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I saw this message over on the RCCL board


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OOPS I forgot to paste the post; sorry here it is....

 

icon6.gifAOS and the 2 dogs that were allowed onboard...

I wrote my AOS review this afternoon. (the cruise was awesome) But I forgot to add the most peculiar part of our cruise.

Turns out we cruised with two very small dogs!

The dining room staff informed us that the woman with the two dogs was training one of them. The other was already trained. Her training would involve the dog detecting a heart attack 30 minutes before symptoms were experienced by someone.

This woman was not ill. She trains these dogs for that purpose.

I had a real problem with the dogs being allowed to be treated as passengers. They were allowed in the dining room and for the most part were given what looked to be steak. The woman on formal night paraded the dogs down the promenade and into the Lyric lounge to watch the show. She got off on ports with these dogs as well and stayed in a regular cabin. If she needed the ship board environment to train them why take a SEVEN day southern Caribbean trip?

Please educate me if this is a common occurrence on ships. I was not happy having 2 dogs in the dining room, in the windjammer and in the theater.

She made no attempt to keep the dog out of very public areas and she looked like she was exposing us to her dogs intentionally.

We did post our dismay on the RCCL card you turn in at the end of the cruise.

__________________

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Oh good grief. If AB pax had to experience even HALF the injustices, pain, and life experience that disabled pax do, they would understand the need for service animals. And if they understood that, then they would understand that these animals need to be trained!

 

Yes, of course the trainer was exposing the animals to the people intentionally. Those dogs are going to have to be in all kinds of situations and deal with all kinds of people. They NEED that exposure. I'm not sure why a trained dog was along (except maybe it was already with a disabled person but needed cruise experience??) but the dog in training had every right to be there. How else can you expect a service animal to perform their job at the same time as having to deal with all these new experiences? If I were responsible for protecting someone's life while on a cruise, you better believe I would want to have been on a cruise once before so I knew what was going on!

 

As for the dogs being trained as heart attack alert animals, this is a new one to me. I only recently learned about diabetic alert animals. I still don't know much about therapy dogs. And I am somebody with plenty of service animal knowledge! But the general AB population is only aware of guide dogs for the blind and so they assume anything else is inappropriate.

 

To the AB pax who posted that message, I say: tough cookies. I hope they read the spoons story about what life is like with a chronic illness or disability. I think I will go post this link in that thread, in fact. I will be polite of course but my general opinion is still tough cookies.

 

edit: okay, nevermind, I see lots of good responses already on the thread :)

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Great message to folks lacking the sensitivity chip for others. Why would having the training dogs around the ship bother folks? Did they pee on the carpet or try to bite anyone? I doubt it....Could we have some cheese with that good whine?? :p

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I am a natural skeptic but a bit of web browsing (google is our friend) shows that today dogs have been trained to detect imminent heart attacks, diabetes, and now even some kinds of cancer. It makes sense that such dogs need training in public places and that heart attack detection may be especially useful on cruises and other vacation trips.

 

On a possibly related note, my wife is in the hospital and yesterday she was visited by a lady with two "bite sized" (to us, our "GrandDog" weighs in at 105#) dogs ... the lady and her dogs visit folks to give them a bit of a change for the normal hospital surroundings. My wife very much enjoyed the visit.

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Sometimes people annoy me...I have Lupus, among other chronic problems. I have used the spoon story to educate my sorority sisters on life with a chronic illness because people couldn't understand why I wouldn't do things or go to events. At my college we have several service dogs...it amazes me the reactions people have to the dogs and to the people with the animals....sometimes I just want to walk up to people and be like I wish we could all be perfect like you, but we can't so stop criticizing the way others adapt to life.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Did you notice the OP did not complain that the dogs, barked, behaved badly, ran loose are anything like that? If they need to complain maybe they should about unsupervised children and uncontrolable drunks. I think I'd rather have a whole ship full of well behaved dogs than one out of control child.

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last wk on the SOS, a wheelchair gentleman had his service dog with him. I did a double take at first only because I had never seen an animal on board. Throughout the cruise, this animal stayed by his master's side -- even tendered over to CoCo Cay. The dog was beautiful and most well behaved - never one problem - fellow passengers were permitted to pet and talk to the dog who seemed to enjoy the attention and this surprised me as I thought one shouldn't interefere with a working animal.

To all: am I the only one who sees a penguin holding up a sign from JPO telling me what ISP I sign on from????????

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fellow passengers were permitted to pet and talk to the dog who seemed to enjoy the attention and this surprised me as I thought one shouldn't interefere with a working animal.
Normally one wouldn't - one is supposed to wait for permission from the handler' date=' and wait for the dog to be out of its harness (if it wears one). I guess maybe the handler gave permission because dogs need a vacation too? :)

[i']

To all: am I the only one who sees a penguin holding up a sign from JPO telling me what ISP I sign on from????????[/i]

No you're not' date=' and it's not anything to be worried about either. The service is provided by Danasoft and you can make your own if you want. There is info about why this information is available, and why it is not an invasion of privacy, here. :)

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It never ceases to amaze me how insensitive people can be. I guess I expect everyone to have a certain amount of compassion as well as common sense.

