When To Follow A Service Dog
SERVICE DOG PSA
So today I tripped. Fell flat on my face, it was awful but ultimately harmless. My service dog, however, is trained to go get an adult if I have a seizure, and he assumed this was a seizure (were training him to do more to care for me, but we didn’t learn I had epilepsy until a year after we got him)
I went after him after I had dusten off my jeans and my ego, and I found him trying to get the attention of a very annoyed woman. She was swatting him away and telling him to go away. So I feel like I need to make this heads up
If a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help
Don’t get scared, don’t get annoyed, follow the dog! If it had been an emergency situation, I could have vomited and choked, I could have hit my head, I could have had so many things happen to me. We’re going to update his training so if the first person doesn’t cooperate, he moves on, but seriously guys. If what’s-his-face could understand that lassie wanted him to go to the well, you can figure out that a dog in a vest proclaiming it a service dog wants you to follow him
Ohhhh, you!
what is this i love it
Ancient meme
This is a meme image satirizing a scenario in which a disabled person is especially vulnerable, implying the obvious response to someone in such a position is to take advantage of them, as opposed to helping them.
Beyond its value for humor's sake alone, it being a particularly funny meme helps spread awareness that a service dog on its own is an emergency that requires attention.
He is talking about the "oh, you" format
Oh okay. Then in that case I'll explain here so as not to double-inbox them and split the thread:
Thats a popular meme in which a dog is accidentally making a very human-like expression from a humorous posture, which in combination looks like a shameful but frolicking admission of guilt. Someone placed a person making a reciprocal gesture in the sightline of that dog, appearing to gaze back while making a similarly lighthearted expression of judgement. Underlining the point is the caption, "Oh, you!" an idiom often uttered in similar scenarios between people in sitcoms.
No service animal, but I was in the "down town" area of a college town, and donated plasma cause I was broke broke.
I'm epileptic, I don't think the plasma donation contributed, but as I was walking back to my car, and waiting to cross a street... well, seizure.
No one helped me, but someone took my phone, wallet, and some meds I needed to keep on me at the time, probably other stuff I don't recall.
The meds had no recreational value. They were seizure meds, and no, nothing like ativan that has any sort of redeeming quality outside of treating epilepsy.
Some people just suck.
True. I think it's very much a Trolley Problem where this might lead to the pickpocketing (or worse) of a disabled person and simultaneously lead to saved lives.
I was hoping someone had posted this so I wouldn't have to look for it myself
A woman once came to my place of work with a dog wearing an obviously fake service dog vest and patch. I know this for two reasons. One, the dog was completely out of control and yipping and scampering around all over the place and jumping on everybody, which is generally not service dog behavior. And two, once she learned the owner of our company had a dog she immediately launched into her sales pitch pushing him to buy her fake service dog patches, which she flat out admitted are for getting your dog into places it otherwise wouldn't be allowed. I think this might have also had some kind of pyramid scheme aspect.
"Did you know??? Businesses are not allowed to discriminate against you or your dog if it says it's a service animal! It's Federal law!!!"
I threw her out. This made her very incensed.
I told her in no uncertain terms that the only thing she's accomplishing is training people -- not dogs -- that they can ignore legitimate service animals because they might be dipshit Karens like herself are going around with fake service dogs causing problems everywhere they go. I am positive she lacked the empathy or self-awareness to understand the harm that this could cause to someone with a real service dog who was in need of actual help.
But she's still banned. Too bad, not sad.
I hope the owner had your back 💯 for what you did. People always trying to side-step rules and/or boundaries because they think they’re stupid or don’t apply to them are exactly what’s wrong with the world today.
As Chief Executive Asshole around here, it is indeed one of my jobs to throw people out of the building when necessary. And also to tell self-important clients "no" when it's appropriate.
Now that’s a job title I would actively strive for. 🤣
Make sure you remove the ID finger before the ambulance arrives.
I won't be making that mistake again.
The only trouble with that is if it's last year's model then I'm just going to have to let them die.
I reply to any commenter that posts twice. They are usually escaped/lost.
I've collected 13 kidneys this way, it's too easy.
You must pee pure water
That must have been a very bad day for the person with only one kidney.
There's a comic about this. Lady No-kids or something
A good life!!
I just like dogs. If one walked up to me and clearly wanted me to follow it I probably would.
I could have been abducted so easily as a kid if pedos in my area had known that one simple trick haha
"Come with me, tiny human."
Oh, are we having an adventure?
"Uhm... Yes. Kind of."
Cool!!!
Yeah pretty much
Heck, I even followed the neighbours cat when he came and approached me clearly upset about something, on my way to the shop.
To be fair there was a slight drizzle, and he needed someone to ring their doorbell so he could go inside.
Someone might have caught on...
Follow, don’t pet. Got it. Can I pet after?
If the owner is dead then you get to pet
What if I'm also there. And a court concludes I maaay have had some small part in the owner's death? Am I still allowed to pet it then (after it gets x-rayed coming into the prison)?
