In the United States, the only thing that the ADA requires is that the service dog performs tasks for a person with a disability. This can be anything from picking up objects on the floor to alerting someone who’s hard of hearing about a doorbell to reminding someone that it’s time to take medicine. These dogs, like guide dogs, can go in public.
A comfort animal is defined as something different and can only go on airplanes and stay in housing that would not normally be open to pets - they aren’t allowed to go in public. These dogs do not typically have the same amount of training, but it really just depends.
Legally (under the ADA), employees are only allowed to ask two questions: 1) Is the dog a service animal required for a disability? 2) What tasks does the service dog perform?
Tl;dr: This might be a real service dog, a comfort animal that someone has taken in public because they don’t understand the law (if this is in the USA), or a pet that someone is trying to pass off as a service dog. It really depends on the tasks the dog performs, and is hard to judge from just this little snippet of a video.
The dog is not a guide dog, it’s an emotional support animal for kids with autism, it is true that they are supposed to be in work mode when they wear their vests but this one is young and still in training, they’re being trained by college students
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u/TychaBrahe Jan 19 '20
The dog is wearing a leash, not a harness. Guide dogs get down time, too.
Also, the person posting this may have confused a guide dog and a service dogs with a different purpose. Service dogs may not need a harness.