Cruise passengers trail in Finnegan’s wake

By Donald H. Harrison

ABOARD SEA PRINCESS – There were some 3,000 passengers and crew aboard Sea Princess, and quite clearly Finnegan McNeil was the celebrity that a good percentage of them talked about.  How tiny he was to be of such service!  How cute!  How did he like being on the high seas?

His human companion, Steve File of Panama City, Florida, cheerfully answered most of the questions.  Although people are used to seeing larger dogs in the role of guide dogs for the blind, there are other kinds of dogs that provide different services.  There are dogs that help the hearing impaired.  There are those that can sense when their owners’ blood-sugar is too low, or when an owner is about to have a seizure.  There are dogs that can make tense or depressed people relax, particularly in nursing homes and in hospitals.

So the fact that Finnegan McNeil is a toy schnauzer doesn’t disqualify him from being a service dog, says File.  Finnegan lets him know if someone is knocking at the door, or if a smoke alarm is going off, or if someone is calling his name.  The dog will either nuzzle File or bark at him until he gets his attention.

File explained that he has a condition called Bilateral Meniere’s Disease, which causes a fluctuating hearing loss in both ears.  “It is something that goes up and down, and there are not a lot of hearing aids that can deal with that.” The condition tends to act up on air planes with the changes in altitude, but is not nearly so bothersome on cruise ships, File said.  Therefore Finnegan had relatively light duty on a recent 10-day roundtrip cruise between San Francisco and Alaska.

The first day on the cruise was a bit bewildering to the dog.  That’s when a mandatory safety drill was held in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations.  The signal that is sounded throughout the ship for passengers to report to evacuation stations consists of seven short blasts and one long blast on the ship’s whistle.  Never having heard that before, Finnegan didn’t know what to make of it, his owner said.

He was also a bit out of sorts over the accommodations made for him in the “guide dog service area” in a crew passageway leading from the deck where the Files had their cabin.  Finnegan’s special place was  a  4 x 6 pen covered in cedar bark where he could be taken to “do his business.”   For a toy schnauzer that’s a large area, almost a “doggie park,” quipped File.

However, Finnegan waited two days before availing himself of the facilities – causing File and his wife, Julia, to become concerned until Finnegan finally relented.  Used to grass, Finnegan was a very happy dog – “you could almost see him smile” – at Sea Princess’s first port-of-call after leaving San Francisco: the grassy Victoria, British Columbia.

As they would at any dog park, the Files cleaned up after their own dog and put the bagged waste into a special container near Finnegan’s on board area.

When there are more dogs aboard, said Gavin Chandler, the cruise director, a special place outdoors is set up for the dogs on the Promenade Deck – renamed the “Poop Deck” for the occasion.  As the cedar bark is changed frequently during the cruise, said Chandler, passengers enjoy the tree-like smell that wafts near the doggie area.

Although guide dogs for the blind have been coming aboard cruise ships for years, other kinds of service dogs are seen less frequently.  Because they are foreign-flagged vessels, most cruise ships are not covered by the provisions of the American Disabilities Act that require U.S. land-based attractions to accommodate service animals.  However, Chandler says it just makes “good sense” for cruise lines to do everything they can to welcome passengers with service dogs.

The owner of two pet dogs himself,  Chandler said that service dog owners on ships can be accommodated with not too much difficulty.  At the big evening show productions, for example, they can be seated in the front row, where the dogs can lie comfortably in front of them. Special life jackets can be provided the dogs in the event of an emergency at sea.  Stewards can put milk bones on the dog’s pillows in their cabin as night time treats.  And special times, when the dogs are off harness, it can be arranged that the dogs can play with each other and meet with interested passengers.

File said that while there was some paper work required by Princess involving documentation of Finnegan’s service dog status, he had found the cruise line most cooperative.

There still are a few things the staff needs to learn, he cautioned, such as that service dogs of any kind should not be petted— no matter how cute theyare – without their owners’ permission while they are in their harnesses.  That is because such petting might distract the dogs from the jobs that they have been trained to do.

On the other hand, he said, when the dogs are off duty, they are as friendly and as curious as any other dog, and can be related to as such.

Besides being an important market segment, passengers with service dogs offer other advantages to cruise ship companies, said Chandler. He said dogs aboard ship can add to the passengers’ experiences – as well as to the enjoyment of crew members who sometimes are away from home eight months of the year.

*

Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com

File: US Canada West 22