Dear all,

maybe I'm a little far off the mark because I'm a collection manager in a science and technology museum which isn't a clean room even if we do our best to keep dust and pests out, but I am wondering:

Is this not simply a question on how to handle the work?

I guess most work won't be directly in the storage area, at least it shouldn't. I believe you have a separate room for packing things and doing the computer work. If staff is allowed to work with open hair there I see no real reason why a service dog in training shouldn't be allowed in those areas. You don't work with collection items on the floor (at least I hope so) so the dog hasn't really a chance to spoil anything, even if an accident happens. I would be cautious to let it into the storage areas (in fact, I'm cautious to let anyone in there without a good reason, may it be a puppy or someone from the royal family) but I guess this won't be necessary, because they are only accessed to get artifacts or bring them back there. A basic training for every dog is to "stay", even if his human is out of the room and it certainly is for service dogs. The puppy can stay at its place while the volunteer gets new work from the storage. So, by organizing work properly, I don't see a general problem.

The assumption that most attention will go to the puppy for me lacks evidence. I'm more of a cat lover but for some time we had a close cooperation with the local police department with police dogs in training and I have a deep respect on the professional way those humans interact with their future colleagues. I guess it's the same with service dogs in training. This is a highly professional relationship that demands a high sense of responsibility and attentiveness from the trainer and in my experience this spreads to the general view on life and work. So for me, if I could chose between a volunteer who chose to take the responsibility of training a service dog and one who doesn't, I'd tend to take the one with the puppy.

Best wishes

Angela

Angela Kipp
Collection Manager
TECHNOSEUM, Mannheim, Germany
www.technoseum.de

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Am 25.02.2014 17:59, schrieb Norris,Erin S:

Two things about guide dog puppies which haven’t been brought up on list.

The volunteer would be likely to pay far more attention to the puppy than the volunteer work she is supposed to be doing. As would everyone else. At best, it’s unproductive. At worst, it has the potential for unfixable mistakes. The puppy, though well behaved, may also be underfoot a lot which is dangerous for both the puppy and people-potential for tripping. It’s a puppy, not a certified guide animal. Would you allow the volunteer to bring children or someone for whom they were a caregiver to that environment? It is a workplace.

Let me pose another question: who normally processes collections? Yes, service animals are covered by law and should be. But what sort of volunteer who uses a guide dog would be processing collections? Are they blind, wheelchair bound or otherwise mobility impaired, developmentally disabled, etc.? How likely is it that person will be lifting heavy boxes of materials or artifacts and processing them? Equal opportunity employment means exactly that, and should, but the person has to be able to perform the basic requirements of the job on offer.

If an employee asked me, I would of course respond in saying service animals are allowed by law in most or all public settings. Sometimes cats are used as service animals but they are also notorious for urinating to mark territory, no matter their age. Is the archival storage and processing area a place to which the general public is allowed? A volunteer, who is an unpaid employee, should be made to follow the same rules as any other employee. No eating in the archives. No drinking in the archives. No pets or children in the archives. Again, this is a puppy in training, not a certified service animal. How do other employees and volunteers *honestly* feel about the situation?

I think it’s great the volunteer trains service animals but let’s also think of the archive for a moment. We are stewards of historic materials for future generations. Putting the archives or the volunteer in such an awkward situation is a disservice to both.

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