Is still a good dog, so yes. Pet
I mean, this is gonna happen long after the petting is over. Go nuts.
Be wary of killing the service dog's owner as this may upset the dog.
Eh, they're just a client. Service Pupper is all business.
If the owner is dead, you must scritch head.
I love rules that rhyme!
Just imagine a service dog with a lil sigh that says, "Help! I need an adult!"
Like, me too, bud. Me too.
Had no idea this was a thing, and I knew what a service dog was. Glad I learned something new today, thank you for sharing!
They should mention this on TV/Cable/other like they used to do in the old days when they used to broadcast PSAs.
ThiscommentislicensedunderCCBY-NC-SA4.0It’s a shame they don’t put as much effort into educating the public on important things like this.
Yeah ... instead of important even life saving information, we're fed a steady stream of absolute nonsense and even information that is the opposite of a PSA.
Don't you know? Service dogs cause autism! I saw it on the news, they had a graph and everything!
Least you didn't get traumatized by the ghost kid PSA we got about road safety.
They literally had this whole story about a kid who'd been run over crossing the road and he's now basically a ghost wandering around being sad about it. I think there was a train one as well.
That would require people to care.
In America we are just supposed to attach a note to the dog that says "thoughts and prayers"
I follow any dog that approaches me without an obvious owner. They are usually escaped/lost.
I reply to any commenter that posts twice. They are usually escaped/lost
Lol, not sure how that happened, my bad.
It's probably a race condition in the Lemmy server code and not your fault.
I do this too, I usually end up lost.
well my first instinct would be to pet the dog, hope the dog has more sense than me and can refuse the free pets
Good psa. I didn’t know this as well
But what if I don't have a vest?
Well you better start wearing one now.
I've known this fact in the past, but I'm not sure I'd remember it in the moment.
I would probably pet the dog for 10 minutes then go home and not remember until I see this meme again and then wonder if anything bad happened due to distracting the dog from finding someone actually useful 😅
Dog is hopefully trained to reject pets and get back to the goal at hand. Getting owner help.
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I mean the dogs aren't actually that dumb, even when the people are.
Like they know how to attract attention by barking and trying to draw you towards the person by not letting you get to them if you try to pet them and going further towards the person.
But yeah, it's a good "psa".
We had a Portuguese sheepdog, and it was very well trained, and I always kept him off the leash while outside. If there was a group of two or more, he would "herd", going from far in the front to far in the back and just constantly keeping watch and if there was a larger group and someone was left behind, he'd stand in between the person (who was probably staying a bit behind while the others walked because they were taking a piss because beer) and the group and as the distance grew, he'd grow clearly more anxious. He wasn't one to bark (because of the mistreatment from the former owner), but if he had, he'd have barked at that point.
What a cunt. I thought everyone knew this (to follow service dogs if they try to get your attention alone). Plus, why would you swat away any dog if it just wants your attention?
Not everyone likes dogs.
Impossible! I wouldn't trust people who don't like dogs, just like I wouldn't trust a person a dog doesn't like.
Dogs love me, but you still shouldn't trust me
I don't really mind the dogs, but I'm definitely not as smitten with them as the population in general seem to be.
I do not understand why dogs have to bark at everyone who ever walks past the house. They've lived there for years, they've seen probably thousands of people walk past the house, and they always just walk past, not once as anybody ever come into the house and started attacking everyone with a chainsaw, so why do dogs act like that's a possibility?
It's the fence.
I don't understand why everyone seems to claim that dogs are psychic. Dogs like people that give them food, they're not capable of making a determination about someone's hidden secret.
My dog generally likes most people, but the ones she doesn't like are usually tweakers. My partners dog likes EVERYONE, and if he doesn't like somebody, then I am usually very cautious around that person.
Some people have bad experiences with dogs as tiny kids and it carries with them to adulthood. It can also be that people's one-or-both parents don't like dogs (probably for that reason) and teach that to them.
Sad to go through life and miss out on that.
Yeah. That's a good point. But I really thought that most people knew about the service dog thing though. I guess that's on me for assuming (you know what they say about that).
Dogs are vicious, that's why. Not even talking about the fighting dogs, which rip apart babies. I'm talking about small "cute" dogs, that bite girls and rip apart their toys for fun... Yeah, had that all happen to young women I got to know in my life and they are all traumatised.
*Some dogs. I agree it happens, but to say all dogs are is incorrect.
Yeah, they rip apart toys for fun.... because it's fun (and inherited behavior) but the vast majority of dogs would never attack someone like that. Unless their person is in extreme danger or something.
I wonder, if dog lovers here would be just as chill, if someone would respond something like "Yeah, we rip apart doggies for fun... because it's fun". :D
But they're toys. Not other animals, or people. It's an inherent trait. Any responsible dog owner knows this. My dog loves ripping apart some toys, but would never attack another human.
Have you ever owned a dog?
All I know about them is people screech and holler in public and online if you pet one.
Yeah cool, thanks for your input
How do you pet a dog online?
Can I pet that service dog? No?.. Okay you gonna marinate for a bit then.