During our visit to Washington Irving Elementary School in Oak Park last week, we talked about Hanni being a “working dog.” A student piped up and asked, “What other jobs do dogs do?” The girl next to him said she knew that some dogs look for people who are lost. “Yes,” an adult on hand said. “Search and rescue dogs!” One student had read a book about sled dogs, another knew about police dogs, firehouse dogs.
Once the students had run out of ideas, I told them what I knew about hearing dogs and service dogs. “My friend Melanie is hard of hearing,” I said. “Her dog Pixie would jump into Melanie’s lap if the doorbell rang.” Their eyes got big. Don’t ask me how I knew this, I could just tell. “Oh!” I said with a laugh. “I forgot to tell you one thing.” Pixie was much smaller than Hanni, I reassured them. A collective sigh of relief swelled from the crowd.
Dogs help fetch things for people in wheelchairs, I told them. Dogs open doors for people who can’t use their hands very well. Some dogs even take the laundry out of a dryer for people who can’t reach in to do it themselves.
What I didn’t discuss with them, however, was some of the controversy surrounding service dogs. That very morning I had read a news story about an autism assistance dog who had been paired up with a four-year-old named Jayden Qualls. When Jayden showed up at his California preschool with his new autism assistance dog, they were denied access.
School officials said they need to determine if Houdini is a service dog or a companion dog. They also need more time to find out if the dog is warranted at the school and if so, how he fits into the flow. The Americans with Disabilities Act gives Jayden the right to have Houdini in school, Qualls said. Jayden’s parents bought Houdini for $13,000 from a nonprofit called Autism Services Dogs of America.
That $13,000 price tag startled me. Guide dogs can cost up to $50,000 to train, but the guide dog user is never charged that much. My first dog, Dora, cost me $150. Subsequent Seeing Eye dogs cost $50.
And though Jayden’s mom believes the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) gives Jayden the right to have Houdini in school, the jury is still out on that one. To qualify as a service animal under the ADA, a dog must be “partnered with a person with a disability and individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of that person.” Courts would have to decide whether Houdini performs
tasks for Jayden or simply acts as Jayden’s companion.
However this all resolves, there is one last question just begging to be asked. Can a four-year-old take care of a dog? If not, Who cares for the dog while the dog is at school with the child? You have to be at least 16 years old to train with a Seeing Eye dog— the Seeing Eye believes working with a guide dog demands a certain amount of physical, mental, and emotional maturity. In simple terms, in order to work with a Seeing Eye dog, you have to be mature enough to take care of a dog.
All pretty complicated stuff, and a lot of grey area here. I guess I was feeling too lazy – and we were having too much fun – to bring this all up to the students at Washington Irving. I can tell you what the 5+ year olds in that classroom would have said about all this anyway. I mean, c’mon. Everyone knows four-year-olds are babies.
From a teacher’s perspective,(especially preschool) we also have to think about the other students who might be allergic to dogs, and while we know that service dogs would never bite, there is that liabilty out there. And as you say- who takes care of the dog while at school when the child can hardly take care of himself. He is only 4years old!! Interested in hearing how this plays out. Love that the students knew all kinds of service dogs.
Well, this is interesting indeed.
I think four years old is too young for a service animal for sure. A person should be old enough to understand the basics of caring for a dog before they can get one. Most guide dog schools here in the USA have a beginning age limmit of 16 years old. I think that’s reasonable.
As far as the costs, I’ve never understood why people who could gain independence from a service have to pay so much.
It is interesting, isn’t it? With my first Seeing Eye dog I was denied access to a locker room at a pool where I wanted to swim, they said there might be people in the locker room who are allergic or afraid of dogs. From that experience, I learned that the ADA deals with allergies and asthma in re: service dogs like this: If the allergy (or fear) is severe enough to meet the definition of a disability (ADA) then the public
must accommodate each person. Blindness trumped “mild” allergy or “kind of “ scared, so I got to go through the locker room with Pandora.
In the case of this 4-year-old my concern is the child’s age. If Houdini is deemed a “service dog” in the end, I’m guessing perhaps the school might decide to test the “reasonable accommodation clause, ie, is asking teachers or aides to take care of Jayden’s dog at school “reasonable??
