Can we talk about the “Amazon vest dogs”?

Can we just talk about all the unauthentic service dogs?

I have an actual service dog from a professional organization that is properly trained (bluepath service dogs). I hate that people carry around unauthentic service dogs, or what I refer to as “Amazon vest dogs” (because owners buy unauthentic service dog vests online). You can often tell if it is not a genuine service dog by its behavior (if the vest doesn’t have a service dog training organization name on it, the dog is barking a lot, and/or is small and being carried, then it might not be a genuine service dog).

Here’s just 1 example of why Amazon vest dogs are an issue:

My Mom and I were talking about it once, and my mom told me a story about someone she knew who was blind and had been waiting for years to get a guide dog, and an untrained dog attacked the person’s actually trained guide dog. It freaked out the guide dog so much that it basically traumatized the dog, undoing the dog‘s training, and they had to send the dog back to the organization and wait to get a new dog.

Remember, this person was blind and that dog was a tool to help them; Meanwhile, this random person slaps a service dog label on a dog who is clearly not well trained enough to be acting as a real service dog and could genuinely cause disruption and possibly even hurt someone, (making establishments question the legitimacy of actual service dogs that real disabled people actually need); and then their dog goes on to attack an actually trained service dog that this blind person genuinely needed. Keep in mind, the owner of the service dog likely had to go through a long and difficult process and had to wait a long time just to get that service dog (aka very expensive specially trained tool for people with disabilities) in the first place. Then because of a person whose dog likely wasn’t even a trained service dog (considering the fact that it attacked another dog for no apparent reason) brings their untrained dog into an establishment, claiming that their dog is a service dog, and undoes an actual service dog’s training when their dog attacks it; making this blind person, who actually needed to bring the service dog places with them, live without a guide dog for months; All because the random person didn’t just leave their untrained dog at home (or at least keep it out of public establishments that don’t allow dogs).

As you can tell from the way I’m getting so worked up over a story that I was never even involved in directly, I feel very strongly about people with Amazon vest ”service dogs”. I just felt like I needed to say this and for everyone to just take a moment to acknowledge how rude and insensitive and disrespectful it is to pretend your dog is a service dog.

The worst part is that most establishments don’t know what the laws are that allow you to legally make someone take out their unauthentic or undertrained service dog. I’m not a lawyer and don’t know the actual legal stuff or if it applies everywhere, but from my knowledge, If a service dog behaves in ways that are not befitting of a trained service dog then the establishment is legally allowed to ask them to leave (I think). (by behaving in ways not befitting of a trained service dog I mean things like a dog being carried by it’s owner or in a bag or on the table, a dog barking at people or other dogs, a dog being aggressive towards people, etc.)

Just to be clear, I’m not trying to blame or accuse anyone, but some dogs with service dog vests that I’ve encountered certainly don’t act like properly trained service dogs would, and there are way too many of them considering how long and difficult a process it is to get a service dog and the fact that people who would need service dogs are a minority. So some of them are bound to be people bringing in untrained dogs because they don’t wanna leave their dog at home (Especially considering how some of the vests seem to be just normal dog vests with an iron-on patch that says “service dog”, and the dogs are barking like crazy and sniffing every other dog they come across)

Please (respectfully) comment your thoughts and opinions on “amazon vest dogs”, and any personal experiences or stories you might have!