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It is also an ADA requirement that the Service Animal be in the handlers control at all times
Q27. What does under control mean? Do service animals have to be on a leash? Do they have to be quiet and not bark?
A . The ADA requires that service animals be under the control of the handler at all times. In most instances, the handler will be the individual with a disability or a third party who accompanies the individual with a disability. In the school (K-12) context and in similar settings, the school or similar entity may need to provide some assistance to enable a particular student to handle his or her service animal. The service animal must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered while in public places unless these devices interfere with the service animalās work or the personās disability prevents use of these devices. In that case, the person must use voice, signal, or other effective means to maintain control of the animal. For example, a person who uses a wheelchair may use a long, retractable leash to allow her service animal to pick up or retrieve items. She may not allow the dog to wander away from her and must maintain control of the dog, even if it is retrieving an item at a distance from her. Or, a returning veteran who has PTSD and has great difficulty entering unfamiliar spaces may have a dog that is trained to enter a space, check to see that no threats are there, and come back and signal that it is safe to enter. The dog must be off leash to do its job, but may be leashed at other times. Under control also means that a service animal should not be allowed to bark repeatedly in a lecture hall, theater, library, or other quiet place. However, if a dog barks just once, or barks because someone has provoked it, this would not mean that the dog is out of control.
I think the thing that is not being clarified here is that this under control at all times is really only meant for when the animal is actually with their handler. For example, if someone is not traveling with their service animal (like this person going to the wedding). There are many people, active duty Soldiers are the ones that I know, that have legal service dogs but are not required to have the animal with them all the time. Sometimes they travel (for work) without them. If they brought the animals, then yes, they need to be under their control at all times.
Iām amazed at this whole discussion. Itās beyond belief. I would get that poor puppy out of the room, take it to an animal shelter and report the person as responsible for neglect.
To hell with airbnb ārulesā.
Definitely. Weāve established that the dog is an āuntrained puppyā so therefor isnāt a trained service dog. The poor little bugger has been left for hours in a strange place. A side result will probably be that he has caused damage to the room and used it as his loo.
Eh, another thread where new poster posts their problem, then we donāt hear from them again. Ugh. Clearly this issue is resolved one way or another by now.
I was thinking that earlier: At this point I hope itās only us who are in agony of suspense wanting to know how this turned out and the poor dog has long since been relieved of its suffering.
I would say that if your rules say a dog cannot be left unattended then I would also have in my rules what the consequence would be. I would reserve the right to take the dog to the local animal shelter at the guestās expense to redeem the dog from the shelter. If you allow the dog to be left unattended in a crate or something, then I would also put in writing the steps I would take if the dog was barking non-stop or something like that.
Indeed. Itās kind of annoying. I mean, why go to all the bother of posting a long story asking for help and then disappear? Maybe the āpuppyā went feral andā¦ ok, the ending to that story is not as funny as it sounded in my head
Some people are takers and some are givers. You see it on the forum all the time. But, hey, itās alright. If there were no takers who would the givers give to?
Whatās annoying is that so often, the people who post here with their great problem but never come back to tell us the outcome, have only just joined here especially to recount their woes and ask for our advice.
I donāt know how that makes you feel but it makes me feel that weāre here providing a free advice service when in reality we are busy hosts. Most of us post here between the end of turnover work and check in time - we have just fifteen minutes or so before the guest arrives.
Or weāre waiting for a plumber to come to deal with some problem, or the carpet cleaners or whatever.
Weāre truly a free advice service but it still encroaches into our time to give first time posters the benefit of our experiences. Knowing the outcome isnāt a lot to ask.
Okay, I know, now the OP will come back and tell us and make my rant seem totally unreasonable ā¦
Hey, chill yāall, I had no idea anyone had even replied until I got an email tonight letting me know that they were upset I hadnāt replied.
Anyway, thank you all for the replies back. I donāt yet have a final conclusion to the story, but I can tell what has happened since. I donāt know if AirBnB will side with me, but the documentation is there and I certainly feel in the right:
After posting, I tried to contact the owner of the pet for 8 hours with zero response. I messaged them at least 6 times over that time letting them know that if I didnāt hear back, I would be cancelling the rest of their reservation.
Simultaneously, I was calling AirBnB every hour asking them what to do, as this animal was suffering up in the room, and was probably also urinating and defacating on our floor.
AirBnB, while they simpathized with the animal in distress would not budge on even hinting at what I should do and let me know that there would be a case manager assigned but would not give me a time frame of when that would be (it ended up being at least 48 hours from the first call to them, so for future reference I wouldnāt for a second hold my breath for them to help you out in an emergent situation, you must act first and hope they take your side later).
We did let the dog out as it was crying, pawing the door, and pacing as I can imagine any dog would if left alone in a foreign place for 8 hours alone. We donāt even leave our own dogs alone in our house for that long.
I continued to document each hour to the guest did not return via the AirBnB messenger. I let them know that their reservation was cancelled because they violated our agreement and the rules that AirBnB puts forward regarding never leaving your service animal alone in the listing (this is in the section title " When can a host ask a guest to remove a service animal?").
They arrived more than 8 hours after they left the poor puppy, not even acknowledging that they had done no wrong or that I had just sent them at least 10 messages and AirBnB had also tried to contact them. It was nearly 12 AM at this time.
Because they were never rude in terms of language, while I was very upset, they returned intoxicated from the wedding theyād just attended, and because it was so late, I knew that they would not be able to find a place to stay, especially with a dog at that time, so I allowed them to stay until morning and demanded they leave then.
They did leave early in the morning and they were not rude because they knew they really screwed the pooch, literally and metaphorically, on this one.
The dog did pee on our rug, as expected from being locked up so long. We suspect he also pooped up there, but I think they cleaned it up, it really smelled like it at least.
I called AirBnB to ask what the next steps were or if I should cancel the reservation from the app and they told me not to do anything until the case manager had been assigned. They also told me this when I told them I needed to go in to the room to let the dog out. Had they not returned from being too intoxicated until mid following day, that poor dog could have really suffered, so future advice, totally make your own judgement call and ignore AirBnB when the decision is dire like this. We donāt even have Air conditioning in our house so if the dog was left alone and I had followed the customer service guyās advice, the dog would literally be dead.
So that brings me to today: I donāt know if I did this right by kicking them out because they neglected this dog, but I certainly didnāt do any wrong by trying to help it and also to protect my property from some lying, disrespectful guests. The crappy part of this all is that she is a host too and surely knows what it feels like when someone so flagrantly violates your house rules and violates your trust in your own home.
I will update here when I get an official response from AirBnB, but for right now they have neither sided with me or against me.
