Canine Companions' White Paper: Poorly Trained Service Dogs – The Impact on Trained Service Dog Teams

The immense benefits of task-trained  assistance dogs for people with disabilities are physical, emotional and psychosocial. However, in the past decade, the negative impact of poorly trained assistance dogs and pet dogs in public places has been rising, limiting  assistance dog users’ ability to fully access those benefits.

Canine Companions, an Assistance Dogs International (ADI) accredited program is the largest provider of assistance dogs in the US. Canine Companions supports public access for service dog users, as one of the organization’s strategic priorities. For years, clients have shared stories and experiences encountering untrained dogs in places where pets aren’t allowed, including altercations that have led to the early retirement of their assistance dog.

In 2018, Canine Companions completed their first client survey on the topic of assistance dog fraud to get a holistic view of the impact of this important–-and ever increasing—problem. The data collected was clear: poorly trained assistance dogs and pets in public places have a significant impact on Canine Companions’ clients. In fact, 87% of clients who took the survey encountered these out-of-control dogs in public places. Two-thirds of Canine Companions clients had a poorly trained dog snap at, bite, vocalize at or interfere with their working assistance dog.

With such a clear impact on Canine Companions clients, the organization expanded its 2019 survey to include assistance dog users in other ADI accredited training programs in North America. As the assistance dog industry’s leading governance and program accreditation body,  Assistance Dogs International distributed surveys to over 1,395 assistance dog users from 41 ADI-accredited programs, and these results indicated that the number of negative impacts was increasing. .

This year, Canine Companions’ survey went global to investigate the impact of poorly trained assistance dogs. The 2022 survey was distributed to 60 ADI-accredited organizations across three regions: North America, Europe and Oceania. The 1,503 responses from Assistance Dog users made this the biggest study of the impact of assistance dog fraud to date. .

“We are proud to share the findings of our study in a comprehensive white paper,” says Jeanine Konopelski, vice president marketing and advocacy for Canine Companions. “With growing evidence that poorly trained service dogs and pets are causing serious issues to service dog users across the world, now is the time to take advantage of this new data to make a difference through education of business owners, legislators and the general public.”

Key findings show that:

• 93% of respondents encountered poorly trained or uncontrolled dogs in public during their time as a service dog user.
• 79% of respondents had experienced an uncontrolled or poorly trained dog snapping at, biting, vocalizing, or interfering with their service dog.
• 80% reported feeling that poorly trained dogs had negatively impacted their independence and quality of life.

To Canine Companions and other ADI programs, an  assistance dog has always been more than just a vest – bringing expert training, crucial socialization and years of task-based independence to people with disabilities. Now, the results are clear: poorly trained dogs in public being portrayed as trained  assistance dogs are harming those who need help from  assistance dogs the most.

Read the latest findings in Canine Companions’ white paper by clicking here.

Important Note: This article is adapted with permission from a post by Canine Companions.

###

Tara has been crafting communications for Pacific Assistance Dogs since 2009 and sits on both the ADI Marketing Committee and the Blog subcommittee.

Interested in writing a blog post for ADI? Please see our submission form.