I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, but it seems like I cannot escape a trip without encountering a fake service animal, this time a barking dog on a United Airlines redeye flight.
A Barking “Service Dog” On United Airlines Interrupts My Redeye Slumber…
I was flying from Los Angeles to Chicago on a 777-200 redeye, a flight that had lie-flat seating which makes all the difference in the world even for a short four-hour overnight flight. I settled into my seat and noticed a man with a dog boarded. The United “high density” 777 has alternating seating in business class with some rows facing forward and others facing backwards. Thus, I did not ascertain whether he was in business class or perhaps in the first row of economy class.
As we neared Chicago, while everyone was still sleeping, the dog began barking.
Not just a yip but a sustained volley of barks before the owner calmed the hound down.
United does not even allow a pet dog in business class if you pay for it on this plane, since these narrow eight-across seat do not allow for underseat storage, so at least I can understand why this guy faked if it he wanted to fly in business class and bring his dog along.
But no one confronted this guy. Should not a genuine service dog have been trained not to bark? If service dogs bark too (just like they get sick too and have accidents too, according to some folks), then maybe they should not be allowed onboard? Maybe, just maybe, we require more documentation and certified licensees that are harder to fake than a vest purchased on Amazon?
I realize I’m extremely jaded when it comes to service animals and that these animals seem essential to some people, but the pendulum has swung far too far in the direction of leniency.
But here it was not a baby that was crying…it was a dog barking and unlike a helpless baby, dogs do not require care and attention in the same way. And they’re not human!
After we stepped off, the dog and his human stopped in the gate area to eat. It was a beautiful collie, by the way. The dog barked again…
Dear folks, please leave your pets at home. You’re about to ruin it for those who really need service dogs. Service animals do not bark.
Is it time to crackdown on service animals by requiring a lot more certification and paperwork?
Oh no!! A classic-Matt-ism! Dogs on planes ruinin’ things… *smh*
Really? I thought you’d be complaining about how the airline should compensate him, since wanting them to give people free money because of routine inconveniences is your usual schtick.
I’ve had it with these muthaf****in’ dogs on this muthaf****in plane!!
Agreed! If they are too mental to not be able to fly with out their pet, they need to take the bus where they belong! I agree with Matt. (service dogs don’t need a muzzle! This one has one on.)
You are massively upset about this but what the Israelites did in Gaza was not genocide.
That is the critical thinking one develops from basing their life on a fiction booklet.
FFS, you people just don’t let up with your interminably dreary Wokescolding about foreign wars that have no effect on your lives whatsoever. Nobody cares. Sit down, and shut up.
“israelites” – Not a thing for thousands of years.
“gaza” – It’s either “the Gaza strip” or “Gaza City”.
illiteracy kills. save the planet and learn to read and write even if you are an antisemitic bobblehead.
It’s also a vicious and stupid troll.
People are starving in places, so I can’t complain my steak was overcooked? STFU
Matthew in the last photo the dog wears a muzzle basket. Various reasons for doing this, but I would be less trusting of an animal needing this. You already have good reason for concern.
I worked in public transportation for 20 years as a manager. This is a continuous problem that we had. While the duration is not as long as flights the disruptions were real. We had vicious dogs bite people, soil the interiors of buses. All required removing the bus from service and making people that needed to get to work or Dr appointments late or worse. I see no reason why they can’t be certified and vetted. I watched a lady with a “service dog” let it poop in baggage claim at PHX and then just walk away like nothing happened!
As the handler of a 10-year-old, 6-pound medical alert service dog that I’ve had since she was 3, I find this article and these comments incredibly out of touch. Having a fully trained service animal allows me to work a normal job, travel the world, and live an independent life. She has saved my life more than once. I’m not inherently against ensuring service animals are legitimate, but the sheer lack of understanding here about how medical alert dogs actually function—and the financial reality of owning one—is mind-boggling.
