Dog walker?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

We currently have a patient who has a companion dog r/t his seizure disorder. He has been asking the aids to take his dog for walks/toileting breaks a couple of times per shift, feed the dog, water it, etc. We are very understaffed aid-wise due to new grads leaving for RN jobs, a death, etc. One aid was off the floor forever yesterday waiting for the dog to do his busines (and I trust her so I don't think she was just taking a long break!). Has anyone else dealt with this situation? How did you handle it?

for the record...I think companion dogs are great, I just don't know that it should be our responsibility to provide care to the dog as well as the patient (who is very ambulatory, btw) I dunno. It's just a very awkward situation, as this patient is very demanding anyway and there seems to be some question as to whether this is an "approved" companion dog in the first place. Even the doctors are having trouble finding adequete documentation of his seizure disorder. aaarrrrggghhhh!

Is this an acute or chronic care facility? If he is in the hospital, it would be fine for hime to take the dog out BUT staff would have to accompany him in case he did have a seizure or problem. If family was involved, they could do it instead, but if he goes out our facility would send him w/ staff due to liability. I do not know re. chronic care setting, it might be okay for him to take the dog alone. Maybe someone from a local group who trains the service dogs could help out and do some of the dog's care while his person is hospitalized. I'd walk him if he was at my hospital.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

RE: service animals

Any official service dog -- guiding eyes, etc. -- wears a collar with a specialty tag which designates that it is NOT a pet, but a working dog. If the dog doesn't have a tag, it's not a working dog. It's that tag that lets the dog on aircraft, in grocery stores, in hospitals, etc., places they are not usually allowed. I have been very privilaged to help with socialization of service dogs when they were with their "puppy raisers" -- which is essentially from 10 weeks old to slightly over a year. If you look at the following link, about half way down is a picture of a puppy wearing her official tags.

http://www.gebcuyahoga.org/faqs2.htm

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

oh, and BTW -- a "real" service dog is trained to pee/poop on command -- "get busy" is the phrase Guiding Eyes uses. If you take a dog out, but don't tell it get busy, it will be very frustrated....

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
hmmm let me be a pain in the butt......a single person, demanding, no hx of sz locatable in the chart, ill with something, needs admitance to hosp.; has a pet....presto, the pet becomes a service animal......good luck

i noticed that as well.

interestingly, i had a patient years ago whose son claimed that his german shepherd (rambo) with a spike collar and a chain rather than a leash was a "service" dog and should be allowed to accompany him on his visits to dad in the icu. it's not surprising to me that my moron of a manager allowed this to happen . . . and to continue . . . but it did surprise me that security went along with it. one night the son brought rambo up to visit dad and it turns out that dad had a male nurse. son took violent exception to this -- didn't want "that &*(^% *** taking care of my dad!" he ordered rambo to attack and rambo drove the nurse out of the room. he then grabbed a passing female nurse and dragged her into the room with him to take care of dad, then barricaded himself and the nurse in the room with rambo guarding the doorway.

rambo wasn't allowed to visit again, but the son was. patient's wife took every opportunity to beg the nursing staff not to let the hospital press charges against her dear boy. it wasn't up to the hospital -- the male nurse (a traveler) not only pressed charges, but he spent the rest of his contract sitting in his nice hotel room swilling liquor at the hospital's expense because of the trauma of it all. the female nurse (who, in my opinion had more trauma, being barricaded in the room with two nut jobs and an attack dog for half a shift) didn't press charges and worked out her contract.

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Specializes in neurotrauma ICU.
oh, and BTW -- a "real" service dog is trained to pee/poop on command -- "get busy" is the phrase Guiding Eyes uses. If you take a dog out, but don't tell it get busy, it will be very frustrated....

hmmmm, good to know! Since we were not told that it makes me even more sure this guy was pulling a fast one on us! the patient had obviously not done his homework about service dogs!

To be honest I didn't get close enough to the dog to see if it had a specific collar. The service dogs I have seen usually have a vest-type garmet stating "service dog, do not pet" or something similar. This dog DID NOT have the vest. hmmmmmm.....

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

In the ER, I occasionally dealt with blind patients who had guide dogs. The dogs didn't bark at passers-by or beg to go outside. Are you sure this is a trained, certified assistance animal, not a dog owner who can't bear to be away from his "baby" for 5 minutes?

My mother used to work for Amtrak, which does not allow pets on trains. So many non-disabled people tried to invoke the ADA, claiming that their pets were "therapeutic", that they now require a doctors note, at the very least.

If the patient's chart doesn't mention seizure disorder, and the dog has no special tags, it's a pet, not an assistance animal, and it needs to stay home. If he wants a dog-walker, he needs to pay for one.

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Service dogs are not required to wear anything indicating they are a service animal. Many do wear a harness or collar but not all do and the ADA doesn't require it. Some states may designate certain collars/harnesses/leashes for service animals but not all do and most businesses aren't going to know which ones are needed anyway.

There is no required training for service animals beyond their ability to assist a disabled person with their disability and that training can be performed by anyone! There are great organizations that train dogs but it could also be done by a kid down the street or the disabled person could do it on their own.

There is no license, registration, certification or other documentation required by the ADA with regards to service animals. Some states do have certification programs but the ADA specifically says you can't require proof of such certification prior to allowing the person (and their service animal) access.

I found a link to some commonly asked questions regarding service animals that you may find helpful. http://www.ada.gov/qasrvc.htm

I also found a link to a table that breaks down state laws with regards to service animals. http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ddusassistanceanimaltable.htm Looks like my dad will have to find a new collar and harness for his hunting dogs next time he heads to Michigan!

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LOL, This makes me laugh and I need a good laugh! I had a patient with a dog once too but the family was always there. IMO, a service dog is an extension of the patient so should be included in the care. I would ask a NA to do it or call a volunteer.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.
Service dogs are not required to wear anything indicating they are a service animal. Many do wear a harness or collar but not all do and the ADA doesn't require it. Some states may designate certain collars/harnesses/leashes for service animals but not all do and most businesses aren't going to know which ones are needed anyway.

There is no license, registration, certification or other documentation required by the ADA with regards to service animals. Some states do have certification programs but the ADA specifically says you can't require proof of such certification prior to allowing the person (and their service animal) access.

I hope this changes soon. I'm all for helping the disabled live independently, but too may neurotic, non-disabled dog owners try to use the ADA as an excuse to take their badly-behaved pets everywhere.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

The license isn't required by the ADA, it's required by the airlines, etc., that's the animal's "passport" into non-pet areas. The airlines cracked down after a moron took a potbelly pig on board a transcontinental flight as her "service animal" and apparently, pigs really, really don't like to fly.

Also, the dogs from GEB (guiding eyes for the blind) always have a tatoo in their ear. Dogs who wash out from GEB often end up as drug dogs or are trained for other canine jobs -- but they carry the tatoo for life. Officially trained animals by other organizations may be different, I only know about GEB. Assuming with this economy retirement ever becomes an option for me, I'd love to be a puppy raiser....

http://www.guidingeyes.org/

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Specializes in OB.

I don't see any mention on here of the liability that might be faced by the hospital and or the staff if either something were to happen to the dog while being walked (slips the leash and is hit by a car or attacked by another animal) or if the dog attacks someone while in your care.

Think I'd run this one by your risk manager or legal dept. and get an answer in writing before having anything further to do with dog care.

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