lumpatronics:

lumpatronics:

lireavue:

gertiecraign:

lumpatronics:

SERVICE DOG PSA

So today I tripped. Fell flat on my face, it was awful but ultimately harmless. My service dog, however, is trained to go get an adult if I have a seizure, and he assumed this was a seizure (were training him to do more to care for me, but we didn’t learn I had epilepsy until a year after we got him)

I went after him after I had dusten off my jeans and my ego, and I found him trying to get the attention of a very annoyed woman. She was swatting him away and telling him to go away. So I feel like I need to make this heads up

If a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help

Don’t get scared, don’t get annoyed, follow the dog! If it had been an emergency situation, I could have vomited and choked, I could have hit my head, I could have had so many things happen to me. We’re going to update his training so if the first person doesn’t cooperate, he moves on, but seriously guys. If what’s-his-face could understand that lassie wanted him to go to the well, you can figure out that a dog in a vest proclaiming it a service dog wants you to follow him

PLEASE READ THIS.

I do not have the energy to go into detail but here, a Twitter thread of correction.

Several things wrong with this analysis, though I can’t fault the skepticism

1. I’m 20. Please. Why does everyone who gets upset at this post call me a teenager?
2. Yes, he was originally supposed to be a family dog. I had concerns because he was supposed to be a family dog, however that was well over a year ago. Professional obedience training happened a little after. He preformed exceptionally, and the trainer were working with now is helping with the more specific training. It probably wasn’t the best process to get a service dog, but I got lucky. I wouldn’t reccomend anyone else to obtain a SD this way, but like I said, it turned out well.
3. I’m… Not sure where you got the 2 blocks measurement? It was a quiet grocery store, and he went like, 3 aisles down.
4. We didn’t train him to stand by me and bark because of my sensory issues. Loud noises are painful for me, especially when I’m already in distress. It was decided that him going to get someone was a better idea than him sending me into sensory overload after I get out of my seizure.
5. I don’t go alone anywhere. Theres not really a chance for me to be far away from people where Raider would run free and wild and come back to find me gone. If I was in the habit of going out on strolls alone around the neighborhood, this would be a problem, but i don’t. I was only at the store because it’s 5 minutes away, and I really wanted coffee creamer, lmao
6. He doesn’t paw or jump or bark or anything else everyone has been imagining. He goes up, and noses the person. Then he walks off to my direction, checks if the person is following, and either repeats the nosing or leads them to me. The lady was swatting at him because he was interupting her shopping. She wasn’t scared for her life, she wasn’t canine-phobic, she was annoyed and swatting his nose away
7. Service dogs aren’t a set in stone thing. They can be trained for personal… Benefit? (not the right word, but close). My needs as an autistic and epileptic individual are different than yours as a wheelchair user. I can get the apprehension, but I don’t see how this post will affect people going up to your dog that’s with you. It’s already gonna happen, I know that much, but they’re not going to start going up to an SD next to a wheelchair user and be like “Show me the way!!!”

… Okay, they might, but that’s more because people are dumb af when they see fur. It’s not going to be because of this.

Ah, a few more things because I’m on mobile and can’t go back and forth between the tweets without risking losing all I type, lmao

He’s on a leash. He’s always on a leash. I never said he was without a leash. The amazing thing about falling is that I /let go of the leash/. In a seizure, my hands completely splay out, meaning I wouldn’t hold onto the leash. A lot of your complaints are you assuming things, and it’s irksome. If someone could point his attention to this reply, I’d appreciate, since I don’t have a Twitter myself.