In today’s episode, Drs. Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines talk with Service and Therapy Dog Training, Melissa Vasquez. Tune in as she shares provides practical tips and explains the difference between an emotional support animal, therapy dog, and a service animal.
In today’s episode, Drs. Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines talk with Service and Therapy Dog Training, Melissa Vasquez. Tune in as she shares provides practical tips and explains the difference between an emotional support animal, therapy dog, and a service animal.
Welcome to practical access. I'm Lisa Dieker.
Rebecca Hines:And I'm Rebecca Hines. And I'm so excited today Lisa about our guest, because it's a fun topic that I think probably everybody universally would like to know more about our guest today
Lisa Dieker:I do I want to learn from her to go, just telling you, of
Rebecca Hines:our guests is Melissa Vasquez, and she is with Central Florida canine she has years of experience in this field with service therapy, emotional support animals, she was previously with Canine Companions for Independence for 13 years. And I'm hopeful that we can just get some insight into, you know, what, what is? What is this field, you know, entail? And and who can benefit from the
Melissa Vasquez:Yes, of course. And thanks for having me, it's a pleasure to be on, I really enjoy educating folks, I think that helps everybody in general and kind of knowing what's out there, and what they have access to. So service dogs, there's a very wide range of ways that dogs can help people. And the ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act is basically the governing body that governs what and what they might, you know, see is something that makes them fearful. So there's a lot of things out there. And as long as it's, you know, the dogs tasks that the dogs perform is directly related to the person's disability. And it's not just purely for emotional support, then that dog is legal by law to be there helping that person.
Rebecca Hines:Wow. So So who? So So it sounds like these are these dogs are trained you guys train a wide range, you know of support, who determines who determines the supports that are needed? Is that does somebody come to you and say, Oh, I need a dog who can do X, Y or Z? Do you guys, you know, have some kind of an intake procedure. I'm just curious how this even happens?
Melissa Vasquez:Yes, that's a great, great, great question. So the first thing we want to do is make sure that it's a legitimate request. Because unfortunately, you know, we'd like to think everybody's honest, but not everybody is honest. So we'll have folks that you know, they just want the dog to go with them everywhere. Well, that's not what we're about here essential to canine so we
Lisa Dieker:So, do you have to I have to bring the dog? Or can you help find a dog? That's my first question. And then what type of dog and disability do you most commonly see?
Melissa Vasquez:Yes, so here's something for the canine, they have to have either bring their own dog. And if the dog is deemed inappropriate, based on my temperamental evaluations of the dog, then we can help them find a dog that would be appropriate. So we do both, we try to a lot of folks that don't go to organizations like Canine Companions for Independence, they don't do so because they
Lisa Dieker:And so what are the most common dog types of dogs that you see is there a certain breed that does better, and then what are the most common disabilities you support?
Melissa Vasquez:For me, I like to focus on mobility. And there's a wide range. So it's anywhere from, you know, somebody that has had an accident, a car accident, and they've got a spinal cord injury, and that causes them to need the assistance of a dog to help pick up items and things like that. That's very common. That was what I did, mostly when I was at CCI was mostly more of those
Rebecca Hines:So, Melissa, you know, we have, we have some listeners from from all over. And so to kind of reach out and expand this just a little bit. So let's say I'm living you know, and I don't live in Florida, I don't live in Central Florida, I live, you know, anywhere in our service region. how widespread is this field.
Melissa Vasquez:It's International. So there's different rules in different countries. But this field is anybody can have a service dog, especially here in the United States. Of course, there's different ways that people can have access to that, whether they want to train their own dog, or whether they want to go to organization where the dogs already been trained for them, and they just get
Rebecca Hines:Yeah, that's awesome. So So let's say if I'm, if I'm somebody who maybe lives in a more rural area, and you know, I'm in another state, and maybe maybe don't have a big city, and I don't have an organization really close to me, what would be my first step, if I felt like I had a child, you know, who might benefit from from some support?
Melissa Vasquez:So the first thing I would do is first find out what is the dog going to do for my child? so does my dog need to be a good size? Does my child have mobility issues where I'm not going to get a miniature pinscher? If I have a child that has mobility issues, I want to get a bigger dog. So the first thing you kind of want to research is, what ways can my dog help my child and then at
Lisa Dieker:Well, I knew having been in the airport recently, when you could still be in the airport with a colleague who was blind. He and I were walking in, he had me be an arm support gives dog a little bit of break. And we had two dogs come at us. And he said, Well, welcome to my world. He said, that's the world of service dogs airports today. Yeah. So can you talk to us a little bit about this controversy? And maybe this what is an emotional support versus a service versus a therapy dog and maybe things that that we should be thinking about, in general, about the practical use of dogs to make the world a better place for everybody?
