I'm pretty sure we make fun of you in every thread LoL.

I asked gobbo if his dog was a service dog or an esa, and he said his psychiatrist wrote him a script to have his dog trained specifically, so everything I wrote about was in reference to actual service dogs, not randoms bringing esa's on a flight who were not trained nor recommended by a qualified mental health professional.

As for people scamming the system, that really has nothing to do with what I was talking about (medical professionals recommending an animal), and if someone has a vested animal with them, I'm not going to be looking for someone's disability and if that disability isn't blatantly apparent, I'm not going to assume they're full of ****.

lol I am not in denial of depression/mental illness. I just think that prescribing someone a furry little friend that they become dependant on and think its their divine right to take everywhere is a ridiculous cop out on the behalf of doctors.

how does the rest of the planet somehow manage to function without having to take a pet everywhere? its ridiculous

Lol, so a shrink recommending an animal as part of treatment means the doc is incompetent or lazy? Nah, you don't sound in denial at all, lol.

But many of them are. Just so you know. And those are the ones I take issue with.

A note from your shrink does not make your dog a service animal.

if its only part of the treatment then yeh its ok. I have a sneaky suspicion they write these notes and do very little else though. maybe gobbo can chime in

How did you infer I said this? I said he got a note to have his dog trained in service. The whole reason why I asked if his dog was a trained service animal in the first place was because esa's are not service dogs.

Psychology brother. This is how it works:

Chronic life-interfering problem in specific situations
Drug or animal helps patient face problem in these situations
Patient has success with drug or animal
Shrink then lowers dosage of drug or usage of animal
Gradually no drug or animal is used
Therapy complete

If this doesn't work, another method is tried until the above steps are met.

I know they are, and we all take issue with it. I'm just not going to try to figure out who's who.

lol an animal doesn't do anything to eradicate the cause of the depression/mental illness brother. its apparent purpose is to help them get through their day to day life. are the only 2 options for mental health treatment drugs and animals? what about revolutionary ideas such as exercise and counselling? what happens if this magical animal dies?

Like, I really can't tell if you're serious or not since I already explained the apparent purpose, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It's not meant to eradicate the cause of anything; it's meant to give someone the means to overcome debilitating situations.

As situations, say panic attacks in public, are no longer occurring due to the presence of an animal or meds, the usage is reduced because the patient has learned through many successes that they have the ability to get through these situations and to try it on their own for 5 minutes, then 10 etc. until they are functioning normally without the use of an animal.

It's not, "Oh, you didn't have a panic attack when a soccer team showed up at the park when you were walking your dog? Cool. Yeah, just bring your dog everywhere you go and keep coming in and paying me my $250 an hour."

Well since gobbo's dog is not a trained service animal, it's hard to know what your point is.

Dunno, he said he had his dog trained in a service course and I was going by that.

The problem is not the existence or use of ESAs. The problem is the abuse of the concept by fakers who fraudulently represent their pets as ESAs to bypass the normal restrictions.

Absolutely. The problem itt, and maybe at an airport near you, is most people assume anyone with a dog is a faker (unless he or she has a severe obvious disability and then they feel more sorry for dog).

The best part is the guys in the booth listening to Les's radio coverage of the event.

I don't care what condition they might have, I'm not letting these *******s in my establishment with a freaking turkey. They can sue me.

The laws changed 3 years ago.

But psychiatric service dogs were fully protected when I had Oscar trained in 2012. psychdogs.com was a thing and it completely disappeared when the laws changed.

Yeah, funny how the scam website disappeared when the laws changed making it unprofitable.

It was a nonprofit site providing information for people who had legitimate psychiatric service dogs. They changed the law taking away psychiatric service dog protection. The people selling useless vests are still crushing it I'm sure.

gobbo, what specific task(s) was your dog trained to perform for you?

gregorio,

That is one deceptive headline, the article states:

My question remains.

This and the scroosko posts have been equally hilarious (Im assuming that jokester is joking around).