So far in my series about Cesar Millan’s recent “Junior gets his Service Dog certification!” post, I’ve talked about how it was so wrong and how it’s a classic example of misplaced priorities.  Please review those if you haven’t read them already.  And, again, the page that started this controversy has been taken down, but you can read a cached version here, and you can click on the photo for a larger screen capture image of the article as well.

Next let’s talk about the law, or, more appropriately, Cesar’s apparent ignorance of it.

Now, if you’ve been here more than once, you know it’s no secret I’m not a big fan of the law or looking for legislative solutions to problems in general, and more specifically where service dogs are concerned.  It’s also way too easy to get into a complex and arcane legal discussion, courts have gone both ways in their rulings, I’m not an attorney, and chances are neither are you. So I like to keep things as simple as possible in this area, and that’s easy to do in this case.

For all the legal complexities, there are only a couple things you need to know here.  First, as I said in “When You Hear ‘Service Dog’, Think “Public Access’“:

When somebody says their dog is a service dog, public access is really what we’re talking about. If I describe my dog that way, the clear implication is that the dog does stuff for me and I can take it with me wherever I want. And, when it comes down to it, that’s the primary, if not only, reason to differentiate your dog in that way. (Note I didn’t say that that’s what defines a service dog – that’s another post.)

Keep in mind that, unless I state otherwise, my goal here is to give you brief, real world, practical, useful definitions and explanations that you can operate from daily, and not textbook, dictionary, or legal ones – you can go look those up for yourself, anyway.  In that vein, think of public access as “having your dog somewhere dogs normally aren’t allowed.”

So, if Cesar says Junior is a service dog, the clear implication is that he intends to take Junior into public access areas. Because otherwise there’s no need to say that.

It follows then that, second, Cesar and Junior need to meet the public access requirements, and, in that regard, what I said in “Bet You Have No Idea Just How Low The Bar Is To Say Your Dog Is A Service Dog” applies.  You can read that post for more details, including the pertinent section of the newly revised ADA, but here’s the key point:

All you have to do is be able to answer these two questions the right way:

* Is your dog required because of a disability?
* What does your dog do for you?

Did you see that addressed anywhere in Cesar’s post? In fact, I’ll even give him the benefit of the doubt since that post has been pulled, apparently because of the way it was written – have you EVER seen any indication ANYWHERE that he understands this concept? I didn’t, and I never have.

Nothing there about what Junior does for him, or even for other people with disabilities, either. For example, medical professionals with service dogs that were not trained for them, but for use with their patients with disabilities (e.g., Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dogs), have public access when they take the dog and those patients out into public access areas, the concept being the dog is required because of the patients’ disabilities and performs functions for them.

Nope, none of that.  Just a “hey, look at me and my great service dog Junior and how cool is that” picture with a really flaky explanation lacking any real substance.

On top of that, the real proof for me that Cesar doesn’t get it here is what got this controversy started in the first place – his use of a service dog registry.  Remember, as I said at the outset, this is not about Cesar, the issues go way beyond him, and service dog registries are a prime example.  And let’s be very clear here – even if  someone has a disability and a legitimate service dog, service dog registries and their meaningless documentation, patches, tags,  ID cards, and so on are still a bad thing.

More on that subject in my next post – it’s one I’ve let go for far too long.  We’re long past the point where the lid needs to be blown off those places, and this may be the incident that finally does that.

Next: Part 4 – Registries