Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

anne_hollydaye t1_ix9ows5 wrote

Reply to comment by Animanialmanac in Service dog training by Papirazo

Most certainly not talking about ESAs. I know several individuals who had to go the self train route because they were not approved based on income. All of them need medical alert dogs for fainting disorders.

1

Animanialmanac t1_ixa0e7b wrote

I don’t know those individuals, but the details don’t track with what I’ve experienced professionally as a physical therapist. Patient advocacy groups and charities are private organizations that don’t generally have income requirements or limits. Personally I’ve attended many fundraiser bull roasts, bingo nights, quarter auctions held by patient advocacy groups to raise funds for service animals, my own church donated funds for several parishioners who needed service animals. I’ve never heard of an income requirement or an income limit to owning a service dog for any diagnosis, I can’t see why a syncope diagnosis would come with an income requirement. I still suggest the op check with their provider before attempting to self-train a service dog.

Can you imagine a person with low vision being told they must train their own guide dog, or a person who experiences seizures being told to teach a dog to alert to seizures? The scenario you’re describing is implausible and discredits the hard work service animal trainers and patient advocacy groups do. That seems more a vanity project than reality.

I strongly encourage the OP to discuss the support of a service dog with their medical provider before giving money to any organization that claims to show them how to train their own dog to be a service animal for a fee. There is no cost to that conversation and it can’t hurt.

1