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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
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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
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What do you think ?
rena 7 years ago
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."
BoredDragonfly 7 years ago
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...
Ellis 7 years ago
"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...?
Cassie 7 years ago
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...
Jack Reno 7 years ago
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.
Nancy Seton 7 years ago
While I agree with people saying most of us are taught to leave working service pets alone, the very least you can do if it comes to you alone is see if you can figure out if something is wrong or not. You can do it without touching the pet, so you can do it without taking it's focus off his work. If nothings up, you can still easily let it go.
Lisa Shaw 4 years ago
I have personal experience with this, we have a gentleman living in our neighbourhood who has remissive MS and a seizure disorder. Someone came walking down the street with his service dog on a leash claiming they found him and wanted to know if anyone recognized him, I know Peter and his human Steve. I asked the woman where the leash came from (Steve has thousands of hours of off leash training and does not walk on a leash) and she said she found him "wandering around", so she put him on a leash. I informed her that is a service dog without his human, took the leash off and asked Peter to show me where his human is, we followed him back to Steve's place and found Steve pinned under an arch welder with crushing injuries and called 911 for ambulance and rescue assistance. The dog was wearing his vest, he has a badge on it that says "if I am alone, follow me" and this less than smart neighbour was going to turn him over to the pound.
deborah darsie 7 years ago
In response to a number of the below comments - That is not necessarily correct. There are a few mobility dogs with wheelchair using handlers which acted with "intelligent disobedience" and ran to a known neighbor's porch, to bring the neighbor to help her handler return to her wheelchair. Another trained behavior is the retrieval of an emergency phone in the home or the cell phone, so their person can call for help. Even more interesting is a special "911" button in the home which the dog will press with its nose or paw. Professionally trained service dogs are impressive. Poorly selected dogs - temperament, age, socialization, etc. tend to be a riskier proposition.
Caroline Driver 7 years ago
If someone was nervous of dogs and freakin' Mastiff turned up beside them and started acting a bit odd (for a dog), it's not surprising that they might try to get rid of it! If it was a Lab, probably a better reception.
pusheen buttercup 7 years ago
wow, you can train a dog to dial 911?! I wonder if the officers would even understand if they heard the dog barking into the phone... maybe you can teach them to bark SOS in morse code. I'm not joking btw, I wonder if that's possible
Kip The Otter 6 years ago
It probably is, I know you can teach a dog to bark on command so maybe you could tell them SOS! And they'd dial 911 and bark out SOS? Dogs are pretty smart and if you reward them after they do the task then they would do it, just like if you were teaching them to sit. The only thing is during training you would have to explain to the dispatcher why they were called.
Load More Replies...
Michèle Gyselinck 7 years ago
Well, actually, you're not supposed to pet a working dog, but that doesn't mean we should ignore them.
Donald Davidson 7 years ago
Personally, with all the fake animals out there, I would ignore it too. especially a dog that size. I work in a hospital and you would not believe the number of fake dogs I see. this is exactly the reason why there should be a much tighter regulation of the service dog industry. way too many fake ones and no way to know which is or isn't a real service animal. and a dog that goes in search of help, it not a well trained animal. a real service animal should be staying with their person and not wandering around looking for someone to help.
Karen Moore 7 years ago
I always knew never to touch a service dog while they are working but I never thought about if I would see one without their owner what that would mean. I am so glad this was posted!! I will share this with everyone.
diane a 7 years ago
Service dog or otherwise - dogs are smart and if any lone dog was obviously desperately trying to get my attention I think I would follow to see where it led me if possible. You hear many stories of owners having accidents or falling seriously ill and saved only by their dog alerting strangers that something was wrong.
diane a 7 years ago
Where I live in the UK there is no stray dog problem, no dog-dumping and any dog obviously alone, at the very least needs reuniting with it's owner
Load More Replies... 
Effseven Six 7 years ago
I would follow the dog anyway, wondering why a random service dog would walk up to me without his/her owner.
Mark Smallman 7 years ago
Where I work we get a lot of service dogs who come in with a trainer. We are usually told not to make a fuss of them as they are working/learning but every now and again when they have had their lessons for the day we are allowed to make a fuss of them :)
Shawn Ruester 7 years ago
I always ask if I can pet them when I see a service dog, as long as it's with it's person OR a trainer.
Load More Replies...
Natasha Bourque 7 years ago
More people need to read this story and learn from it. Learn from the mistakes the woman made. We should be taught in Health ED about this, so we do not make the same mistakes as most.
Kristina Funkycrew 7 years ago
please ignore anything this idiot posted. Her dog is NOT a service dog and neither is that behaviour appropriate of service dogs. What a sham!
Kip The Otter 6 years ago
Excuse you Kristina, but seizures are a real thing as is epilepsy. When you are about to seize there is no warning. No lights blinking, dizzy, light headed or nausea. Nothing. Just down and seizing. Most people dismiss a dog barking if they can't see it. But if a dog with a patch that said "If I'm alone, follow me!" approached someone the chances of them following are significantly higher. Even if the first person didn't do it, the dog could be trained to stay for 20 sec and if they don't help, find a new person. Not all service dogs help the blind or the deaf, some help people with seizures others help people with diabetes. There are ones that help people with autism, allergy detection, mobility assistance and PTSD. This is a legitimate disability that needs legitimate help!
Load More Replies...
Amina Hays 7 years ago
I wonder if she said anything to the woman who was swatting the dog away.
Kelly 7 years ago
But now you know that you can get someonelse's attention to take care of that person.
