Service Animals - John Raabe

by John Raabe

When walking around Toscana you always see your neighbors out walking their pets. Most of these are just your average pets out for their daily walk around property, but a few of them could be service dogs who; even though it might not be apparent; are actually providing a service for their owner.

This is something to think about when walking around property and why you should always ask for permission from their owner before approaching and petting any dog. You should not pet service dogs, because you could be distracting the service dog from doing its job and their owner could be injured or have a medical emergency because of it.

There are several different types of service dogs that have been trained to do different tasks. Some of them can detect when their owner's blood sugar gets too low, some of them can detect when their owner's anxiety starts to get too high and they are trained to give their owner certain cues to let them know they have detected these problems so that their owner can take certain precautions or take medicine to stop from have a serious medical emergency. There are other service dogs that serve more obvious roles, such as guide dogs or mobility assistance service dogs, that usually wear vests that make their service more apparent.

Service animals are not pets. Therefore, service animals don ’t always have to abide by all rules and regulations pets are subject to; such as being allowed in the amenity areas (including the pool area and interior of amenity buildings) or coming to social events. Of course, owners still need to be courteous to other residents and follow some guidelines. Some of these guidelines include not allowing the dogs to roam around events where food is present, keeping the service animal out of the actual water in pool/spa areas, and ensuring service animals are only utilizing designated "potty" areas for pets. Service animals also do not need to abide by breed restrictions for the property. These animals can be any size or breed, depending on the need of the owner.