First, let’s address the astronomical financial barrier. For my current dog, I have a $23,000 receipt. That alone should serve as all the “certification” anyone needs to see. But before her, I had to train my previous service dog myself with a friend because I couldn’t drop $20,000 on a pre-trained animal, and health insurance doesn’t cover them. Self-training is a financial necessity for survival, not a loophole. When you demand “formal paperwork” or “certified trainers,” you are essentially saying that if a disabled person can’t afford a $20,000 corporate dog, they don’t deserve public access. How do you propose folks who owner-train “certify” their dogs without completely discriminating against the poor?
Furthermore, I am genuinely curious how you expect a medical alert dog to be vetted on command. My dog alerts me by barking incessantly when I am a minute or two away from having a grand mal seizure. How would you like us to prove that to a bureaucratic testing agency? Would you like to lock me in a room until I happen to have a natural seizure, or would you prefer a testing official medically induce a life-threatening seizure on the spot just to verify my dog works? Unless I am actively experiencing a neurological crisis, there is no physical way to “demonstrate” her task.
The author’s definitive claim that “service animals do not bark” is patently, dangerously false. For many medical alert dogs, barking is the task. If my dog senses a seizure is imminent, she will bark incessantly, and she will not stop until I get somewhere safe and lay flat. Once I am down, she is trained to find another human and bark until they follow her to me. She has done this on planes and in airports. It isn’t bad behavior, a lack of socialization, or a nuance to be corrected for a passenger’s comfort—it is a tiny, 6-pound animal acting as a literal siren to keep me alive.
Before jumping on the bandwagon demanding universal testing and airline registries, please answer the hard questions: How do you vet an unpredictable medical emergency without harming the handler, and how do you protect the civil rights of disabled people who can’t afford a $20,000 dog? Barking can be a life-saving medical task, and erasing that reality just because it inconveniences someone’s nap is incredibly short-sighted.
I saw that same thing at the DFW airport. The guy just walked off after the dog pooped going to the gate. It was crowded and people stepped in it!
No excuse. Just ban dogs from planes,
From the cabin, put them in the hold.
Dogs, whether “service” or not, should not be allowed on planes. At least with restaurants I can choose whether I wish to go to a place which allows dogs, but with planes I’m forced to put up with them and their generally over-entitled owners.
This is an LA-specific problem
Liar
The solution is extremely simple: require certification that would include the trainer, training period, and attestation by a licensed veterinarian that animal is a fully trained service animal. This certification must be presented to the airline annually to be included in the person’s file. No reputable vet would risk their license to make a false claim that the dog is a service dog.
Indeed the UK managed to implement a certification process
What about unreputable vets? There r unreputable docs who issue disabled parking placards 2 undeserved.
Valid. From a realistic standpoint I’d say the goal is to minimize this fraud. Stopping it completely is way too big a goal.
What I would suggest to combat fraud by disreputable vets would be for the overseeing agency to conduct tests on the top few percent of vets issuing certifications. Basically a sting operation. After word got out, even more of the fraudulent certifications would stop. If people know they’ll be checked on then they’re a lot more likely to follow the rules.
Service dogs bark. That’s their job. They bark to let their owners know something’s wrong. Low blood sugar, seizure coming on, danger, and many other reasons. To deny people the right to travel because you can’t handle a little barking is a you problem. The world doesn’t revolve around you.
Time to travel by car, Debbie. I’m sure he had a muzzle on because the collie finds it comfortable.
“oh my God someone smoking on a plane!”
“Oh my God someone playing their music at full volume!”
That is how you sound like when someone is violating the rules and you brush it off.
At some point the snuck in pets are going to bite a politician and the ADA is going to be temp repealed to get tightened up like getting handicap plates or placards. And at that point people that need the service animal is going to be S.O.L.
Sorry, Matt. This is quite tone deaf, as is the whole article. I can’t tell you how many parents let their children scream at the top of their lungs while ignoring it. (Parents ignore their kids – it’s a survival tactic). This happens in every lounge and now in every first/business class flight. My last domestic red-eye , screaming child. My last flight, screaming child for at least 3/4ths. I am in a lounge right now, two families with screaming children. What’s worse is the “shhh” coming from one parent as she just doom scrolls… NO ONE is telling them to get in a car. As a parent, do you even notice this, Matt?