I have spoken to all the children I have worked with from 2-5 about working animals. I did a whole semester long unit with my 4 and 5 year olds. They of course understand the basics of what a dog needs, but I’m not sure taking care of it by themselves is reasonable. There is a program in Morgantown called the Golden Rule which trains goldens for service and therapy dogs. They are giving dogs to children 3 and 4 but they told me that the parents have to keep up on the skills so that when the child gets older the dog still remembers the skills. Now, these dogs are way calmer than any of my guide dogs have been and I think a 4 year old could control them and my golden listened to my bestfriend’s 4 year old sister when she gave him commands after I retired him, however, I don’t know if I agree with the 4 year old solely taking care of the dog, and I really don’t agree with the teacher taking responsibility. I am a teacher and that was my problem with my last guide every 5 minutes I had to correct her bad behavior, that doesn’t work in a room of 2 year olds and it was my own dog, I don’t think a teacher, who probably wouldn’t know what they were doing or have the time, should be responsible. Now they are doing things with the dogs as a classroom dog in special ed. classrooms and have found that it makes children talk or read to the dog who otherwise wouldn’t communicate; however, these are in classrooms where the teacher has agreed to take the dog into the classroom. These are my opinions, but yes it is a very gray area.
It is my impression that usually, in the case of a young child with autism or physical disabilities, it is the family which gets the service dog, rather than just the individual person. The dog, if it is trained to do actual tasks, does these tasks for the benefit of the child and the family, to help the child cope with the school or community setting or to help keep the child safe. A young child, even a non-disabled child, does not go out into public unattended. So the parent or caregiver who accompanies the child somewhere also handles the dog. When these children go to school, they usually have a 1:1 aide to assist them in school, and the aide might be trained to handle the dog with or for the child.
So I don’t know whether such a situation really fits the ADA definition of a service dog, and I don’t know if a small child has the same access rights in public places as an adult person with a disability. If the service dog actually performs tasks for the family rather than the child, then do the non-disabled parents have any rights under the ADA? And if the dog has to be handled or cared for by an adult who accompanies the child, then is this a “reasonable accommodation” in a school setting or is it an “undue burden” to put upon the school district?
This is an evolving area of law, I believe, and not something which has been thoroughly explored.
Love all these comments. Guess I was right when I decided there was a lot of grey in this — thank you all for adding to the conversation. Keep those comments coming, I’m learning so much!
My son is 9 years old and paired with a service dog. He has high functioning autism. My son can not take his service dog in public alone because we are a facilitated team. This means that to be allowed in public a facilitator (normally a parent) and the child with the disability have to be together. Even though my son is able to give his service dog commands and control him, I do not believe he is ready to be alone with his service dog. With constant and direct supervision he can handle a service dog, but he is not prepared for any “what ifs” or emergencies. I would never expect a 4 year old to be able to care for and handle a service dog, even if the child did not have autism. This is too much responsibility for any child. The school is not expected to care for the dog in any way. Unless the child is able to care for the dog without assistance, the dog can not go to school with the child.
Autism Service Dogs of America is one of the few places to charge outrageous amounts for a service dog. This is also the only program I have seen that requires a service dog go to school, while most programs refuse to allow the service dog in school till high school. A family with a child with autism can go to many other places and get a service dog for a child with autism for under $1000. Normally when parents pay these extreme prices it was because they were denied (probably due to age) from other service dog programs.
I also question how this child was placed with a service dog. From their website “ASDA will not place dogs with children whose school will not allow a service dog.”
I have to comment on the post from Heather. I’ve done a lot of research this past year on organizations that provide autism service dogs (and other types of service dogs) and the comment above that ASDA is one of the few organizations charging high fees for their dogs is just untrue. I am not for or against ASDA, I am just saying that before someone trashes an organization they should get their facts straight. I would be interested in the names of the organizations that you mention in your post where “A family with a child with autism can go to many other places and get a service dog for a child with autism for under $1000.” Myself and many others would be intersted in the names of these “many other places”.
My sister, a school psychologist, told me about a child with epilepsy whose seizure detection dog remained curled up under the child’s desk until it was time to alert the teacher that the child needed medication – before a seizure actually hit. I’ll write again after I get the details from her with regard to who cared for the dog in school and the age of the child.
By the way, Beth, these pictures are really sweet. You and Hanni both look beautiful.
My niece is 4 and has severe grand mal seizures and epilepsy as well as a number of other problems. We are trying to get her a seiure detection dog. Can you help with any information about the school allowing the child to have the dog there and where they got the dog from? Thank you so much!!!!
Dear Vicky,
I’m trying to get in touch with Laurie to find out the specific dog school, but wanted to email you right away to let you know that the Department of Justice changed some of the ADA laws over the summer. Sounds to me that schools will *have* to let students with disabilities bring their service dogs along with them to school now.
Department of Justice regulations (implementing Title III of the ADA) used to define a service animal as:
block quote
any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance for the benefit of an individual with a disability.
block quote end
The revisions define a service animal as:
block quote
any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability.
block quote end
Notice the specific word dog in that sentence. Aside from one provision for miniature horses, other species of animals (whether wild or domestic, trained
or untrained) are no longer deemed service animals. That means monkeys, parrots, rodents, and reptiles, among others, will no longer be permitted to accompany
individuals with disabilities into places of public accommodation.
