Here’s What You Should Do If A Service Dog Approaches You Without Its Owner
When it comes to service dogs, many of us lack knowledge about how to properly act near them. So one Tumblr user decided to share her story and educate people on what you’re supposed to do if a service dog approaches you.
Tessa C. took to social media to share a story about how her dog Raider was seeking a stranger’s attention after his owner fell, yet the stranger told Raider to go away. Dog mistook Tessa’s fall for a seizure, but luckily she only accidentally tripped. Nevertheless, her message shows how important it is to know how to act near a service dog.
“I’ve had Raider for 2 ½ years, and originally he was supposed to be for my autism. About 4-5 months ago, however, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Never had a seizure before, and suddenly I had 3 in as many months. Training for epilepsy is… Trickier. He’s learning though, and it should only be a couple of months until he’s fully ready to assist me.” Tessa told Bored Panda.
In her PSA she told people how important it is to follow the service dog if he approaches you since it means that the dog’s owner is in danger. “For now, I’ve decided to purchase a patch saying “If I am alone, follow me!”, and hope that spurs a better reaction”, Tessa said. “I do most of the training on my own, with a local trainer that comes in every week or two to give me directions on how to proceed.”
Scroll down to read Tessa’s story yourself, and don’t forget to tell us what you think in the comments!
More info: lumpatronics
Recently, one woman shared an important message about her service dog, and it quickly went viral
Her post was liked and retweeted more than 375,000 times on Twitter
Not along ago Tessa was diagnosed with epilepsy, “Never had a seizure before, and suddenly I had 3 in as many months”
Image credits: Tessa C.
So she started training her dog to help her in case of an emergency
Image credits: Tessa C.
“I do most of the training on my own, with a local trainer that comes in every week or two to give me directions on how to proceed”
Image credits: Tessa C.
Tessa is planning to purchase a patch for Raider that says “If I am alone, follow me!”, so this story wouldn’t repeat itself
Image credits: Tessa C.
Many people reacted to Tessa’s story
175Kviews
Share on Facebook
https://twitter.com/vavroom/status/1009067707503923200 "The girl who originally wrote that was posting on her Tumblr. It transpires that she was training her own dog, a family pet dog Mastiff. Who has since been deemed not appropriate for that kind of work (doh!). She does/did not know about proper service dog behaviour. A service dog "fetching" help for their human would STAY with the human and bark until help arrives. Someone I know even trained her dog to speed dial 911 on the home phone for situations like that. Not go and get someone."
Like What is said, this makes sense. I did find it strange she was/is training her dog all alone, only with someone who helps every other week or so. These dogs need to be trained properly!! I already knew you need to ignore a service dog. But after reading the article and if a service dog came up to me without it's owner, from now on I would definitely follow the dog, of course without touching him etc. But I guess this won't happen (often) though. I hope all service dogs are trained better than this one. And I hope she will let her dog get proper training! That would be far more safe than what happened in this article on BP. (Haven't read the article of the comment yet). Like was said, she could have vomited and choked or other things could have happened. So I hope the dog learns to never let her alone. And learn other better(!) solutions when something like this happens. But I will take this information with me anyway!
Load More Replies...
"If a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help", I thought this was common sense...?
I didn't know this specifically, but I still would have been concerned about a service dog without a person and probably would have tried to find his person.
Load More Replies...
There are real service dogs and then there are b******t service dogs that neurotics rig up with fake shirts so they can take their dogs where they wish. It's important to call out the b******t dogs so that real service dogs are taken seriously, but do most people do that? Noooooooo.
https://twitter.com/vavroom/status/1009067707503923200 "The girl who originally wrote that was posting on her Tumblr. It transpires that she was training her own dog, a family pet dog Mastiff. Who has since been deemed not appropriate for that kind of work (doh!). She does/did not know about proper service dog behaviour. A service dog "fetching" help for their human would STAY with the human and bark until help arrives. Someone I know even trained her dog to speed dial 911 on the home phone for situations like that. Not go and get someone."
Like What is said, this makes sense. I did find it strange she was/is training her dog all alone, only with someone who helps every other week or so. These dogs need to be trained properly!! I already knew you need to ignore a service dog. But after reading the article and if a service dog came up to me without it's owner, from now on I would definitely follow the dog, of course without touching him etc. But I guess this won't happen (often) though. I hope all service dogs are trained better than this one. And I hope she will let her dog get proper training! That would be far more safe than what happened in this article on BP. (Haven't read the article of the comment yet). Like was said, she could have vomited and choked or other things could have happened. So I hope the dog learns to never let her alone. And learn other better(!) solutions when something like this happens. But I will take this information with me anyway!
Load More Replies... "If a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help", I thought this was common sense...?
I didn't know this specifically, but I still would have been concerned about a service dog without a person and probably would have tried to find his person.
Load More Replies... There are real service dogs and then there are b******t service dogs that neurotics rig up with fake shirts so they can take their dogs where they wish. It's important to call out the b******t dogs so that real service dogs are taken seriously, but do most people do that? Noooooooo.
375
59