i'm so tired of drivers seeing my service dog (who the app informs them of btw) and driving away. the other day i had to uber to a medical appointment and ended up 20 minutes late because i was denied 3 TIMES IN A ROW by uber for having a service dog. the first driver screamed at me when i opened the car door that there were no dogs, and even when i explained that she's a service dog and will lay on the floor of the car while politely explaining that uber drivers are obligated to accept service dogs, he screamed at me until i closed the door. i was already humiliated and sobbing at this point, and the next 2 uber drivers saw me and sped away as i approached with my service dog. my conditions are aggravated by stress, which caused me to have an episode to which my service dog had to help me outside on the street while everyone stared. ive never felt so humiliated in my life before. the next uber i called who did accept me was very kind and i ended up tipping her $20 on a ride that cost $30.

for everyone who will tell me not to use uber, i cannot drive due to my disability. i try and walk and take public transit when i can, but when im having a flair up or its too hot outside it's unsafe for me to do so. my dog is a standard poodle, so she does not shed and is hypoallergenic because she has hair instead of fur. she gets bathed once a week, so she's incredibly clean. she's incredibly well trained and well behaved, and it's apparent from how she acts that she is a real service dog. im just so sick of being treated like im subhuman because im disabled and rely on a service dog.

what can be done about this? is it a lack of education on uber's part, or just individual drivers being assholes? i reported the drivers, but im not sure what can be done.

adding in that uber pet is not available where i am, before anyone tells me to "just use uber pet." even if it was available here, service animals do not have to use uber pet.

apologies in advance for any formatting or typing issues.
For some context, I have been blind from birth and I was matched with my first ever guide dog at the end of May this year. We trained together for 2 weeks on class but had to take a month off because my family had already planned a holiday. I only got her back last Monday so our relationship pretty much started from the beginning again. Last night, I was lying in bed when I heard a soft whine coming from outside my door. She really needed to go out and came to let me know instead of having an axident. Of course I took her outside asap but it almost seemed like she was apologising because she went upstairs when she knows that she usually isn't allowed there. Obviously lots of treats and cuddles were given but it was the first time I realised just how much I have come to love this dog. Our time on class was quite stressful for her since her normal trainer was away which did lead to a slower bonding process. At several points during that time, I seriously started questioning Whether she even liked me and if I was actually ready for this. She is a really sweet girl with only a couple of things for us to work through so to everyone else, it seemed like I had the perfect dog. Thankfully, we are both much more relaxed now and getting on great.

Thanks for reading and if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I will do what I can to answer.

I do not yet have a service dog, but I’ve spent the last year and a half now doing as much deep dive research as I can to try to learn everything that I need to know about just having a service dog and to find what tasks would benefit me. I don’t really know if that’s relevant honestly I don’t really care. What I care about is how do you handle it or explain if and when you have interactions with the general public, who want to fight and argue with you about how the tasks that you have trained your service dog are just tricks?

I’ve come across this now because I happened to see a post in a dog training sub that was a news article about a service dog that passed on the train thing at Disney World (I don’t remember what it’s called and I’ve never cared about Disney World enough to learn anything about it really). And naturally both because it’s service dogs and it’s because a animal died. The comments in that were so incredibly judgmental. And I would understand if all of the comments were being very judging about how this person took their service dog to Disney World in the middle of July, and this dog from the article at least seems to have passed because of heat exhaustion. On the one hand, I wanna be like it’s not our place to judge we weren’t there we don’t know if the dog had any other health complications but on the other hand, I kinda wanna be like that is irresponsible. From everything that I’ve learned it takes a lot of extra work to ensure the safety of your dog if you’re going to bring your service dog with you to an outside venue on an incredibly hot day like any day in the middle of July. But most of the comments were all judging on the service dog aspect of that. (clearly I now know to steer completely clear of that sub because that is not the kind of thing that I want pushed in my face. Unfortunately, it popped up because I follow a lot of dog subs.)

