[nagdu] importance of education on guide/assistance dogs

[Criminal Justice Major Extraordinaire]

Hi, all,
Since I've posted about the situation I've been in for a while which was 
having to fight my apartment complex so I can get a successor guide dog when 
that time is right, I figured to get another subject line going.
Can't remember exactly which lists there's been a discussion on certified 
and no certified service dogs, so here it goes.
*Smiles*
When I did some initial research on the service dog law here in Colorado, 
I've began to realize that the law isn't publicly well-known, meaning not 
everyone is aware of it.
If the protection law was more well-known or made aware of, there would be 
lesser problems of interfierence from people and other pet owners as a 
whole, interrupting a guide/assistance dog's job.
My next approach that I'll be taking is to speak with the denver Office of 
Disability Rights Commision to express the important part of a working dog 
in the hopes that I can also contact my senator and Governor Hickenlooper 
here in Colorado.
My ultimate goal is I can try to get the service dog law to be officially 
past so it is an actual bill for the whole state of Colorado.
This is not just for me, but for others too as I want to make sure they 
don't have to put up with unnecessary harassment or problems.
Another good example of why I decided to write about this?
My friend, Amanda Dreher happened to be inside of a Chase bank here in 
downtown Denver on the 16th Street Mall a couple days ago at an ATM machine.
She had her hearing dog Louie in a sit stay position until an unknown lady 
approached Louie, started talking to him, petting him and not bothering to 
read his orange vest which clearly states "hearing dog, please do not pet."
The lady didn't care and still did it anyway.
That caused Louie to get up and become distracted, leaving my friend Amanda 
Dreher angry and annoyed.
What makes me irritated and disgusted with people is when they have the 
nerve to ask "Is The Dog In Training?"
If it was true that a service dog would be in training, they would have a 
vest that actually says such and such in training.
louie's vest doesn't state that he's in training, but a hearing dog.
I've had people ask me the same question when Odie wears his medical alert 
service dog vest, despite that one patch says medical alert and another one 
says please do not pet.
Louie was trained at International Hearing Dogs out here in Henderson, 
Colorado and they do issue identiication cards to their clients.
The identification cards are the same thing which those who do use guide 
dogs automatically get from their guide dog school of choice.
Truth is that I sometimes want to say to people who continuously decide to 
behave rediculously when they ask the question I mentioned above and say, 
"Why is that your concern?"
I know that would be rude of me to do so, but after a while, you feel as if 
you've had enough.
One tactic I've come up with and this is something that neither guide dog 
school have taught anyone as a whole is to put my left hand and arm over 
Odie's head, creating a barrier to indicate I don't want people just coming 
up out of nowhere and making attemps or even touching him withoutt my 
permission.
Even back when Odie was a guide dog, I still did the same thing.
My husband, dale noticed when I'd do that and he told me that was my way of 
going into defense mode and being on the ready for an unknown hand to come 
at our four-legged furry partner.
Back to the law, my friend Natalie and I have been talking about it a lot 
and I've told her directly of the next plan I have in the hopes I can get 
the Chief of Police, Disability Rights Commission and Downtown denver 
Partnership along with myself to work on strengthening that law.
I've also encouraged Natalie by letting her know she'd definitely be 
welcomed to help me out with accomplishing this task as well.
It seems weird that with older states here in the US, laws are more stricter 
and service dog protection is more well-known than here in Colorado.
Although Colorado is yunger than some states, I do agree that there 
shouldn't be an excuse for the law not being tougher and it can happen.
I'll admit that when people have tried to come up and mess with Odie, he'd 
clearly make it known when he didn't want to be bothered, especially after a 
long day of traveling.
He would display that directly on his face upon turning away from an 
individual or moving around to let them know they need to back off and 
leave.
So, I'll be doing some more research to get in contact with Senator Michael 
Bennett so I can speak with him directly and try to give him and others the 
information I've found.
All right...
Another confession time here and this one has nothing to do with special 
treatment.
Earlier this year during the time I had encountered my second seizure 
(technically the third one) on june 16, 2011 ten or eleven hours apart after 
the first one, Dale wanted to get Odie into the medical alert service dog 
vest before we went downstairs to the waiting ambulance.
Both fire department and paramedics told us there was no time to get the 
vest on and just quickly slip on a leash and collar with identification 
tags.
Luckily, denver Health Medical knows Odie very well and since I worked hard 
on keeping him in tackt to be sure he stayed well-behaved, they still knew 
that he was a working dog, even withoutt his vest on.
The security guards and staff on the hospital grounds gave us no trouble nor 
did they say a word about Odie being there in the buildings with my husband 
as they had to go over to the pharmacy to grab my seizure meds while I 
remained in the emergency room.
Because of that type of circumstance, I know there will be listers who might 
feel that was special treatment, but truth is that there was no special 
treatment involved or brought upon by the fire department or paramedics in 
that situation.
It was more they were concerned that if I didn't get the medical treatment, 
the convulsive grandmal seizure would have killed me right on the spot.
Yes, Odie for the most part does have his medical alert vest on when he goes 
with Dale or I.
Just my thoughts on this one.
Bibi and Odie
the happy spirited bounty labra wolf