The Unspoken Rules of Service Dog Etiquette

From Service Dog Training

Most people these days know the basics of service dog etiquette: Don’t distract the dog, ask before petting, talk to the person not the dog, etc. This isn’t the whole story though, even if people actually followed those rules. Here are some other rules service dog user wish everyone knew:

Yes, I have a dog. I am aware of that. You really don’t need to look at me and say "It's a dog!"

Asking if my dog bites is not the same as asking if you can pet my dog. Just because my dog doesn’t bite doesn’t automatically mean you can pet him.

Please don’t go out of your way to point out my dog to your child. Chances are, your child has seen a dog before. If they don't see mine, it's ok. Few things are more annoying than to be followed around a grocery store with someone saying "Look little Johnny, it’s a dog, do you see the dog? Little Johnny, there’s a dog over there, look at the doggy."

Similar to the above rule, please don’t use my dog as your babysitter. Telling your little kids to “look at the doggy” and then disappearing into a changing room leaving them with me and the dog is not ok. I am not your babysitter, and neither is my dog.

Don't throw things at my dog. I understand you might be surprised to see a dog, or even scared of dogs. Needless to say, I'm not bringing my dog around with me just to terrify people. If you’re scared, say so, and I'll try to stay away from you. But seriously, don't throw things at my dog.

Kids are curious, and that's ok. We can hear them ask you questions, and we can hear you hissing at them not to stare. This reinforces the idea that people with disabilities are scary or fundamentally different from everyone else.

While many service dog users are happy to answer questions about their dog, please recognize that there are times you should not ask. If I'm on the phone, obviously busy, having an intimate dinner with my husband, please don’t come over to ask about my dog.

No animal is perfect. Sometimes a dog will refuse a command or act like an idiot. Unless someone is being endangered by the behavior, please hold your comments. Service dogs sometimes need to be corrected. Failing to correct our dogs' misbehavior could put us in danger later on, so it is essential that we give timely and effective corrections. As service dog users, we know the appropriate and humane way to correct our dogs. It is not ok to insert yourself into our business because you don't like the way we correct out dogs. Not only is it horribly rude, the opinion of a random stranger is not going to change the way we interact with our dogs.

--Tiffany Huggard-Lee 09:53, 9 January 2010 (CST)