PSA on petting dogs without permission (with a special shout out to rude Trump supporters)

Today my daughter and I took Clem to the local pet supply store to buy a few items and let Clem practice some of her work in a distracting environment. Daughter was on an empty aisle in the store working on Clem’s targeting of random objects when a 50’ish year old woman and her young adult son walked up and planted themselves about one foot away from us, staring and then laughing when Clem didn’t do the requested target at first command.

When we proceeded to move on to a different aisle, the woman suddenly stepped forward and reached to pat Clem, in the middle of my daughter’s request for Clem to walk on with her. I stepped in and asked the woman to please not touch the dog, as she was being trained. The woman became agitated and told me to “fuck off.” I remarked that it was inappropriate to touch someone’s dog without their permission and the woman said “You must be one of those Democrats.”

At this point my daughter and Clem had left the aisle and I turned to follow, saying “Well, I’m definitely not a Trump supporter.”

The woman said “You’re missing out on a great thing.”

I walked on, intending that to be the end of that, but as we neared the front of the store the woman came charging up and said “Do you support full term abortion?”

I said that it wasn’t the place for that kind of discussion and I wasn’t interested in talking about it. She was at that point coming closer, saying “You do it. You support it.”

I commented, “How arrogant and rude.”

She repeated “fuck you” several more times and when my daughter took out her phone and started videoing, the woman ran out of sight to the back of the store.

I think as upsetting as this was, the fact that the owner of the store, who knows us well, was watching at least the last few minutes of this exchange and didn’t intervene.

PSA:

If you see a dog, whether it’s an adult, a puppy, a service dog, a service dog in training, or any dog at all, please don’t assume it’s okay to walk up and pat the dog. Don’t assume it’s okay to get in the personal space of the dog and its handler. If you want to pat the dog, ask yourself first if the handler is working with the dog. If so, walk on by. It’s not a good time to interrupt. If the handler seems approachable, ask from a respectful distance if it’s okay to say hello. Let the handler guide that interaction. Don’t speak in high-pitched tones to the dog, address your comments to the handler until he/she says it’s okay. If the handler says not now, or no, simply move on. You don’t have a right to pat someone else’s dog. It’s their call to make.

I’m well aware that Clementine is adorable. So is she. We actually like her to practice meeting new people, but we like to do that in a controlled, planned interaction. I’m also aware that she and my daughter are an impressive team and it’s tempting to want to stop and watch and participate. Please don’t. If you absolutely must, a quiet “Love how you’re working with your dog” as you pass by will be appreciated but likely not acknowledged in that moment.

As for the whole Donald Trump thing, if anything like that ever happens to me again, I’m calling the police and let them handle it.

If you’re a business owner and you see this kind of harassment happening, I certainly hope you’ll intervene. It would have meant a lot to me today if that had been done.