Service dog standardized legislation being drafted by Nova Scotia

The Nova Scotia government is drafting new legislation to standardize how service dogs are regulated.

Although blind people have been using dogs to guide them for centuries, it was 1929 when the first professional standards for seeing eye dogs came into existence.

Still, few rules exist for what training service animals must undergo before they're put to work.

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Milena Khazanavicius is visually impaired and is helping the government shape its new laws.

She's had several service dogs over the years. On Jan. 5, she got her latest dog, Louis.

She says a standardized training protocol is urgently needed.

"It's not even just about the dogs, it's about the people that are not being trained," Khazanavicius told CBC's Information Morning.

"For example, guide dog schools, hearing aid schools for dogs — we are all taught: make sure your dog is clean, well-behaved and at no point at any time to be playing or socializing when it's in harness and work. Period."

Lack of training a big problem

In recent years there has been a sharp rise in people using service dogs for everything from emotional therapy to relief of post traumatic stress disorder — but training standards vary.

Last week, an Amherst police officer said he was forced to shoot an English mastiff that its owner said was a PTSD dog.

Khazanavicius says she's not against service dogs for people with PTSD but a lack of training for people and dogs is a real problem.

"I've had two recent incidences, twice in the grocery store," she says.

"What happens to somebody who's blind, when you have someone coming in, let's say, with a PTSD dog and they're coming up towards me telling me their dog wants to play with mine. What that does is distract my dog — spins me around and I have no way to find my way out of the grocery store."

Khazanavicius said it's a problem across Canada where neither people nor dogs are properly trained.

'That incident ruined a $70,000 dog'

She recalls coming off a plane with one of her service dogs. She says a woman in a wheelchair was travelling with a bulldog on her lap, whom she claimed was a service dog. She says the woman had no control over the dog and it leapt off the woman's lap and bit Khazanavicius's dog.

She said that dog was likely a "backyard dog" and neither the owner nor the animal had any training.

As a result, Khazanavicius's dog became defensive and she spent four years refocusing and retraining that animal.

"That incident ruined a $70,000 dog," she said.

In addition to more strict rules on training and certification, she wants to see legislation put in place that would charge people who deny service animals.

"We'd like higher penalties for people who deny us access — i.e. there's quite a few problems with taxi drivers sometimes," says Khazanavicius.

"I'd also like to see — to put a stop to fake harnesses that are sold online sometimes. People are using them for their so-called service dogs that are not."

The province will hold a consultation on service dogs June 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Human Rights Commission, on Lower Water Street, in Halifax.

On June 26, there will be another session, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Yarmouth Justice Centre.