Her Coworker’s “Service Dog” Constantly Barks and Disrupts the Office—So She Decided to Stop Ignoring the Distraction
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As an animal lover, even I have to admit that something about this story feels…wrong.
I totally understand that people need service animals and they serve a great purpose, but the person with a service dog in today’s story sounds like they’re trying to take advantage of that privilege.
Take a look at what this person had to say about why this situation is getting on their nerves.
WIBTA for making a complaint about a coworker’s service dog?
“We recently hired someone with a service dog, which is not my complaint.
I understand the use of medical aids for disabilities at work, I myself even have an ADA accommodation. I have always been taught to treat service dogs as medical devices, not to distract, touch, or inhibit it from doing its tasks in any way because its purpose is to aid its person.
I have never seen a service dog exhibit the behavior I saw at work.
This doesn’t sound right…
It was whining when not actively being pet, soliciting my coworkers for attention, and begged for food multiple times from people other than its handler.
Nobody acknowledged that this was abnormal, and my coworkers were actively petting the dog when it would approach them unsolicited, and the new hire did not discourage this at all.
The dog also attempted to wander away from our work station at least twice and jumped into the new hire’s lap multiple times (it was not alert type of jump, it just wanted to be held and is not a small dog).
I tried to keep an open mind and kept to myself, but I continued to pay attention to the behavior.
Okay, this is unacceptable!
What set me over the line of thinking about complaining happened when I was eating and speaking to my coworkers, and the dog approached me, placed his head in my lap, and proceeded to beg me for my lunch.
When the new hire noticed what it was doing, they yanked on the leash, said “no”and then proceeded to pinch the dog’s ear until it yelped.
I wanted to bring up what tasks the dog performs, since I know that is one of the two legally allowed questions for dogs, but I couldn’t find a way to casually weave it into conversation
If I continue to see this behavior, WIBTA to make a complaint?
I’m not sure what could be done because it is there as part of an ADA accommodation, but the behavior was not conducive for a working environment.”
Readers shared their thoughts on Reddit.
This person said he’s NTA.
Another individual agreed.
This Reddit user shared their thoughts.
Another individual spoke up.
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If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a professional cheesemaker who works for a family business, but isn’t sure about working for a 17yo boy.
And this reader weighed in.
I agree with one of the readers…
This doesn’t rally sound like a service dog!
How strange…
This situation is very concerning…
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