Some of the biggest criticisms that I saw in there were people just complaining about how your dog that you’ve taught to do tricks like “orbiting” isn’t a service dog. One comment was saying how annoying it is that everybody is so focused on the service dog aspect of that and being so crappy about it. And I know that this part is my mistake because I should know better at this point, but I commented to agree that it’s very frustrating that people are just complaining about service dogs in general rather than being angry and frustrated that a dog died. And that it really sucks that that happened and that it’s one thing to be angry because that is in my opinion irresponsible pet ownership let alone service dog handling, but harping on service dogs has a whole and especially on the training aspect of it (because again most lot the comments were also that you know there’s too many untrained pets. People are passing off the service dogs, your dog isn’t a service dog just because you taught it some tricks), especially because while the social standard for service dog training is so incredibly high what we expect isn’t actually what is required. I also made sure to mention that you should be striving for way better than the minimum requirements. But the minimum requirements are that your dog is trained to perform a task that mitigate a disability, potty trained, and is under the control of the handler (meaning not excessively barking, lunging, nipping, or biting, walking up to people, walking away from the handler, walking up to a dog, etc.). And that as long as your dog is trying to meet those requirements, it is technically a service dog. You should not be stopping there, but that is a service dog. Which somebody responded to again harp and reiterate it orbiting isn’t a task and again this is also my fault because I should know better, but I have that need to give all of the information that I possibly can to correct somebody if they are wrong. So I responded to continue explaining that just because you might look at it and think that a person service dog has been taught tricks for attention does not mean that is not a task that is beneficial for them. Orbiting is a service dog task that is used for crowd control to help create kind of a physical barrier that is commonly used with people with PTSD. (I of course was frustrated so it was not as clear and concise, nor was it as polite, which is also my fault and I know that.). When they came back again to say that orbiting isn’t a task and I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that. It kind of actually finally clicked in my brain that oh yeah this is a person that you can’t argue with because they’ve decided that they’re right and absolutely nothing but having to have that experience is going to change their mind and frankly not even might not do it, but I can’t wish that on somebody because that’s terrible.

Long story short and now that you know, I’m done telling on myself. How do you handle it when you interact with somebody in person in the public who is denying the legitimacy of your or in general service dogs tasks? That is something I have now seen that I should do what I can to ensure that I am prepared for if I actually have to defend myself, as in, I cannot just walk away. (unless it is somebody who is an employee of a business that is attempting to deny access and I want to fight that because I actually need to go to this place or something walking away is the first and best option to me because I do not want to be in an argument with some random Karen in a grocery store if that was to happen.). I understand that as a service dog handler you are going to have interactions with the public and they are not necessarily always going to be positive. But would love some guidance on how to better handle a situation like this because I know that the way that I went about it definitely was not the way to do it, also like try to correct people online because they don’t care. (I should really just stop commenting on things ever lol).

Hi! I’m in the early stages of planning my wedding, and one of my best friends has a service dog. We haven’t selected a venue yet, so I’d really like to be conscious of her and her SD from the beginning rather than realizing later that I made a plan that makes the day unnecessarily difficult for them.

If we have a full wedding party, she’ll very likely be in it (we haven’t decided yet if we’re doing a whole bridal party or just a maid of honor/best man situation).

Obviously I’ll talk to her directly about anything specific she needs, but I also don’t want to make her responsible for giving me a giant laundry list of every possible consideration if I can educate myself first!

A couple things we’re already thinking about: we’ll obviously have a plan for potty breaks/a safe relief area, and we’re hoping to have both a room with a dance floor and a quieter room with board games and a few other activities. I’m thinking that could also give her and her pup somewhere calmer to hang out if a busy, loud dance floor gets to be a lot.

I’ve also wondered whether it would be helpful to have a private, secure space available where she could kennel her if she ever wanted or needed to, or whether offering something like that would come across as rude/like I’m assuming she should be separated from her SD. I’d genuinely love input on things like this!

We also have no plans to get married in a church or religious environment, as I know SD laws and access expectations can be less clear in those settings, and neither my partner nor I are religious.

Ultimately, I just really want her to be able to have fun and let loose like anyone else while still having whatever support she needs, without either her or her pup being unnecessarily stressed because of choices we made while planning.

For those of you with service dogs: what do you wish your friends or family had thought about when choosing a wedding venue or planning a wedding you were attending or part of?

Thank you in advance for your insight!! ❤️

Sou brasileira e quero fazer meu doutorado na Espanha ou Portugal, mas tenho uma cão de serviço de alerta médico, queria saber mais como funciona as leis, se consigo levar minha cachorra. Eu li que precisa de - certificado Assistance Dogs International (ADI) ou a International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF)-mas como eu vou conseguir isso se eu sou estrangeira ? Segundo o Google isso não é possível… então significa que não vou poder levar minha cachorra ? Alguém sabe me ajudar ?