Help my pooch become a therapy dog!

September 18, 2009 9:18 PM

How can I get my medium-sized dog to my place of work once a week if I live in Brooklyn and have no car? Can I sneak him onto the M train without being caught?

On Monday I'll be starting a job as a bereavement counseling intern at a senior center in Boro Park in Brooklyn, NY. The center recently experienced the retirement of its therapy dog and is looking for a new one. My own dog, a Border Collie mix, is friendly, fairly gentle, and unusually even-tempered. With a little more training, I think he would be a perfect therapy dog. My supervisor told me that she'd like it if I could bring him to work on occasion since the presence of a friendly dog can encourage our clients to open up a bit more than usual and goes a long way in cheering seniors dealing with loss.

The problem is that I live in Williamsburg and can only get to work by taking the M train down to 62nd St. I'm unfamiliar with the M train around that area, but I've got a hunch that riders can get away with more illegal activity the emptier the train is (and the M train is EMPTY by that point) and the further the train travels from Manhattan into less-populated neighborhoods. Is this true? Does anyone here have experience with sneaking their dog onto the subway on a regular basis?

Otherwise, can anyone think of another way I could get my dog to Boro Park once a week to work as a therapy dog? I don't think he'll qualify as a service dog and he's too big for a crate or my lap, so the subway is probably out unless someone can confirm it would be A-OK. I can't afford a taxi, car service, or car rental. My friends have suggested that maybe I can bring him on a mysterious "Chinese bus" that can take me to Boro Park and on which all sorts of illegal happenings are allowed, but that sounds like crazy-person talk to me. Others mentioned cheap "Hasid taxis." This sounds even crazier. Please tell me anything you know about them if they do exist, though.

posted by coffeeflavored to pets & animals (19 comments total)

Does the senior center have a jacket or some kind of special harness for the dog to wear? Or can they spring for one?

No one's going to bat an eye at a dog if it's wearing something that marks it as a legitimate service dog.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:19 PM on September 18

Therapy dogs aren't legitimate service dogs, unfortunately. I can carry his therapy certification with me, though. Do you think that would fool a cop?
posted by coffeeflavored at 9:21 PM on September 18

I think what Cool Papa Bell is getting at is like a recent article I read about Californians who take their dogs, cats, even iguanas, on the bus and claim they're service animals. Needless to say, these animals inevitably bite someone because they're not properly trained, and laws prevent anyone from forcing a person to show papers proving the animal is a trained service animal. I do not condone this practice nor do I think it would be wise to do so.
posted by IndigoRain at 9:28 PM on September 18

Found the article.
posted by IndigoRain at 9:29 PM on September 18

Every morning on my way to work, I would see a man with a blue plastic bin with a lid on the bus. He had that bin every morning. One day, I got off at the same stop as he did, and as soon as the bus pulled away, he took the top off of the bin and two black dogs jumped out - completely non-phased by their trip in the bin. He hooked them to their leashes and walked away, bin under his arm. Which leads me to the question.....will your dog fit in a bin?
posted by The Light Fantastic at 9:31 PM on September 18 [3 favorites]

Have you asked your employer if they'll pay for a taxi? They shouldn't expect you to pay for this out of your own pocket.
posted by MsMolly at 9:33 PM on September 18 [1 favorite]

IndigoRain, don't worry: I wouldn't take my dog on the subway or into a center for senior citizens without getting him properly trained and certified. For my dog to qualify as a therapy dog, someone on a certification board will need to meet him and make sure he won't become aggressive or bite someone out of surprise or fear. There's no way I would mix an unsafe, untrained dog with my elderly clients. His certification as a safe animal would be real.

MsMolly, all therapy dogs work on a voluntary basis, so my employer won't be able to pay for the trip.
posted by coffeeflavored at 9:52 PM on September 18

Please don't sneak your dog onto the subway or bus. Rent or hire a car.
posted by furtive at 10:07 PM on September 18 [1 favorite]

furtive, I would like to find an alternative to sneaking my dog onto the subway, but as I said, there is no way in the entire world I could ever afford to rent or hire a car once a week.
posted by coffeeflavored at 10:18 PM on September 18

ZipCar?
posted by staggernation at 10:23 PM on September 18

ZipCar donates vehicle use to RightRides, a NYC based service that arranges safe, late night rides home for women on Friday and Saturday nights. Perhaps you could work out a promotional deal with ZipCar, to discount or donate car service for your volunteer efforts, or perhaps your employer would pickup the cost of a ZipCar subscription for you, to allow you to bring in your therapy dog.
posted by paulsc at 10:37 PM on September 18

How much does your dog weigh? If you can deal with lifting him just to get on and off, I'd look for a collapsible transport box (something like this, but I haven't seen it in person yet). You're perfectly fine as long as you have your dog in a "container" so you just need to find a container that breaks down and can be carried easily.

I'd also get a vest or cape and put a Therapy Dog patch on it, for easier moving about ingress/egress, etc.

This is a nice thing you want to do. Let us know what happens! But even if you don't, if you check out a collapsible container, let me know via memail; I've been considering something like this, but would have to mail order, which I'm hesitant to do without knowing if it would work as I hope for certain kinds of transit.
posted by taz at 10:49 PM on September 18

I have this bag in the Ice Box size (18" Long x 9" Wide x 14" Deep) and I've put this larger than average 32 pound corgi in it and been in a taxi and subway (both for 30-45 min rides) with no problem. I have passed by MTA workers and NYPD bag checkers and they didn't say anything and I know they noticed. And corgis are considered a medium size dog. Just dwarfy.
posted by spec80 at 1:33 AM on September 19

Are you positive the subway won't allow dogs with muzzles or in a crate on wheels? I'm guessing probably not in NY but it'd be worth double-checking.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:53 AM on September 19

Does this apply to you?


1. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (2) of this subdivision, no person may bring any animal on or into any conveyance or facility unless enclosed in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers.

So maybe you could get a wheeled crate? The site I found this through recommended keeping a set of the guidelines on hand so you could pull them out when someone questioned you.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:59 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]

Also, they allow service dogs in training. If you could enroll your dog in some program to train, your dog could maybe just be endlessly "in training".
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:00 AM on September 19

Along the lines of what others have said, something like this wheeled carrier? Kind of expensive though ($120) and it may not be big enough.
posted by peanut butter milkshake at 6:13 AM on September 19

"My friends have suggested that maybe I can bring him on a mysterious "Chinese bus" that can take me to Boro Park and on which all sorts of illegal happenings are allowed, but that sounds like crazy-person talk to me. Others mentioned cheap "Hasid taxis." This sounds even crazier."

Just why does this sound so crazy to you? Maybe try taking them yourself a few times before deciding to bring your dog along to work. :)

I don't know much about them, but I'm pretty sure some of my Chinese friends in high school took one of those mysterious vans home to Flushing, and no one died or anything there. Just think of them as a bunch of normal people who thought "the subway takes way too freaking long to get to place Z, let's band together and organize a service which gets there faster!"
posted by The Biggest Dreamer at 8:58 AM on September 19

Just why does this sound so crazy to you? Maybe try taking them yourself a few times before deciding to bring your dog along to work. :)

Oh, it only sounds crazy because I can't find evidence of their existence! I'd take 'em if they were real, no prob.

Thank you to everyone who linked to carriers for me! I'm a very small female, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to haul one of these carriers to and from work, but most of these look lightweight and manageable. I appreciate it very much.
posted by coffeeflavored at 10:52 AM on September 19