Hey, I was advised to post over here to get an opinion from people with service dogs and couldn’t cross post.

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 (while on a slack leash) 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. I am not trying to make the claim of a that it is not truly an SD, it’s concerning at the lack of training of this service dog.

If I continue to see this behavior, is making a complaint going too far? Any kind of advice would be appreciated. This is also in Virginia, USA.

Anyone have any experience good or bad with Assistance Dogs of the West? Found them on the ADI website but can’t find much information on their reputation.

My SD and I love learning new things and continue adding tasks as new needs or symptoms arise. I’m curious about the tasks that I might not have thought of yet so am reaching out to find out what are the more unique or surprising tasks your SD does?

Anyone flown Iberia with a psychiatric service dog?

I'm planning to fly from Fuerteventura, Spain, to Miami or Orlando with my 57 kg (126 lb) Rhodesian Ridgeback.

He was trained by a service dog school that is not ADI/IGDF accredited. I have his training certificate, ID card, and verification letter.

Has anyone flown Iberia with a service dog trained by a non-ADI/IGDF school? Did they accept your documentation, or require accreditation? Also, has anyone flown with a very large service dog, and were there any issues with cabin space?

I'd really appreciate firsthand experiences, especially on Spain–US routes. Thank you! ❤️

my family is one board with getting a service dog, but i am still worried about the expenses. service dog training is very expensive and i just feel bad using nearly $9k... and knowing it will probably be more like $12k.

I was wondering if starting a gofundme account would be worth it. and if i should talk to my parents before I did it... i dunno, i casually mentioned it to my mother and she kind of just brushed it off.

i was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with something like this.

for the record, i am 14(F) and will most likely be getting a moyen/standard poodle for medical alert

thanks! :)