These regulations will take effect six months after the date they are published in the Federal Register, and as far as I can tell, the new revisions do
not limit the age of the person using the service animal. So as long as epilepsy is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),
and as long as the child with epilepsy (in this case, your niece) is with a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for your niece’s benefit,well, then it
looks like the dog will be allowed to go with your niece to school.
Eager to hear more details on this from your sister, and in the meantime…thanks for the compliment!
This note came to me via email from a man named Randy, he asked me to post it here for him:
My first guide Topper, was retired because of noise sensitivity. A year
later, he was matched with a ten-year old autistic boy. I wrote a letter to
this boy’s school board which was instrumental in Topper being accepted as a
service animal for the boy.
Topper being a service animal will be disagreed with by many on this list.
The ones who disagree often have fought long and hard for equal access for
us as blind people who use guides as our method of mobility. I respect these
people and thank them for their sacrifices and hard work on our behalf.
Topper, alerts to this young man having seizures. Work is being done with
dogs to see if they can be trained to “alert” like Topper and other dogs on
this list do to low blood sugars and the like.
There is a fine line between a pet who makes a person feel good, and a
trained emotional support animal. The crux is whether the animal has been
trained to mitigate a disability. That is an important distinction for all
of us to consider.
Randy & Clark
Keep up the great work, Beth.
I was interested in the question of whether a four year old is too young to take care of a dog. The same question could be asked of one that has limited use of their limbs.
The ADA access law address this issue by clarifying the care of the dog is the responsibility of the owner or their caregiver. The article doesn’t tell us if the child’s caregiver would always be with the child and dog (one requirement of the law), but it is clear the school does not have to provide care for the dog while the child is in attendance.
Thanks for the great (and helpful) comment. You’re right – the article doesn’t tell
us if the child’s caregiver would always be with the child. Your comment reminds me to look into this again, see if there is any more news about this school allowing the dog in. I’ll look into it more — stay tuned!
We have a dog from Autism Service Dogs of America. When we choose to go with them, there fees were less than many other firms that specialize in Autism. Additionally, the waiting list was a lot shorter. Their head trainer was one of the few we talked to that had an extensive background in working with both dogs AND Autistic Children.
Guide dog groups have been around for a long time, have professional fundraisers and have a lot of donors. ASDA does not yet have that option. They are a small staff and has not put additional resources into fundraising – they put all they have into raising their dogs.
My husband and I are Comet’s handlers and my son is tethered to him. This has made my son a lot safer and a lot more independent. We are incredibly grateful to ASDA and their amazing staff.
Thanks for your comment, glad to hear the dog is working out so well. Does the dog go with your son to school? If so, do you or your husband go along to school to act as Comet’s handler? Curious to know how it all works…
I want comment on your orginal post about the low cost for receiving a guide dog. Not all non profits are fortunate enough to have the donors and supporters that Guide Dogs has. Through my research of ASDA, I’ve learned that rather than investing in the cost of fundraising themselves, they ask the family receiving the dogs to do the fundraising and ASDA helps the families to get their fundraising started. This allows 100% of the funds raised to go to the cost of running their program. I even visited their facility and they operate on a shoestring budget and have many dedicated volunteers to offset the costs.
When you consider the cost of purchasing a pure bred dog, spay/neutering, vaccinations, preventative veterinary care, housing, training, feeding, etc. of raising a dog for 2 years and the cost of training the handler once the dog is placed, you can see that cost of providing a service dog for a family can easily exceed the price they are charging.
Thanks for your comment and interest in this subject — I also moderate a blog about autism for Easter Seals and you might find some of my posts there about autism assistance dogs helpful –my first was called “What do Autism Assistance Dogs Do?” You can link to
it here:
http://autismblog.easterseals.com/what-do-autism-assistance-dogs-do/Emd
Many who commented to that post had ideas of schools you might want to look into. One woman who commented is the Executive Director of North Star Foundation,
an American organization that breeds, trains and places assistance dogs with children who have autism. She’s written a book called “THE GOLDEN BRIDGE:
A Guide to Assistance Dogs for Children Challenged By Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities.” I must admit, I myself have not read this book, but
if you are interested you can order this book directly from Purdue University Press at
http://www.thepress.purdue.edu,
Or for best price from Amazon.com, she says all proceeds from the book go to support their nonprofit work.
She offered to answer any questions anyone might have, here is her contact info:
Patty Dobbs Gross
http://www.NorthStarDogs.com
northstarfoundation@charter.net
Another post I wrote, called “More on Autism Assistance Dogs”
http://autismblog.easterseals.com/more-on-autism-service-dogs/
highlighted some dog training methods.
Hope this helps–
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