You touched on a lot of issues in that first post - I jumped in on one I know well, and the one discussed in the article you cited. A therapy dog, SAR dog, police dog, drug detection dog, etc. who enjoys the task will outperform one that does not. Modern training for all venues involves motivation rather than pure compulsion because it works better. SAR and detection dogs especially learn it as a game - you canโt make either one do the task if theyโre not motivated to do it.
(Interesting side note: when SAR teams are working a site with heavy casualties they will sometimes plant live a person for dogs to find so they donโt shut down. Frequent problem for dogs not trained specifically to locate human remains.)
โComfort animalsโ is another matter! Ugh! Therapy dogs and actual service dogs are trained (less stringent for therapy dogs - just have to demonstrate basic manners) and certified. So called comfort animals are not. Those and the fake service animals (people go online and buy a fake service dog vest) give correctly trained animals a bad name - been known to bite people, poop wherever...Someone tried to bring a comfort peacock in a flight! SMH
I have no problem with bringing dogs to work as long as theyre well behaved and thereโs nobody with allergies in the work area. Has to be a group decision.
My dogs are my fam - thatโs my choice - but theyโre not a nuisance to anyone. Since I telecommute, theyโre at work with me every day
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As for homeless dogs and homeless people, caring about the former doesnโt mean you donโt care about or serve the needs of the latter . One can do both. If everybody were to give back whatever they could wherever they were inclined to do so, weโd be in good shape,
