Respect The Vest
When I was at CPL training with Cleo, they constantly stressed how critical it was for me to keep the public from distracting her from her job and her focus on me. I started this campaign because it became increasingly clear that people did not understand the serious consequences of distracting a Service Dog. I hope after you have read this, you will have a better understanding of this and will help me spread the word to RESPECT THE VEST!
What does RESPECT THE VEST mean? Well, when a Service Dog is working, the dog wears a vest. The vest is there to let the public know that the dog is hard at work keeping their human safe. Even though there are many variations of service vests or harnesses, each to fulfill a different purpose for their human, they all mean the same thing; do not distract the Service Dog that is wearing the vest.
Unlike Emotional Support Animals (ESA) and Therapy Dogs, Service Dogs are specifically trained to mitigate a person’s disability. A Service Dog team is comprised of two members. The Service Dog, and the human, referred to as the handler. There are many different types of service dogs and I will describe them for you.
Guide Dogs are trained to help people who are blind and visually impaired navigate around obstacles in everyday life. A fun fact about Guide Dogs is that they are trained in “intelligent disobedience,” meaning, if their handler gives them a command to cross the street and the dog deems it unsafe the dog will not obey the command.
Hearing Dogs alert their handlers to important sounds, like fire alarms. Psychiatric Service Dogs are trained to mitigate their handler’s psychiatric disability. And lastly, there’s a whole slew of Medical Alert and/or Medical Response Dogs. Diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions, you name it! The purpose of these dogs is to alert their handlers to a medical episode so that the handler can appropriately treat themselves and get to a safe place.
Service Dogs help their handlers with physical and mobility task work. If their handler falls and is hurt or is unable to reach a phone, the dog can even be trained to call 911. Sometimes a Service Dog can be trained to fulfill more than one service, or job, for someone who might have more than one disability.
These dogs are amazing and save lives every day! How are they trained to be lifesavers; you ask? Well, Service Dogs go through at least two years of rigorous training. There is even a test to determine if a puppy is a good candidate for training! This test evaluates a puppy's sociability, confidence, whether they have a compliant and forgiving temperament, their trainability (focus, motivation, and self-control), and task evaluation. If a puppy passes the evaluation with flying colors, they go on to the next stage which is to begin training. While they are being trained, they continue to be evaluated for suitability and if there are any major hiccups along the way the puppy can be flunked out of school.
Training commences at a volunteer "puppy home." Sometimes training commences in the home of the intended handler, as the handler trains their dog themselves. In their puppy home they learn basic obedience, like "sit", "stay", "down", "heel", etc. They will also start the socialization process and be brought to work and/or school with their "puppy raisers". In their second year of training, they will usually be brought back to the kennels and begin to start their task training; tasks such as retrieving dropped items, opening and closing doors, paying cashiers, turning on and off lights, pressing door and elevator buttons, alerting to medical episodes, locating curb cuts, etc. Towards the end of year two, the dogs are matched with their handlers.
Training a Service Dog does not take only time; it is also a huge financial commitment and can cost anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 to train each dog. Often, Service Dog organizations will provide a trained Service Dog free of charge to the person with a disability. CPL asks that you donate at least $3,000 to the training.
So, now that I have told you about all of the different types of Service Dogs and have educated you about how they are trained, let me explain how you can RESPECT THE VEST when you encounter a working Service Dog.
Service Dogs have public access rights, meaning they have the right to go wherever their handler can go. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) law clearly states that "businesses, and nonprofit organizations that serve the public generally must allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas of the facility where the public is normally allowed to go".
If the manager of a business questions whether the dog is a Service Dog, they are by law allowed to ask only two questions. (1) is the dog required because of a disability, and (2) what task does the dog provide. A business owner can ONLY ask a handler and Service Dog to leave if, (1) the dog is out of control and the handler cannot take effective control, or (2) the dog relieves itself inside the business.
As for how you, as a member of the general public interacts with a Service Dog, proper etiquette is all about respecting the vest the dog wears. As Cleo’s handler, I can tell you that the biggest challenge of owing a Service Dog is that people LOVE dogs and want to pet them, talk to them, and interact with them…in other words, distract them from doing their jobs.
There are so many people who pet Cleo, without a care in the world. Or, they pet her and then say something like, "Oh my gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t see that the vest says, ‘DO NOT PET’. "
In addition to not petting a working Service Dog, please understand that there are many other ways to distract a Service Dog. RESPECT THE VEST means please do not pet, please do not talk to or make kissy noises, and please do not make eye contact with the dog. The ADA law states that service dogs are medical equipment. You wouldn’t pet a wheelchair, would you? I think it is easier to remember to respect the vest by telling yourself that distracting a working Service Dog could be a matter of life or death for its handler.
Thank you for supporting RESPECT THE VEST and thank you for taking the time to learn more about service dogs. Now you can help us spread the word!