Do Sam’s Club allow dogs? (find out!)
I take my puppy with me wherever I go if I can. However, not every store is dog-friendly.
In particular, I wonder if dogs are allowed in Sam’s Club. So we looked into it and here’s what we found…
Do Sam’s Club allow dogs?
Sam’s Club is an American chain of retail warehouse clubs that do not allow dogs on their premises. This includes Sam’s Club retail locations, eyewear centers, pharmacies, and auto and tire centers.The only exceptions to this rule are true service dogs, which are classified as working animals instead of pet.
Check out this article at Sam’s Club live animals Policies and Guidelines: what they are, what they mean and how they apply to you.
Does Sam’s Club allow pets of any kind?
Sam’s Club does not allow pets of any kind. This applies to any type of animal, size of animal, or whether the animal is restrained, contained, or even taken away.
The only exception to this rule is when the animal is trained and Animals are working (i.e. helping people with disabilities) while they are in the store.
Sam’s Club allows that not all service animals are required to have a harness, sign or symbol indicating that they are a service animal. They also acknowledge that service animals come in different breeds and sizes, and they (Sam’s Club) don’t ask to see a license or training certificate.
However, Sam’s Club does differentiate, “Service animals are no Pets”. While service animals do not pose a risk to the public or property, there is no guarantee that pets will always be. While pets have always been valued companions, they have a very different status in public than service dogs.
Are service animals allowed in Sam’s Club?
Sam’s Club has published an official policy regarding the status of service animals on its premises. This policy applies to all Sam’s Club stores and locations, wherever they are:
“Service animals play an important role in helping to ensure the independence of people with disabilities of all kinds. Therefore, it is our policy to welcome any animal that has been individually trained to help people with disabilities to join our club. “
An important part of the statement is the phrase “personally trained to help people with disabilities.” Any dog that is not specifically trained to help a disabled person is not a true service animal. They are pets and therefore not allowed in Sam’s Club and warehouses.
The parent company of Sam’s Club (Walmart) further stated:
“Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, people with disabilities have the right to be accompanied by a service animal at Sam’s Club, and Walmart believes that interference with or denial of this right is a serious violation of company policy.”
What is a real service animal?
The ADA National Network defines a true service animal as an animal that has been individually trained to work or perform tasks for persons with disabilities, which may be physical, sensory, mental, intellectual, or psychiatric.
Trained service animals undergo lengthy, intense and expensive training. The complex tasks of training a service dog include:
- Alerting hearing loss to sound
- Assist the visually impaired with navigation
- Assisting individuals through seizures
- remind people to take medicine
- Provides support and assistance with mobility and balance
- Helping people with neurological/mental disorders by interrupting impulsive behavior
Wherever disabled people go, service animals can go. The only exception is that access to any sterile environment is not allowed, such as certain areas within a hospital.
True service dogs are well-trained animals that will never pose a threat to other humans and/or animals. They are legally allowed in most public areas, including housing (even if no other animals are allowed in) and airlines.
Can you bring an emotional support dog into Sam’s Club?
Sam’s Club does not accept dogs providing emotional support on-site unless the dog has been specifically trained to assist and interact with specific handler have a disability.
Emotional support animals provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes help with depression, anxiety, and certain phobias. They are not specially trained to perform the specific tasks needed to help people with disabilities.
Emotional support dogs, however, do receive training, but training is more common. These animals are taught to interact with different people in different environments and provide auxiliary emotional support at an extremely high level.
Emotional support animals aren’t limited to dogs, and while they can access places that a large number of pets can’t, the legal requirements for emotional support dogs to be accepted in the field are more limited than service dogs.
What is the difference between a service dog and an emotional support dog?
The American Kennel Club Association recommends that the different classification terms for working dogs are specific and not interchangeable, and that each “class” is precisely defined in terms of the tasks undertaken and the associated legal rights.
So service dogs, therapy dogs, and emotional support dogs, while important, don’t play the same role.
For example, breeders of service dogs will not have access to most physical locations in any way no service dog.
In contrast, the work of an emotional support dog or companion animal, while directly related to the emotional needs of the handle, will assist and support the trainer’s successful entry into a particular position, but is not strictly necessary.
Emotional support dogs are trained and are always prescribed for a specific owner, but they are not trained for specific tasks associated with that owner, such as recognizing seizures and/or alerting the handler to overstimulation or repetitive behavior.
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in conclusion…
Sam’s Club will always accept the presence of service dogs in its stores and warehouses.
Sam’s Club recognizes the legal status of service animals and their responsibilities to animals and their handlers.
Pets are not allowed on the Sam’s Club website.
Emotional support or therapy dogs of any type are also not permitted in Sam’s Club unless they are also trained service dogs.