 

 

I have type I diabetes and I am constantly hassled at parties to eat sweets. "Oh, go ahead have a piece of cake, it wont kill your diet"...No, but it will make my blood sugar go up to 600 and put me in a coma! Why can't people take a polite "no thank you" as an answer?

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Oh good grief. If AB pax had to experience even HALF the injustices, pain, and life experience that disabled pax do, they would understand the need for service animals. And if they understood that, then they would understand that these animals need to be trained!

 

Yes, of course the trainer was exposing the animals to the people intentionally. Those dogs are going to have to be in all kinds of situations and deal with all kinds of people. They NEED that exposure. I'm not sure why a trained dog was along (except maybe it was already with a disabled person but needed cruise experience??) but the dog in training had every right to be there. How else can you expect a service animal to perform their job at the same time as having to deal with all these new experiences? If I were responsible for protecting someone's life while on a cruise, you better believe I would want to have been on a cruise once before so I knew what was going on!

 

As for the dogs being trained as heart attack alert animals, this is a new one to me. I only recently learned about diabetic alert animals. I still don't know much about therapy dogs. And I am somebody with plenty of service animal knowledge! But the general AB population is only aware of guide dogs for the blind and so they assume anything else is inappropriate.

 

To the AB pax who posted that message, I say: tough cookies. I hope they read the spoons story about what life is like with a chronic illness or disability. I think I will go post this link in that thread, in fact. I will be polite of course but my general opinion is still tough cookies.

 

edit: okay, nevermind, I see lots of good responses already on the thread :)

I was reading these posts and came across the spoons link you had in one of them. I cried while reading this to see that someone could find a way to tell others what it is like to wake with pain each day and how you do pick what you can put on and not what you want to have on for that day. I myself have had those same days and wondered how to tell others what your sickness is like. I do not have lupus (or so far the tests do not say I do) but I do have days not so unlike hers. Thanks for posting such a good link here. I plan to pass this one on to friends who have asked how my days are and what they feel like.

Lesia

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  • 3 weeks later...

listen i have another point of view for this thead............. i 'd also like to say my dad is handicapped since he was 5 yrs old ........ so i do have respect, exposure, compassion etc .........

 

re: the dogs on the ship.........

 

i have severe asthma and animals are one of my triggers. i understand peoples need for service animals but .... i would be on the disabled list if they were "exposed " to me constanatly on a ship ,in the dining rm, near me at a show, ........ and if i was in the same staterm on a cruise after them i would know w/in minutes.something i never thought of ........ {now i'll ask if the staterm i am booking has recently had an animal in it } the service animals for the blind r usually well seen {larger dogs} , stay w/their charge and do not "socialize " as they r on "duty" . i am able to stay away to avoid an attack. i think that this "experiment "/training process to detect heart attacks could be carried out in a different environment in prep for future cruising .

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How often do we see someone on a ship "constantly" though? If one is seated near them in the dining room, a quick chat with the maitre d' will fix that. And do shows ever have assigned seating? If so, that can be fixed as well. The stateroom thing is a valid concern; the chances are slim that you would get such a room (given how rarely service animals are on cruises) but if it would affect you adversely you should definitely ask about it.

 

I don't get what animal size has to do with it, though. And I don't think anybody has said the dogs were socializing, were they? There's no reason to think they would be. As for the training process, you would be hard-pressed to find a similar environment to a cruise ship. I suppose Disney World has a similar concentration of people and variety of activities, but the landscape is similar to "regular" life - waiting in lines, navigating around people/objects, whereas on a cruise ship everything is in much tighter quarters, etc. making it very different from anything else.

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OH MY !

 

as i said, i was just adding another spin on the "conversation" here. i can't believe i would warrent such a negative relpy ?????????

 

YOU STATE "And I don't think anybody has said the dogs were socializing....."

 

one quote from the original poster that was used by me to respond.

"The woman on formal night PARADED the dogs down the promenade and into the Lyric lounge to watch the show." my mistake , I took the word paraded to mean they were being "socialized" ???

 

ok . granted "constantly" was not the correct word. but, how often after a meet and mingle do you see those people around the ship ???????? pretty often in MY experience .

 

animal size, hair length {aka dander produced} and # of animals all DO affect the histamine response in asthma.

 

i was just pointing out that there are all kinds of disabilities/health issues .. some not always seen . i know it is my prob.i am an RN and know my health issues and how to handle them as long as i know the situations i will be in . i was just glad i read this on here . i really never gave it a thought that animals might be/or might become, common place in limited quarters as on a cruise ship. that is all ..............................

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as i said, i was just adding another spin on the "conversation" here. i can't believe i would warrent such a negative relpy ?????????

I'm sorry you thought my response was negative; I was just answering your post in a friendly dialogue. What are boards for if not discussion? :confused:

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I had no idea dogs were being used to detect potential heart attack victims! I have a 14 year old daughter with epilepsy, and I have known about "seizure dogs" for several years. In fact, my daughter attended epilepsy camp this past summer and one of the girls in her cabin brought her seizure dog. Unfortunately, the dog became so completely agitated being around so many people with seizures, that they had to take her home! Made me wonder how a "heart attack" dog might behave if put on a ship with a large population of elderly!

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