Melissa Vasquez:Absolutely, I'm glad you asked me that question, actually. So first, we're going to start off with service dogs. So service dog is a dog that's been trained to help a person with a disability. So specifically trained to help that person be able to rejoin society in a way that everybody else can. So that that would be a service dog, a service dog helps one person. And that person lot of problems. For a lot of people. emotional support, dogs don't have to be had any specific training, they don't have to have tasks, they literally are like a comfort blanket, except in the form of an animal. So they do have, they are allowed to fly on an airplane, or to use transportation with a person to help that person get through that experience. They do require a doctor's note. So you are just confused about that part. And so a lot of people don't understand the the two questions that can be asked so if you were to go to Publix and somebody was suspicious, they could ask you two questions by law to find out if it is a service dog. One is, is that a service dog? If they say yes, then the only other question they can ask you is, what does the dog do for you? So those are the
Lisa Dieker:So I do have a quick follow up question. I think one of the things that was funny, as my friend said, as we were walking through the airport, he said, My dog has now learned to grow. And he said, that's how I knew there was a dog come at me. And again, because he was blind, he said, You know, my dog's job is to protect me. So is there anything new, you're having to do any training to
Melissa Vasquez:Well, what I basically do is I just make sure that the dogs themselves are very well socialized. So any dogs that I put out there any dog that I sign off, I'm gonna say, yes, you inappropriate service team, I've seen the dog in public, I've seen you handle the dog in public, I've seen the dog around different environments with different dogs. That really, I'm just make sure
Rebecca Hines:teachers is this something that I could utilize, if I felt like it would benefit my classroom,
Melissa Vasquez:you know, contact those folks who are going to have the say so. So if it's your administrator, if you're in school, you definitely want to speak with them. If it's, you know, an area maybe if you're working at a, like geriatric community would want to ask them, a lot of places have their own therapy program already. And so what you would first do is figure out who you need to
Lisa Dieker:my last question for you is, imagine I make the garden first grade teacher, you've got two young boys, and I'm all of a sudden assigned a student and I read the first week of school, that the kid is coming in with a service dog. Maybe I'm not comfortable with dogs, or I don't understand what a service dog is, what what's sort of your advice, to keep the kids from all wanting to touch
Melissa Vasquez:That's a good question. So you would probably want to start start by just educating the class as to what a service dog is, you know that your classmate is just like you are but your classmate needs help, is getting help from his dog, his or her dog. And that just like any, any, any child in school, you know, they might get distracted. And when kids get distracted, then you have the same time, you're not going to be sacrificing the child, you know, the job the dog will be doing for the child in the classroom.
Lisa Dieker:Thanks some great advice. Yeah.
Rebecca Hines:And I was wondering kind of Finally, maybe I'm that maybe I'm a teacher, and I don't want a dog in my classroom. And a student has a service dog and maybe a student with visual impairment, let's say, and I don't want a dog in my classroom. Is that something that a parent would have to have an IEP for the student be able to use that support in my classroom? Or is that
Melissa Vasquez:in my experience, it would be that that dog is allowed with or without an IEP, because the school is a public place, and that dog will be assisting the child into his day there. So unfortunately, that teacher, you know, might just have to maybe learn how, throughout that year, learn how important service dogs are, maybe have a new respect for the service dog and for what the dog
Lisa Dieker:I love it. I love it. Well, and you know, to wrap this up, first of all, thank you, you did a great job of educating our listeners and educating me on the differences in the right. And I do know that there's other service animals, are there any comments you want to make about things beyond dogs and where people go to get those support services do only train dogs in your facility?
Melissa Vasquez:Yes, we only do dogs here in our facility. And that's what my focus is, then I have not done service monkeys or birds or horses. By law. The ADA really only recognizes dogs and sometimes miniature horses. According to the last update that I read. That's really the only thing that they're accepting as legitimate service animals at this point, but for those resources, I I
Lisa Dieker:Yeah, well, and that was a great because I do think people have all kinds of misperceptions that everything in the world could be a service animal. So thank you for ending on that note. Well, we thank you so much for being our expert Today on our podcast, and sharing great information with our listeners. listeners. If you have further questions, please join our Facebook page at