Peoples reaction to my autism service dog.

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wigglyspider
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06 Feb 2010, 1:50 pm

That's really weird. XD XD XD
I've never had a dog but I have had cats and lots of other pets, but nothing you really take out in public, so I never had to deal with reactions. I think people who act weird to animals must have never had a pet before. I had a room mate like that once. Her mom hates animals so she never had pets, and she was reeeeaaaaaallly apprehensive when I said I wanted to get a cat because she had all these weird ideas about how it would mess up her life. Also I guess if you've never had a pet you wouldn't be used to looking out for things at their height so that might account for not noticing them and running into them.
It seems weird that one service dog would cause such a stir. I think animals should play a bigger part in more people's lives. It seems uhealthy not to.


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Rose_in_Winter
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06 Feb 2010, 5:31 pm

leschevalsroses wrote:
don't require any training, and I believe all you need to do is prove that your dog is therapeutic to you. Not sure how much it is like a regular service dog as far as where you can take it in public areas though.


Thank you -- this is more what I was thinking about, as I don't actually need a service animal. I just function far better with him around. There's something very soothing about him! I'll look into this.



ASdogGeek
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07 Feb 2010, 12:33 am

yeah people have odd reactions to her but she is worth it



Rocky
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07 Feb 2010, 1:34 am

I would guess that part of the reason that you get weird reactions to your service dog is that some people have very fixed ideas about things. Most people are now aware of guide dogs for the blind. Some people are so closed minded that they can't allow for the possibility that something exists that they are not familiar with. They think: "This girl isn't blind! She doesn't need a 'seeing eye' dog!" They are so negative in their thinking that they assume that any situation that does not fit into their world view is the result of someone who is doing something "wrong." I can't imagine what they think your motivation might be, but that is the only explanation I can conceive of. They lack the imagination to allow for the possibility of a more generalized role of "service dogs" vs. "seeing eye dogs." Some people are just suspicious of anything they don't immediately understand.

I wish there were some public service campaigns to make people less ignorant on the subject. If there are any, they haven't done a very good job getting the message out.


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