r/AmItheAsshole • • 1d ago

Not the A-hole WIBTAH for making a complaint about a coworkers service dog?

Hey everybody. I’m using an old throwaway for this because of the details I need to provide and I’m trying to not cause a big stir at work as it is.

We recently hired someone with a service dog, which is not my complaint. I understand the use of medical aids for disabilities at work, I myself even have an ADA accommodation. I have always been taught to treat service dogs as medical devices, not to distract, touch, or inhibit it from doing its tasks in any way because its purpose is to aid its person.

I have never seen a service dog exhibit the behavior I saw at work. It was whining when not actively being pet, soliciting my coworkers for attention, and begged for food multiple times from people other than its handler. Nobody acknowledged that this was abnormal, and my coworkers were actively petting the dog when it would approach them unsolicited, and the new hire did not discourage this at all. The SD also attempted to wander away from our work station at least twice and jumped into the new hires lap multiple times (it was not alert type of jump, it just wanted to be held and is not a small dog).

I tried to keep an open mind and kept to myself, but I continued to pay attention to the behavior. What set me over the line of thinking about complaining happened when I was eating and speaking to my coworkers, and the SD approached me, placed his head in my lap, and proceeded to beg me for my lunch. When the new hire noticed what it was doing, they yanked on the leash, said “no”and then proceeded to pinch the dog’s ear until it yelped.

I wanted to bring up what tasks the dog performs, since I know that is one of the two legally allowed questions for SDs, but I couldn’t find a way to casually weave it into conversation

If I continue to see this behavior, WIBTAH to make a complaint? I’m not sure what could be done because it is there as part of an ADA accommodation, but the behavior was not conducive for a working environment.

EDIT: As someone with a disability, I do not plan on accusing this person of faking a disability or having a fake service dog. I have a meeting scheduled with a manager in a couple of weeks anyway, have documented the things I have already witnessed, and will bring up the behavior in that meeting unless it gets worse before then.

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