No one should bring on an animal that isn’t a real service animal. But the owner is responsible for the actions… not the FAs. FAs never check on screaming children either and they never will.
Children are not dogs, something I truly don’t understand why I have to continue to remind people.
Nor does it revolve around you. If you want to bring an animal onto a plane that you should certify it is trained and that it is what you present it to be for the safety of EVERYONE. It’s not that complicated nor is it asking too much.
I have to let the airline and the US government know that I am flying, and that I am allowed to fly why shouldn’t it be required of the owner of a animal? Why do you feel so entitled?
This article seems to have struck a raw nerve with Debbie, possibly because her darling Fluffy travels in the cabin all the time, and he’s only being friendly when he barks at strangers, shits on the carpet, and makes a menace of himself. He’s such a darling boy, he doesn’t mean any harm, the rest of you are just being selfish and mean. ಠ︵ಠ
This whole “service” animal is abused every day. Leave your animals at home or stay home with them.
Petulant and entitled whining.
I cannot agree with you more about the fake service dogs. I cannot have peanuts on a plane but I can have dogs on a plane to which I am deathly allergic.
How about assiging blame where it lies – with the airline personnel that apparently didn’t confront the customer. Whether it’s a barking dog, a screaming child, or a drunk projectile puking or yelling obscentities (I’ve seen both), the staff have a duty to intercede when customers are bothering others.
Sure, I’ll grant you that FAs should have notated the incident and at least checked in to see what was going on.
it should have the same type of process and proof as what you need to park in an accessible parking space and carry the same penalties for faking it
That was no ‘service’ dog–that was privilege & arrogance combined with organizational ineptitude. What will airlines do when future passengers demand that “Fifi’s” owner stdu?
This. And stop the wheelchair use abuse.
Some people have legitimate needs. They must be protected.
Fakers should be ashamed.
Christian definitely has the right idea. Let a vet have to sign off or risk his license.
I agree too!
So many snarky asshats in your comments section lol. But I agree with the ones that say we should most definitely have a certification program. If you go and read stories written by people with actual disabilities and actual service dogs that help them live their lives, they are the ones hurt most by the wanton abuse by criminally entitled people in this country. Because people will always take too much advantage, especially in our culture, until there is actual policy and laws to help the ones affected most.
It’s like this if you are a disabled person with a service pet, you are constantly telling people, not to pet your dog, they are working when you see them in public, and yes they don’t bark unless it’s to alert their person to something medical that they are trained for, and they don’t continue barking like an untrained dog that’s a pet will do.
I worked in hotels for years, and 95% of the people bringing in “service dogs” were people with no disabilities who had simply learned it was an easy way to avoid the hotels pet fee. These dogs might bark all night in a room, pee and poop anywhere they felt like, we even had times where they bit other guests.
All to the detriment of people with actual disabilities who are trapped in a sea of fake entitled people taking advantage and making everyone suspect their actual service dog of being fake as well. The ones who want and need the regulations the most are the ones who are just trying to live with their disabilities.
Ohhhh no…the horror! Did you complain when your kids screaming ơn the plane? There is a thing called noise canceling headphone.
Another thought-provoking topic regarding contemporary air travel!
Se4vice d9gs do not bark. They alert patients by touch. Barking d9gs give trained service dogs a bad name.
Sorry, but this is patently false. I have known several people (at least three service disabled veterans) with service dogs trained to bark. One specifically was trained to bark when seizures were coming on. It alerted its owner and rose around, and allowed them to enter a safe area prior to onset. As others have stated they also sense low blood sugar. I think almost all the folks I’ve know have expressed concern about the fakes, and most support a certification process.
Not always. A few I knew were legit touched and let out a short soft chirp of a bark. But they were taught only to bark in emergency to attract attention if the person fell.
I’d still rather sit next to a well behaved dog than a human.Recent experience at Corfu airport with lots of Eurotrash kids running around,playing soccer in the gate area and corridor to the bathrooms,noise level torturous.Annoying American family with loud mouth kids,dad sat behind me constantly pulling on my seat for added attention seeking Thats all part of travel,”Pays your money and takes your chances”.
