Excuse me while I step onto my soapbox...
Why on earth
do people pet dogs without asking? And I am talking about any dog, not
just service dogs. In one week I had two people come up to my vested
dog and just start petting (one person even had to reach around me to
touch my dog in an elevator). I tell the dog to leave it (which they
did beautifully) and the person goes "oh am I not supposed to pet
them?" And I nicely explain "no, they are a service dog and they are
working but it is good training for them to ignore people who just start
petting them." One of the people said "oh I didn't know I couldn't pet
them" and another said "well if I had known they were in TRAINING I
would have ignored them but their vest does not say in training." Well
people you should not go up to ANY dog, vested or not, and start petting
them. I don't care what breed they are or how cute and friendly they
look. The dog might not like to be petted, might have an ear infection
and if you touch their ears might get unhappy, might not like women,
men, people with hats etc, the list goes on. Please just ask. It is
like me seeing your cute kid, whom I don't know, and running up and
giving them a hug. That would result in all sorts of drama (and
probably a freaked out kid). So do everyone a courtesy and just ask to
pet before assuming your hand is allowed on my dog.
Thank you. Stepping off of my soap box now.
I
would like to say there are some super awesome people out there too.
We went to dinner last night in a crowded restaurant. As we walked in
there were a couple kids with their parents in a small waiting area.
The kids get all excited about the dogs and the mom instantly goes "do
not distract or pet that dog. They are service dogs." Then explained
to her kids what service dogs were and why you do not pet them. We had
no issues, no kid tried to run over and the dogs didn't loose focus. It
was great!
And to end the post with probably one of my most favorite funny photos of Serena taken a couple days ago:
