We have had our fair share of interesting encounters with other patrons though. Like Dante's very first outing. There was also today, where we were walking through the main, more open part of the store and 15 ft ahead there is a mom with 2 little boys. She was quite enthralled in what she was looking at. One of the boys lights up and says, "Doggie!!!" And starts coming toward us. Uh oh, I think, this doesn't look great. We cut to the right and lose him after a minute. that was close, D. It's not that I don't like kids, or talking to people, not at all. I just had a bad feeling about the way this kid lost his mind when he saw my dog (and the fact that his mom had no idea). Shopping with puppies in training can be very fun if you let it, always anticipating what your surroundings will throw at you, then communicating what your next move will be with your sidekick: yes, let's make it into a game. ;-)
There was another time a while back that I am still not sure what to think about it. I was looking at something, and Dante was laying nicely at my right side. A woman comes up to me with a tiny puppy in her purse. And then asked me where I got Dante's vest because she wanted one for her puppy. My mom was with me and we both gave her our spiel on vests and legality, that I'm sorry to say, we have had to give far too many times. She proceeded to tell me that she was very sorry that my dog was so big and that I couldn't "hide" him like she could her's. Say what? It caught me so off guard, that I had no idea what to say at the time. But, for the record, I have no reason whatsoever to hide my dog in any setting.
What an adventure it is to shop with a puppy, and how much you learn about people when you do.
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| 5 month old D's 2nd trip to Target. Oh that little baby vest! At least he's still just as cute now as back then :-) |
HA I literally LOLed at this post! The lady with the small dog made me laugh. You are so patient with them. Sometimes don't you just want to say something sarcastic to them? Like...How would your dog EVER be a guide/service dog being so small especially when all the training it has received is how to lay down inside of a purse!! HA!
ReplyDeleteOh my. Some people really astonish me. It's maddning to me because those people give real service dogs a bad name. Just the other day I mentioned to one of my classmates that I was raising a service dog, and she goes, "oh yeah, my sister bought a vest for her dog too so she could take it on planes." Seriously people! That's not exactly what we're doing, and you are making it harder for us!
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