It can be risky when people bring their pets dogs into grocery stores, especially if they depend on service animals to assist them with a disability. That’s just what happened to a woman who has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), who relies on a service animal to help her when she is out in public. She has a dog named Mya, who is a medical K9 in training.
A confrontation was then captured on camera and even raises a lot of questions when the woman confronted a disabled veteran man with a services dog who quickly called him out for having a “pet” in the Walmart store.
In order to “raise awareness and education for Service Dogs and Invisible Disabilities,” The woman who only goes by the name Dominique started the YouTube channel “Service Dog Paws.”
The video, in one of the videos featured on her channel, has since sparked a discussion about the man’s behavior and the woman’s reaction, in which Dominique captured a troubling encounter at a local Walmart with a man who claimed to be a disabled veteran.
While her personal service dog, Mya, is following her on a leash, the video starts with Dominique going through the aisles of a Walmart shop. However, Dominique can be heard exclaiming “Oh, great,” as she eventually stops. In the video captured on Dominique’s cell phone, a man is shown walking a Chihuahua through the aisles. The dog locks eyes with Mya, and not wearing a service dog vest, begins to whine and pull on the leash.
When Dominique notices the dog, she gives Mya some commands and confronts the man, who claims he is a disabled veteran who needs the small dog for service animal purposes.
“You know you can’t have pet dogs in here?” Dominique shouts in the man’s direction who decided to speak up. While she tries to distract Mya from the other animal while keeping their distance, but the mysterious man circles around a display, crossing the aisle in front of Dominique and Mya.
Dominique doesn’t believe the man when he claims that his dog is not a pet as he turns the corner. She wasn’t convinced. The dog with him was never given any cues and was behaving in a very anxious manner. This is not how service animals typically behave.
That’s when the situation turned hostile. The man shakes his hand at Dominique, saying “stop the sh*t,” telling her to stop calling him out, and telling her that he’s a disabled veteran.
“I’m not saying you are not disabled. What I am saying is that you cannot have another dog in here, whining at another service animal,” she says as he walks away. “You’re not the only one with PTSD in here!”
Dominique may be seen talking on her cell phone to the crowd, showing that the incident certainly left her feeling a bit shaken. She eventually gives Mya a hug and joins her in the aisle. Mya cradles her in her lap as she consoles her.
Looking into the camera, Dominique explains why she was so upset. “You can be disabled and qualify for a service dog, but your dog still has to be trained.”
Adding that there are “certain indicators you may look out for to detect if it’s a ‘fake’ service dog or not,”, or to determine whether the dog is in training, Dominique continued, “That dog was not trained.”
Corrections and directions would have been given to retrain her if Mya had behaved in the same way as the man’s dog, she pointed out while admitting that Mya is in training. “It wasn’t getting any corrections,” she said.
“If you have an in-training dog, you’re going to correct it when it does behavior unwanted,” she said. Although this is not the first time around, Dominique continues by saying that she and Mya had encountered other purportedly false service dogs in the past and have been working hard to train them, which is plainly something this man wasn’t doing with his purported service animal.
“There were no corrections being given, which shows me that it’s not even in training,” she concludes, adding that while his dog supposedly whined and pulled on the leash, the man wasn’t doing any of this.
According to Chron:
“State and local laws generally prohibit animals in grocery stores. This is because food is prepared, stored and sold in these businesses, and the presence of an animal could pose a sanitation risk. As a grocery store owner, it’s up to you to uphold the law. The most obvious way to keep pets out of your store is to place signs at every entrance.”
There are, however, exceptions for service dogs. “Federal law does allow people with disabilities to bring their service dogs into grocery stores. Unfortunately, there is some confusion about what qualifies as a service animal, which occasionally causes ill will between store owners and customers. The confusion often centers on the differences between a service animal and an emotional support animal. Although the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that all business owners, including grocery store owners, allow service dogs in their facilities, the same is not true for patrons who have emotional support animals.”
Although the law protects service animals and permits their presence in public places, it is becoming more and more common for people to enter these locations with their pet dogs that are dressed as service animals.
This puts both the handlers of genuine service animals and themselves in danger of injury. A service dog’s ability to perform its job can be severely compromised by even a brief interruption.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: Taphaps, Chron, Udservices