled my back cleaning her paws one day* so, I'm not blatently saying, toss a vest on the dog and walk into whatever building you want... I'm actually saying, if you want to for legitimate reasons as for your own therapy use, get your dog into a registered therapy dog program and look into making it a legitimate working dog for you... contact the health board, or whatever is available in the area, to find out what you would have to do? if nothing else you would really need to have a trainer help you out and likely come into your home to assist with training... i do think it is unethical for someone to try to pass a pet off as a service animal. Some people do, and I think if those animals aren't well trained, it compromises the access of people who legitimately need dogs to help them While businesses aren't allowed, by law, to harrass them, illegitimate claims do make it harder. And, while therapy dogs may have some more priviledges in certain places than pets, they are not service dogs and are not covered by ADA. And can be barred from any place that pet dogs can be barred from. |
#6
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
In article ,
Drachen wrote: Where are you located... it might help if you were to get a vest for her that say 'therapy dog in training, do not pet'... I think that's it's very wrong to pass off a pet as a therapy dog. Now, probably the best way to proceed, at least in terms of likelihood of success, is to have the dog designated as a therapy dog (and I expect someone here knows the procedure), but if the dog's not actually a therapy dog you definitely shouldn't lie about it to get around a rule you don't like. -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community |
#7
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
"Melinda Shore" wrote in message
... In article , Drachen wrote: Where are you located... it might help if you were to get a vest for her that say 'therapy dog in training, do not pet'... I think that's it's very wrong to pass off a pet as a therapy dog. Now, probably the best way to proceed, at least in terms of likelihood of success, is to have the dog designated as a therapy dog ( Am I missing something? The OP has been seeing a therapist and taking her dog into their building. The therapist agrees that the dog is a necessary part of the therapy. Why isn't this therapist involved in trying to get the dog allowed into the new building? I can't imagine if the doctor considers the dog a part of the therapy that they would move to a new building that wouldn't allow accomodations for this part of their practice and the patient treatment. Or if the therapist had no choice and can't negotiate an amendment to the building policy, there are other therapists - which the present one should recommend. State laws vary. The large clinic that I go to a great deal will allow dogs as long as the person with the dog says the dog is either working or "in training". They just don't want any problems.. Getting the dog certified as a therapy dog does not guarantee that it will be allowed into buildings. A therapy dog is not the same as a working (ie guide) dog. Dogs can be allowed or not into buildings at the discretion of the building owners. A dog can be taken into a nursing home (for instance) without any therapy dog designation, certification or training if the people in charge allow it. And therapy dog training and certification doesn't get them in there if they don't allow it. If this is all there is to this story, the answer is to call the therapist and discuss the matter. Judy |
#8
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
"Drachen" wrote in
: Where are you located... it might help if you were to get a vest for her that say 'therapy dog in training, do not pet'... Not only is this incredibly unethical, its one of the *main* reasons why therapy dogs, and animal assisted therapy dogs have lost almost ALL of the travel priveledges they used to enjoy. You see, when a LARGE number of people lie like this, the system shuts down, and then those that genuinely put the time and effort into training their dog can no longer bring their dogs where they need to. I think that is completely wrong....and its the fault of those that misrepresent their own dogs in order to take advantage of the system put in place to help animal assisted therapy. When I was training my dog, no one questioned it... ever... even when I just had her little blue seatbelt holder on her, or her backpack. Yeah, well she was *actually* a service dog in training. That's a bit different than making something up. *needed her to get use to jingle sounds like meds and such, so I filled her backpack with sound like objects...* as well, st johns ambulance may have a program in which your dog may be classified as a therapy dog, and in some places you can have a therapy dog as a working dog, but papers have to be gotten from the province/state, and in some cases they are very strict, although the standards vary from place to place... Unfortunately, many people who have any kind of anxiety related condition (no matter how mild) have been able to convince a doctor to label their dogs as therapy dogs....even if it takes them talking to 10 docs before they find one willing to abuse the system. While I truly feel for the OP, unless she went out and got a dog who would, as part of a training prgram or evaluation, qualify for service dog, or even therapy dog sxtatus, then trying to get this label applied simply hurts those who are doing this for real. Tara |
#9
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
"Drachen" wrote in
: so, I'm not blatently saying, toss a vest on the dog and walk into whatever building you want... Actually, if you read your post, that's *exactly* what you were saying. I'm actually saying, if you want to for legitimate reasons as for your own therapy use, get your dog into a registered therapy dog program and look into making it a legitimate working dog for you... contact the health board, or whatever is available in the area, to find out what you would have to do? if nothing else you would really need to have a trainer help you out and likely come into your home to assist with training... If you had said all that, I wouldn't have had any problem at all with what you were saying. Tara |
#10
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Can a nondoctor stop me from taking my dog to my therapist?
"Judy" wrote in
: Getting the dog certified as a therapy dog does not guarantee that it will be allowed into buildings. A therapy dog is not the same as a working (ie guide) dog. Dogs can be allowed or not into buildings at the discretion of the building owners. My understanding is that Therapy dogs actually had a LOT more access before many people started abusing the system. While they didn't have the exact same access that full service dogs had, their status while wearing their vests was rarely questioned. They used to be allowed on planes, and around here they were allowed in restaraunts. But then, everybody and their second cousin got a vest, or got someone to write a "perscription" for the dog they already had, or unethical Therapy Certifiers who gave out patches to dogs that had no business being therapy dogs (there's a trainer around here who is notorious for that), and that whole system broke down around here. And access to planes and trains has been cut off as well. I think that sucks. Tara |
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