PawsforMobility.org

Changing Lives 4 Paws at a Time

Service Dog Etiquette

Many people are unsure what to do when they meet a person who uses a service dog. Often people want to pet service dogs and and ask questions out of curiosity because they have never encountered a service dog team before. In the spirit of education: there are some basic things one should know when enteracting with a person and their service dog. The following etiquette guidelines are from the Delta Society website. For those of you who are unfamilar with the Delta Society, here is their description from their About Us page

We are a national 501(c)(3)non-profit organization that helps people live healthier and happier lives by incorporating therapy, service and companion animals into their lives. We receive no government funding and rely on individuals, foundations and corporations for financial support.

Service Dog Etiquette

When you meet a person with a service dog, please remember that the dog is working. Don’t do anything to interrupt the service dog while it is performing its tasks.

Some Rules for Interacting with People with Service Dogs.

Speak to the person first. Do not aim distracting or rude noises at the dog .
Do not touch the service dog without asking for, and receiving, permission.
Do not offer food to the service dog.
Do not ask personal questions about the handler’s disability, or otherwise intrude on his or her privacy.
Don’t be offended if the handler does not wish to chat about the service dog.

What if you don’t like dogs or are afraid of dogs?

Place yourself away from the service dog. If you are a business person, discreetly arrange for someone else to wait on the person. You may ask the person to have the service dog lie down if it does not interfere with its work.

What if the service dog barks, growls, or otherwise forgets its manners?

Find out what happened before taking action. Was the service dog stepped on, poked, asleep and dreaming, performing its job (some alert their owners to oncoming seizures by barking once or twice)? If the dog’s behavior is disruptive or destructive, you may ask the person to remove it from the premises.

What if other people complain about the dog being present?

Explain that the service dog is medically necessary and that federal law protects the right of the person to be accompanied by the service dog in public places.

My Own Personal Addendum To These Guidelines

I’ve had people take offense when I haven’t allowed them to pet my service dog. One of the things I always try to explain to people is that distracting someone’s service dog can create life threatening situations for the handler.

For instance: distracting someone’s seizure alter dog can cause the service dog to miss the critical moment in which he/she must alert their handler to an impending seizure. If the service animal misses the exact moment when the handler needs to be alerted then the handler quite possibly can have a life threatening seizure. If a guide dog is distracted, then the its handler could walk into a busy street, fall over an obstacle that the guide dog was unable to navigate its person around because he/she was distracted. A service dog that is used for balance issue, if distracted, could cause their handler to fall. In my case, my service dogs carry heavy loads and are medical alert service dogs. A distraction for them could cause injury to them due to the load they are carrying or miss cuing me to the condition that I need alerting for. They open doors for me, therefore a distraction could cause a door to be slammed on either me, or the service dog, or someone else.

Every handler makes the decision on when and where they allow someone to pet their service dog. Therefore if you meet one service dog team who allows you to pet their service dog (after asking permission), but then encounter a different team who does not allow you to pet their service dog, please know that each person has a reason for either allowing petting or not allowing petting. Also, don’t assume (if you are around the same team frequently) that you can freely the pet the service dog anytime just because you were allowed to pet the service dog on a different occasion. The handler might have reasons for not wanting to allow anyone to pet their service dog on that specific day. And I promise, if you are not allowed to pet the service dog, it is not about you. Please do not take it personally. It is about what the handler and the service dog need in that specific moment.

Not all dogs are interested in meeting and greeting the general public. My temporary service dog Zach loves to meet and greet people while he’s working. However, even he has days when his only interest is doing his job with me. Molly on the other hand doesn’t particularly need or want to meet and great others while she is working. Her sole focus is on me and how she can help me. And to her, anything that gets in the way of her helping me is a hindrance to her. However when she is off duty she loves, loves, loves meeting and greeting and hanging out with other people and playing ball with anyone who will throw it. She loves people. She is a people dog. But when she is working she has no interest outside of her job. Zach on the other hand, likes to chill by himself when he’s done working. My point, every dog (just like people) has their own unique personality.

Please don’t get offended if a handler does not want to talk about their disability. Think about it this way: to the general public service dogs are a novel thing. When things are novel people are naturally curious…myself included. And most of us are truly passionate about educating people about service dogs and raising disability awareness. However, since we encounter so many people, and most of them want to know about our disability then there can be days when we answer the question about our disability 20-30 times a day or more. Some days it’s okay that we answer the questions and some days we don’t want to talk about it at all. For me personally, when my chronic pain levels are so high I don’t want to talk with anyone. I just want to get the task completed that is causing me to be away from the comfort of my home, and then get back home. I can barely think, much less try to answer personal questions.

My personal pet peeves

Please don’t pet the service dog after a handler has told you “no”. I don’t get upset when people ask to pet my service dog, but it is quite irritating when I nicely tell someone that my dog is working and they go a head and pet my service dog anyway.

Please don’t give out commands to the service dog. When the handler asks their dog to sit or gives out another command to their service dog, and the dog is slow to respond (most likely because the dog is thinking) don’t tell the dog to sit or repeat any other commands the handler has given to their service dog. I had a specific incident a few weeks ago where Zach had been working his butt off all day and was tired (as was I). I was talking with someone, and I asked Zach to sit. I felt his body slowly move into the sitting position. He was doing what I asked of him, but moving a bit slower because he was tired. The person I was talking to proceeded to tell Zach to sit down, mind his manners and a few other things. My point, let the handler take care these situations with their service dog. It does not matter if you are a friend of the handler or a stranger, either way, let the handler handle anything that might arise with their service dog.

If a service dog is waiting for its handler somewhere, while his/her handler has stepped away from their dog, do not under circumstances go disturb the dog. I remember asking Zach to lay down and wait so I could go take care of something about 10 feet away from him. I turned around to see someone holding his leash because they were “afraid” he might run away. Service dogs are highly trained dogs that can and will wait for their handler to return to them. There is no need to pick the leash, talk to the dog, or distract the dog in any way.

Parents, Please don’t allow your kids to pet, jump on, pulls tails, offer food to the service dog.

Do you have a service dog? Please feel free to add to these guidelines, or add something I have left out. If you do not have a service dog but have questions about interacting with service dogs, please ask questions here. No question is dumb. We genuinely want to help educate and advocate for service dogs, disabilities, the law, etiquette any other information people want about service dogs.