Sotoday I thought it’d be a great idea to bring my service dog with me to Walmart, you know, helpful, responsible stuff. Well… turns out my dog had other plans.
As soon as we stepped inside, my dog spotted the bakery section and suddenly transformed into the world’s most determined food detective. She dragged me through aisles like I was on some sort of canine obstacle course, sniffing every snack like it was the holy grail.
Then came the moment of pure chaos: she spotted a cart piled high with hot dogs and without warning launched herself into a full-on tug-of-war with my leash. People were staring, I was apologizing profusely, and I swear I heard someone whisper, “Is that allowed?”
Long story short: I survived, my dog got zero hot dogs, and Walmart probably has me on their “interesting customer” list now. At least I learned to never underestimate the power of dog focus — even when they’re working.
TL;DR: Took my service dog to Walmart, she went rogue at the hot dog cart, and I almost lost my dignity (and leash).
Comments
I thought the training and selection service dogs went through meant this wasn’t supposed to happen…
A black bear walked into a Hayward, Wisconsin grocery store and went straight to the donut display.
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Do you mean emotional support dog? If not this one needs to be retired from service, or sent to someone who can actually train and control it.
You need to take the dog to her trainers and report this to the supervisor and service you recieved your dog from.
Glad to hear you have a helper in your life and best of luck getting this properly sorted!
That doesn’t sound like a service dog! It sounds like you had an untrained dog, or untrained emotional support dog at best.
A service dog would not act like that. You mean you wanted to take your DOG to Walmart.
I’m guessing she hasn’t actually been professionally trained as a service dog – more of an I’m training her myself so I can call her a service dog and bring her everywhere kind of deal? Our neighbour adopted a rejected service dog and that dog is freaking unbelievably trained. And yet still wasn’t service dog material.
Well… if you had a service dog, this wouldn’t happen. But you don’t. Don’t take your pets to the store, it’s gross.
Walmart doesn’t care enough to really do anything, but other stores do, if you bring your dog into another store and it does that, you may be kicked out by security or management if it isn’t a proper service animal. They will probably ask you something along the lines of “what job has this service animal has been given?” along with “is it needed for a disability?” They can ask this and if you refuse to answer about the task or the need, then you will probably get kicked out. Also emotional support animals are not included in the job list of any service animal. I know this because I am a security guard.
Truly, no one can resist the siren call of Walmart hot dogs. Not even service dogs.
Service Animal or Emotional Support Animal: What’s the Difference?
What is a service animal?
Under Title II and Title III of the ADA, a service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Read our Service Animal Basics page to learn more.
What is an emotional support animal?
Not all animals that individuals with a disability rely on meet the definition of a service animal for purposes of ADA. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an emotional support animal is any animal that provides emotional support alleviating one or more symptoms or effects of a person’s disability. Emotional support animals provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes help with depression, anxiety, and certain phobias, but do not have special training to perform tasks that assist people with disabilities. Emotional support animals are not limited to dogs.
What about a comfort animal or therapy animal?
Both types of animals, typically dogs, work in situations where stress levels are high. Comfort animals work during active crises. They offer a calming distraction to those impacted in an active disaster or emergency. Therapy animals provide people with healing contact, typically in an institutional or clinical setting, to improve their physical, social, emotional, or cognitive functioning. While these types of animals receive extensive training and may interact with all sorts of people, including an individual with a disability, they are not trained to perform a specific task for an individual with a disability.
What is the key difference?
Individuals with a disability may use and interact with working animals for a variety of reasons. But only dogs who have received specialized training to perform a specific task or tasks for an individual with a disability are considered service animals. This is the key difference between a service animal and all other types of working animals, including therapy, comfort animals, and emotional support animals.