The month of September is National Guide Dog Month across Canada and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) is raising awareness on the rights of guide dog users.
In the wake of a recent Sudbury.com story about guide dog user Guy Carriere being booted from a local business, CNIB Ontario North Executive Director Monique Pilkington said the timing is right to remind people of the etiquette when it comes to guide dogs and their users.
"The CNIB is always on the lookout for incidents like this, it's critical for people to be educated about service dogs," said Pilkington.
"It's not just business owners who need to understand the rights afforded to guide dog users, but for pedestrians as well, who need to understand that there's an etiquette involved with these animals."
Pilkington explained that when a guide dog is with its user and wearing its bright yellow harness that indentifies it as a service dog, you should not approach the dog or try to get its attention.
"We understand that a lot of people love dogs, and these are very cute dogs so there's a tendency for people to want to go up and pet them," said Pilkington. "What needs to be understood is that these dogs are working, their priority is to assist their owners so when people go up to pet them or greet them it's distracting them from their job."
The same goes for other dog owners who may come into contact with a guide dog user, and the best practice is to keep your own dog close by and not have it distract the service dog while it's working.
"If the guide dog isn't on its harness then it's ok to interact with them, but you should still ask the owner if it's ok to pet their dog," said Pilkington. "It's preferred that you interact with the user before the dog."
National Guide Dog Month is an opportunity for the CNIB to educate the public on the three pieces of legislation that protect guide dog users, which include The Blind Person's Rights Act, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and the Ontario Human Rights Code.
Many blind and partially-sighted Canadians find themselves in challenging and frustrating situations when trying to access public spaces, according to the CNIB, and in all 13 of the country's jurisdictions, human rights legislation prohibits discriminating against a person with a disability working with a service animal.
"It's not that people are being intentionally discriminatory, they just don't understand the legislation and they need to understand that these people are protected by the law," said Pilkington.
"Many Canadian businesses are not aware of the rights of service dog users, so National Guide Dog Month is an opportunity to set these things straight and have people understand what the laws are."
