"RV Parks and Pets???"

I'm not staying at any RV park that doesn't allow pets, even if I don't have my dog with me.

 

My takeaways from this discussion:

• A few dog owners are giving all dog owners a bad name
• Clean up after your pet (and maybe clean up another pet's mess too)
  
• Don't leave your dog unattended. (RickB addition, this includes, park hosts & workampers. I've found that often the worst campsite in a campground is next to a park host)
• Don't assume that leaving the TV or AC running keeps your dog quiet
• Not everyone loves dogs (or kids, drunken partiers, generators, etc)
• If you are a park owner, have rules and enforce them

Let's all please be considerate of our neighbors and treat them as we'd like to be treated.
Rick

 

Very interesting discussion here. We have a small dog of a breed that tend to be very clingy and can't be left alone for long. Knowing this, when we go camping, we make sure that he accompanies us in the truck when we are away from the fifth wheel.
Like many dogs, when he is outside the rv and sees another dog, he wants to bark. One of us goes outside immediately to control him and stop the barking. In our membership park, pet owners are very responsible and we hear almost no dog barking, nor do we find messes on our walks.The example shown by others helps us as pet owners to always try to do the right thing.
It is amazing how careless some people can be with the feelings and rights of their neighbours. I'm sorry so many of you have had negative dog experiences. It has been our goal to never contribute to one of these.

 

IMO, this is not about service dogs.

 

My response was to a question asked specifically about service dogs.

 

But wouldn't it be better if you didn't leave your dog outside alone in the first place? He might not bark if you're out there with him, and if he does bark, you'll be able to stop it faster if you don't have to relocate from inside to outside.

A business may not ask for documentation, but may ask (1) if the animal is required because of a disability and (2) what work or task the dog has been trained to perform.

And for the record, service dogs and emotional support dogs are not the same thing, and I wish more people knew that so there wouldn't be so much abuse of the system.

Service dogs are the ones that guide blind people or alert epileptics to the onset of a seizure, and these dogs are allowed to go anywhere a person goes.

Emotional support animals provide comfort to a person just by being there (e.g. depression, anxiety). They can't go anywhere a regular old animal can't go except (1) housing where pets are prohibited and (2) airplanes. They CANNOT go into restaurants.

And for more on the scam that is emotional support animals, check out this article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/pets-allowed

The writer went all over the place with a series of emotional support animals, including a snake, a turkey, and an alpaca. She had "registered" these "emotional support animals" via the internet, and if questioned she would show the letter, and people let those animals go anywhere she wanted to take them.

This whole thing has mushroomed because people want to take their dogs with them everywhere they go, companies have sprung up to sell vests and certification and other things that don't mean anything, and the whole industry trades on other people's ignorance or fear of being sued.

 

I did read the article. It was both interesting and entertaining. As more and more parks refuse certain dogs, or dogs altogether, I could see this being a problem.
But what of the person who is not running a ruse, who truly, in their heart, believes that their dog eases them through and helps them recover from panic attacks. They can be persuasive.
Would an RV Park be "housing" ?

 

Who says there is "so much abuse of the system," or that emotional support animals are a "scam" and a "thing?" You want us to take to heart the extreme antics of one disgruntled, entitled millennial who thinks it is appropriate to make over-the-top fun of mental health issues? And, technically, a person can take an emotional support animal into a restaurant, because the restaurant isn't going to ask for any documentation.

Also, why does a dog in a restaurant bother some people so much? Dogs in public places are commonplace in Europe, and are becoming more and more prevalent in restaurants in larger US cities, as well.

The incivility and entitlement about things that shouldn't even concern another in the first place is what is mushrooming.

 

Well, the author's friends, for example. One of them asked, "Are you going to ruin it for all of us?"

And Darlene Sullivan, Executive Director and Founder of Canine Partners for Life, who said, "I’m horrified by the number of people abusing the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) and putting the legal rights of those with legitimate disabilities and partnerships at risk."

And Canine Companions for Independence:
http://www.cci.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=cdKGIRNqEmG&b=4127877&ct=13232695

And last but not least, the state of New Mexico, which has a law that criminalizes the false presentation of an animal as a qualified service animal (and states that an emotional support animal is not a qualified service animal).

Entitled millennial? I guess you didn't read to the end of the article, where it said the author has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1989, and I doubt she was doing it while she was a fetus.

No, technically a person can't take an emotional support animal into a restaurant because it's against the law. But as a practical matter, a person can because the people at the restaurant don't know the law.

For starters, maybe because it's against the law?

 

It's all anecdotal because as the article mentions, no one keeps track. But apparently there are a few individuals attempting to say a form of therapy is invalid because they are self-righteous enough to have exposed a few exploitative individuals, and don't like dogs in restaurants. And your response about the law is as irrational as the article you posted as proof of a "scam." This country has known all sorts of biased laws restricting the rights of individuals. That apparently gives some posters what they consider a right to mock another citizen's mental illness. If you are that phobic about a dog in a restaurant, then just don't eat there.

 

I wonder how many of the hundreds of "Service Dog" vests sold on eBay actually end up on legiimate trained service dogs...

