How would you handle this...?

Post Reply New Topic

I was on this tour of a cave in NY with my family and service dog in training. We followed the tour guide and also a large group of people, suddenly the tour guide stopped us. She said we all had to get in boats for the rest of the tour because of the under ground river. I said that I would stay behind with the dog because I didnt want her in the boat. The guide said that was ok and they would come back from me. I sat down and waited for my family to come back on the boat while petting my dog. Other tour groups pasted on boats too. Then all of the sudden this women from another boat yells, "Hey look at that dog!!" Every one in that boat pulled out their cells phones and started randomly taking photos of my dog and I. They didnt even speak one word to me. Just shouting things like "You see that dog? Its a saver dog, it saves people!" Or "Hey cute doggie! Doggie! Come here doggie!" I got really mad. My dog is in training and cant have that kind of distraction of people yelling at her. I wanted to say some thing but any thing I would have said would not have been nice. So I kept my mouth shut. But do you think I should have said something to them? Would you have?

It depends. If they were all just passing you on boats then no, I wouldn't have said anything. However, if people tried to talk to you then I would have explained the situation. It's something that undoubtedly will come up in the future and it would give you some practice. Plus, most people are not mean by nature and I tend to think some of them would come off with a greater sense of understanding about the issues we face.

That was pretty rude of those people. I've always been taught that you should never pet or bother a person's service dog. The most I would have done is pointed them out to the person I'm with and commented to the person I'm with how cute they were. I wouldn't even need to be told it's a service dog or seen it wearing anything special because it's in a place where dogs wouldn't be allowed unless they are service dogs.

I think I know what cave you are talking about. I've been there a couple of times if it's the same one. It's pretty interesting but I think I'd be scared to do real caving with equipment and climbing over things and stuff like that.