Load More Replies...
rena 7 years ago
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."
BoredDragonfly 7 years ago
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... Ellis 7 years ago
"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...?
Cassie 7 years ago
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... Jack Reno 7 years ago
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.
Nancy Seton 7 years ago
While I agree with people saying most of us are taught to leave working service pets alone, the very least you can do if it comes to you alone is see if you can figure out if something is wrong or not. You can do it without touching the pet, so you can do it without taking it's focus off his work. If nothings up, you can still easily let it go.
Lisa Shaw 4 years ago
I have personal experience with this, we have a gentleman living in our neighbourhood who has remissive MS and a seizure disorder. Someone came walking down the street with his service dog on a leash claiming they found him and wanted to know if anyone recognized him, I know Peter and his human Steve. I asked the woman where the leash came from (Steve has thousands of hours of off leash training and does not walk on a leash) and she said she found him "wandering around", so she put him on a leash. I informed her that is a service dog without his human, took the leash off and asked Peter to show me where his human is, we followed him back to Steve's place and found Steve pinned under an arch welder with crushing injuries and called 911 for ambulance and rescue assistance. The dog was wearing his vest, he has a badge on it that says "if I am alone, follow me" and this less than smart neighbour was going to turn him over to the pound.
deborah darsie 7 years ago
In response to a number of the below comments - That is not necessarily correct. There are a few mobility dogs with wheelchair using handlers which acted with "intelligent disobedience" and ran to a known neighbor's porch, to bring the neighbor to help her handler return to her wheelchair. Another trained behavior is the retrieval of an emergency phone in the home or the cell phone, so their person can call for help. Even more interesting is a special "911" button in the home which the dog will press with its nose or paw. Professionally trained service dogs are impressive. Poorly selected dogs - temperament, age, socialization, etc. tend to be a riskier proposition.
Caroline Driver 7 years ago
If someone was nervous of dogs and freakin' Mastiff turned up beside them and started acting a bit odd (for a dog), it's not surprising that they might try to get rid of it! If it was a Lab, probably a better reception.
pusheen buttercup 7 years ago
wow, you can train a dog to dial 911?! I wonder if the officers would even understand if they heard the dog barking into the phone... maybe you can teach them to bark SOS in morse code. I'm not joking btw, I wonder if that's possible
Kip The Otter 6 years ago
It probably is, I know you can teach a dog to bark on command so maybe you could tell them SOS! And they'd dial 911 and bark out SOS? Dogs are pretty smart and if you reward them after they do the task then they would do it, just like if you were teaching them to sit. The only thing is during training you would have to explain to the dispatcher why they were called.
Load More Replies... Michèle Gyselinck 7 years ago
Well, actually, you're not supposed to pet a working dog, but that doesn't mean we should ignore them.
Donald Davidson 7 years ago
Personally, with all the fake animals out there, I would ignore it too. especially a dog that size. I work in a hospital and you would not believe the number of fake dogs I see. this is exactly the reason why there should be a much tighter regulation of the service dog industry. way too many fake ones and no way to know which is or isn't a real service animal. and a dog that goes in search of help, it not a well trained animal. a real service animal should be staying with their person and not wandering around looking for someone to help.
Karen Moore 7 years ago
I always knew never to touch a service dog while they are working but I never thought about if I would see one without their owner what that would mean. I am so glad this was posted!! I will share this with everyone.
diane a 7 years ago
Service dog or otherwise - dogs are smart and if any lone dog was obviously desperately trying to get my attention I think I would follow to see where it led me if possible. You hear many stories of owners having accidents or falling seriously ill and saved only by their dog alerting strangers that something was wrong.
diane a 7 years ago
Where I live in the UK there is no stray dog problem, no dog-dumping and any dog obviously alone, at the very least needs reuniting with it's owner
Load More Replies... Effseven Six 7 years ago
I would follow the dog anyway, wondering why a random service dog would walk up to me without his/her owner.
Mark Smallman 7 years ago
Where I work we get a lot of service dogs who come in with a trainer. We are usually told not to make a fuss of them as they are working/learning but every now and again when they have had their lessons for the day we are allowed to make a fuss of them :)
Shawn Ruester 7 years ago
I always ask if I can pet them when I see a service dog, as long as it's with it's person OR a trainer.
Load More Replies... Natasha Bourque 7 years ago
More people need to read this story and learn from it. Learn from the mistakes the woman made. We should be taught in Health ED about this, so we do not make the same mistakes as most.
Kristina Funkycrew 7 years ago
please ignore anything this idiot posted. Her dog is NOT a service dog and neither is that behaviour appropriate of service dogs. What a sham!
Kip The Otter 6 years ago
Excuse you Kristina, but seizures are a real thing as is epilepsy. When you are about to seize there is no warning. No lights blinking, dizzy, light headed or nausea. Nothing. Just down and seizing. Most people dismiss a dog barking if they can't see it. But if a dog with a patch that said "If I'm alone, follow me!" approached someone the chances of them following are significantly higher. Even if the first person didn't do it, the dog could be trained to stay for 20 sec and if they don't help, find a new person. Not all service dogs help the blind or the deaf, some help people with seizures others help people with diabetes. There are ones that help people with autism, allergy detection, mobility assistance and PTSD. This is a legitimate disability that needs legitimate help!
Load More Replies... Amina Hays 7 years ago
I wonder if she said anything to the woman who was swatting the dog away.
Kelly 7 years ago
But now you know that you can get someonelse's attention to take care of that person.
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