[nagdu] More loose dogs!

[Raven Tolliver]

Oh, goodness! The people who bring their dogs up to you and just
assume it's okay for them to interact are irritating. People should
ask regardless. All dogs are not friendly toward other dogs, or toward
other people. It's just stupid not to ask, really!
Most of the time, people have approached me with their dogs, and the
Golden Guy was leash-guiding, so they assumed I was just another woman
walking her dog. And I allow these interactions. But people have done
it while he was in-harness, and it irritates me to no end. My dog
already has a dog distraction, and I've trained myself to remain calm
and collected while we're passing or approaching other dogs. But when
someone brings their dog right up to us and he's working, I get a
little mean.

Honestly, I am floored that people see a service dog harness of any
kind and it doesn't register. Yes, there are many pet dogs in walking
harnesses, but none of those look like service dog harnesses, do they?
I've seen a variety of walking harnesses, but have only seen a couple
different service dog harnesses, so I sincerely don't know.

But I know some sighted people don't process the harness as a guide
harness. I dated a guy a couple of summers ago, and he told me he'd
seen me around town at the bus station and such, but he didn't realize
my dog was a service dog until he saw me enter an on-campus apartment
with the Golden Guy. I asked him what he thought before, and he
explained that a lot of people's dogs walk ahead of them, so he didn't
know any difference. Um, ... but he was wearing a harness! Apparently,
the guy didn't notice it.
While sighted people can see, I think many of them are very
unobservant, and more unaware of things than they realize.
-- 
Raven
Founder of 1AM Editing & Research
www.1am-editing.com

You are valuable because of your potential, not because of what you
have or what you do.

Naturally-reared guide dogs
https://groups.google.com/d/forum/nrguidedogs

On 6/24/15, Debby Phillips via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Daryl, do you guys have Animal Control there? At least where I
> live, dogs are not supposed to be outside without leashes unless
> they are in a fenced yard.  I remember a neighborhood I lived in
> when I was in Portland.  These people just let their dog run
> loose.  It was probably a nice enough dog, but very distracting,
> and very scary to me.  This dog would just come running up and be
> all in my dog's face, and my face.  I finally told the kids that
> the dog belonged to that if they did not keep their dog on leash
> or in their yard I was going to call Animal Control.  I was
> pretty mean about it I guess, but like you, I was sick of having
> to deal with it.  After that I didn't have any problem.  I'm sure
> they still let the dog run loose, but when they saw me they
> grabbed it.  And I would have called, too.  Those kids could not
> control the dog, only the dad and mom could, and they weren't
> always outside.  I did kind of feel sorry for the kids, after the
> fact, but it was just scary having that dog run at us like that.
> Debby and Nova
>
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