But I want to talk about us being accessible to the public at large. As the saying goes it flows both ways. Do we, or in part, cause some of our own problems because we are not accessible? We tend to be an island unto ourselves, meaning that when we are out the only people in our universe are the handler and the dog, everyone else is viewed as an enemy plotting to take away our rights, or at least those that should stay away from the team.
How accessible should we be? Here in the US SD teams account for less than .1% of the population. We are unicorns, something very few have ever seen even if a layperson has seen a team, read about them, or seen a video of a team. Have you thought about the questions they may have that are simply honest questions? What harm is it to take a few minutes and talk about one of our favorite subjects, our dogs?
If we make ourselves more accessible to the norms, might it make our overall lives better? At least down the road? Why do we tend to be so secular, avoiding, as best we can, the 99% of the rest of the population? I talk a lot about education, how it should be part of our job to educate those around us on not only the laws but why we have our dogs and how they are able to make our lives "more normal". How many fewer accessibility problems might we have if the general population understood the real reasons of having our service dogs? We need to be more accessible!
Thoughts & Feelings?