Service dog vest

 

I hope I'm not off base here but with regards to "Service Dogs" we've certainly seen a few in our travels and I can't remember one case where the dog wasn't completely obedient and under control of the owner. Most seem to be extremely well behaved as are the owner's by the way. I want to make one small point about the discussion being carried on regarding dogs in restaurants. We all know that a service dog is allowed and is usually accepted by other patrons. However for folks to just start bringing their dogs and other pets into restaurants and cafes, etc. is not something I care to have happen "en masse". We were at a very nice indoor/outdoor boutique cafe in Santa Barbara one time and were inside as the patio area was full. We had just ordered our dinner and were sitting sipping a glass of wine and enjoying the overall ambiance of the place when an elderly man and a younger woman were seated right next to us. He was partially blind and somewhat disabled and she was evidently his aide. Long story short, they had a rather large German Shepard, his guide dog, with them and they promptly had it lay down on the floor right next to our table. It stunk like a old pair of well worn gym socks and looked unkept and rather rough around the edges. We asked the gal if she could please move the dog to the other side of the table to which she ,in a very abrupt and disrespectful way, told us the dog had to be on the man's right side at all times while he was seated. Okay, so I made sense of that and in turn asked her if she and he could switch seats so the dog would still be on his right. No, was the resounding answer. So I called the server over to our table and told him that we would be leaving and to cancel our order and that I was not paying for the wine due to them allowing a smelly, stinky dog to sit right next to us during dinner. I realize that all dogs don't stink like that but still, they carry fleas, ticks and various other little creepy crawlers on them and I personally don't feel is very sanitary to have where food is being served and eaten, etc. Now with that said can we maybe get back on the original topic of what this thread is about in the first place, that being pets in RV Parks, not in other public places and restaurants. Speaking of which it seems I really opened a can of "smelly worms" with this thread. I certainly didn't mean for it to escalate into what it's become but at least there has been some good points brought up on the subject and it did bring a few folks into the fray that rarely get involved, which to me is a good to see happen.

It's summertime. let the good RV times roll...........BankShot (aka Terry)

 

You're pretty far off base. I cannot believe you actually asked a blind person to move their service dog rather than ask to be moved to another table!

Wonder why Europeans haven't had any health crises with fleas, ticks, and creepy crawlers from dogs in restaurants? Or almost every restaurant we visit in every major city, for that matter? It's just old, unfounded supposition, and it seems to be primarily regional. In most of California, they'll tell a complainer to leave before they do the dog.

 

Sorry Mr. Wolf, in trying to keep my post a short as possible I missed mentioning the fact that the place was full to capacity that evening and we had made advance reservations to get in due to how popular it was. We would have certainly asked to be moved to another table had there been one available but we felt we did the next best thing by politely asking if the man and woman would kindly switch places so as to keep the dog at his right and yet be on the other side of the table where there were just a couple of planter boxes. That way at least the smell wouldn't have been right there beside us. I didn't feel that was out of line. In your opinion I'd like to know what is so wrong in that? Even the server asked them if they could switch chairs and the woman gave him the same "attitude". He apologized to us several times and told us that of course he was not going to charge us for the wine, which by the way I did end up paying for because I felt we did enjoy it before they arrived and the server did try in a very polite way to make things work for both parties. Hope this further explanation puts your mind at ease a tad as I'd hate to become known on this forum as the guy who asked a blind man to move his dog so I could enjoy my dinner. Shame on me.............

Oh, and as for those European restaurants that allow dogs and various other pets to dine in, we are way behind them by a thousand and more years so perhaps someday we'll catch up and be dining like them in the upcoming millennium................

Enjoy your summer ahead...............BankShot (aka Terry)

 

That's the thing about trained service dogs--they're trained.

I first got interested in this about five years ago, when I was at an event where a person had a relatively small dog with a service vest on, but the dog was lunging at people and barking and generally being a nuisance. That certainly wasn't like any service dog I'd ever seen before and maybe it's just my dark heart, but I immediately assumed there was something fishy going on. And sure enough, I was right.

 

I guess the two service dogs that are near me at our winter park aren't trained. The owners who are friends with each other, leave their service dogs in one RV and leave for the day and the dogs bark at everyone who walks by. Talking to the owners with worthless and the manager can only do so much.

 

I love this, thank you for your humor and wisdom, we all complain way too much!

 

I submit that it is not the pets, but rather the irresponsible pet owners that are the problem. It seems as though the smaller the pet, the bigger the problem. We refer to them as "Rat Dogs" and are of the small Chihuahua variety. These dogs are only good for one thing and that is constantly barking--at their shadow even. Owners usually have at least two of these little critters and do nothing to correct their pets from irritating other campers.

 

Well Mike, for those of us who are only working with maybe a 1/2 mb of RAM, perhaps you should tell us what that might be??? Inquiring old minds like ours need to know in order to stay on top of things.............

Hope your summer has started off great, we are anxious to get back on the road, only a few more weeks of recoup time for the signifant other's knee surgery and we'll pulling in the old anchor and heading out again...............

All the best..................BankShot (aka Terry)