As happens every couple of weeks or so, I got barked at again today for letting my dog walk off-leash at the University. The person complaining was new, but much of the conversation wasn’t. What was new, however, is that he volunteered the reason why all dogs on campus should be on a leash without me asking for one. The reason was new too as well as one of the stupidest things that I’ve heard in a long time, namely that free-running dogs distract service dogs from doing their work.
Right …
I might be mistaken on this, but I always thought that service dogs were specifically trained to deal with these and other kinds of distractions. It would be kind of counterproductive if the dogs kept dragging their blind owners across busy roads just to sniff some butt on the other side, wouldn’t it? Admittedly, that butt could cross the road to come and molest the service dog but this would seem to be a fairly general problem for service dogs everywhere (who can resist a butt in uniform, right?) and not one at all specific to the University of Not-Bielefeld.
New argument or not, the thinking here seems to derive from the desperate belief of many people that a leash is the only difference between a good dog and a bad one. But, put an idiot on the other end of that leash and their dog will still be distracting that service dog.
But, more to the point: what service dogs?
I’ve been at the University for getting on close to 20 years now and have not seen a single service dog in all my time there. Definitely no guide dogs and nary even an emotional-support chihuahua. And, running the numbers, chances are good that it’ll stay that way.
It’s estimated that there were about 2134 service dogs of all shapes, sizes, and duties in Germany in 2023 serving a human population of about 83.5 million. Assuming that the University of Not-Bielefeld is representative of something other than itself (I know, just go with me on this one), that works out to slightly less than half a service dog spread among its roughly 18 000 staff and students. Rounding to the nearest dog yields a final estimate exactly in line with my observations, namely zero.
Nevertheless, thank God for the University and its foresight to provide a safe haven for non-existent service dogs of all kinds to carry out their responsibilities without fear of distraction.
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