If it wasn’t for the injured child, this would be a funny story.

There was a hearing in Hillsborough County, Florida about a proposed ordinance requiring dog trainers to be licensed. Not surprisingly, that didn’t go over well with all trainers. One of the main opponents was waiting in line to get into the hearing, and (you can guess where this is going) the dog he brought with him lunged at a 5-year-old boy and bit him in the face. The article was sent to me by a reader in response to a recent fake service dog post, and yes (you can guess where this is going again) the dog was wearing a service dog vest. So, a badly behaved dog wearing a presumably fake service dog vest, and owned by a “trainer”, attacked a child during a hearing where the dog’s owner was protesting scrutiny of dog trainers.

So, now we have a child with bite wounds and a dead dog (it was euthanized shortly after the bite), all because someone who thinks he/she is a dog trainer who doesn’t need any regulation or oversight didn’t know how to train or handle a dog.

Reality is often more bizarre than fiction.

For a better story about service dogs, click here to see a video of a dog being trained by America’s VetDogs, a group providing therapy dogs to US military veterans, dropping the puck at a NY Islanders game.  There are people and organizations that do an excellent job training service and therapy dogs.  The challenge is being able to separate the good from the bad, and preventing the latter from causing problems for the former.