1. Why didn’t you confront the owner? Why whine about it here? A legally trained person should have no issues here.
2. Wrong sentence structure – double negative.
“ Should a genuine service dog have been trained not to bark?”
3. Old timer lawyers are the reason why law students like us now have to go thru’ so much more “legal clerkship” training.
I think this article blends together several different issues and then treats them as though they’re all evidence for the same conclusion: A barking dog, whether that dog was actually a legit service animal, and whether pets should be allowed in airline cabins at all are three separate issues.
A disruptive animal can certainly be annoying, just as a disruptive passenger (adult or child) can be annoying. But this specific barking incident doesn’t automatically tell us anything about the dog’s service or therapy animal status, nor does it justify a blanket argument against pets traveling in cabins.
As a frequent traveler, I’ve encountered far more disruptions from people than from animals: intoxicated passengers, a baby crying all night on a red eye, loud conversations, seat-kicking, videos played without headphones, and even people putting their gross bare foot on my window seat armrest…and during a meal no less!
People relocate for work, move for school, move internationally, or face situations where cargo transport is not a safe or practical option for their pet. Airlines already have rules governing cabin pets, and animals that are truly out of control can and should be addressed.
I understand that you’re viewing this as part of a broader pattern, not just a single flight. I’m just not convinced that the conclusion that pets should be banned from cabin travel necessarily follows from the examples you’ve described.
Disabled people need their dogs, some of which bark to warn its handler of problems. Forget certifying the dogs. Disabled people, like me, can present a State issued I.D. that states I am a disabled person. Require passengers who claim a Service dog to show such an I.D.
Service dogs should have certification. When you see a nurse or vet, they have some sort of certification or licensure.
Would much rather have a barking dog than a screaming child on a plane. Every. Single. Time.
I am currently raising a puppy for Guide Dogs for the Blind. I took him with me on a short trip from Sacramento to San Diego recently when he was about 6 months old. Alaska Airlines is one of the few airlines that allow service dogs in training inside the cabin and I appreciate their policy. One of the primary goals for these pups is to get them in as many real-life scenarios as possible so they can get accustomed to different environments and show they can adapt. Often, their first day after graduating training is a plane ride with their new handler.
I can’t speak to other service animal organizations or airlines, but we had to provide a letter authorizing the trip with us as trainers and confirming the dog belongs to GDB. GDB carries insurance for any liabilities caused by their pups in training and is pretty demanding in their training programs and evaluation of whether the pup can handle the flight. We also had to provide a health/vaccination report from our vet. I think this level of verification is reasonable and allows these pups to get valuable experience and helps them to be adaptable to chaotic situations like air travel.
BTW, the pup handled the trip perfectly. No barking, no whining, no accidents. Just curled up at our feet (bulkhead row) and slept. The people around us didn’t even know he was there until we deplaned.
Some service dogs are trained to bark to alert.
Some service dogs jump up to alert.
Some service dogs touch with their noses.
Some service dogs gently touch with their paw.
There is not one standard to how a service dog alerts. However…
A service dog can be told to stop and the handler should be able to correct their dogs behavior without continuous incident. A service dog HANDLER should know the expectations the airline has for service dogs before flying. Most service dogs are trained for flying and having good manners while traveling.
I have a service dog. He is expected to sit at my feet, not interact with anyone. Be quiet. We go through so much training and work up to things like airplanes and travel. The issue is people passing off their pets as service dogs. It really gives a bad rep for service dog teams (handler and animal).
I feel like as a handler we get harassed a lot. People want to pet him. People think they know whats best for my dog. At the end of the day, he is my medical equipment and the issue is people are making it more unsafe for real disabled people with very heavily trained working dogs. Most dogs are not equipped for the work service dogs provide.
This could of been a diabetic alert dog. Some dogs wear muzzles so they are less tempted to eat things or pick up things. It’s hard to say… each situation is nuanced. However if the dog was persistently barking and being a public disturbance that is 100% on the handler.