We, Dougal and I, got to the BBQ place faster than expected, so vested him up and went in. I tend to vest him up and take him in even on short trips as I have read way too many stories of people stealing dogs left in vehicles. Anyway, I had Dougal break and we headed in. Was not expecting any type of negative reaction as we walked in, as this was not our first trip there. We did get the normal "ohhh what a cute puppy" type comments but we are so used to those that they barely registered. Spoke with the young lady at the register and told her I had a pickup, but doubted it was ready. She checked and confirmed my assumption and went back to the kitchen. We sat down to wait. Noticed Dougal was very interested in the movement around the kitchen. The restaurant had a divider separating the waiting area from the kitchen in which you could see the movement of the workers but not really "see" them. Well, Dougal found it very cool.
One of the staff walked out and started to talk to Dougal, yea not me but my puppy.
I normally don't worry too much about this as Dougal ignores them, he was still sitting on my foot and watching the blind and checking on me every few seconds, so we were all good.A short time later the cashier came back. I noticed her glance at the lady that was talking to Dougal, carrying on an entire conversation by this time and our eyes met. moments later our conversationalist walked back towards the kitchen followed quickly by the cashier. Then I heard "You're not supposed to talk to service dogs...I don't care, you can not distract them..." This went on, for what seemed an eternity, but I am sure only a few seconds. Honestly, I was at a loss. While I appreciate the young lady who wants to educate others on normal SD ethics I am not used to seeing it shaped in this fashion. I felt like a school kid with their parent admonishing the teacher about something the teacher had done. I have kids older than this lady.
Still, this morning as I write this I am at a loss to quantify my feelings about this situation. Part of me wants to rejoice as I see that there are people that understand and are willing to defend teams but on the other hand I can take care of myself and if I had taken offense I would have said something, or at least pointed to his "Do Not Distract" patch.Not much longer and our food was delivered and headed off to Helmart.
Walking down one of the main walkways I notice Dougal clearing the other aisles and stopped right a crotch goblin leaps from an adjoining aisle, an attempt to startle Dougal but only causing me to almost send my buggy flying through this kid. Dougal was on alert so wasn't moving. Collecting myself we passed the little turd only to find his parents (?) laughing about the whole situation. Jezz, I am not even halfway to the cat food yet... I free Dougal and we trudge on.
Thankfully getting the rest of the way there cleared up for us. We found ourselves back in normality with the whispers of "Oh look a puppy" and "OMG how cute" and were able to get the items we were on task to get.
Headed to the checkout wouldn't you know it the demon dog is in the next checkout aisle in front of me. Payback? Maybe. Placing Dougal at my 6, in between me and the rabid rat-dog we gather eyewitnesses. Those around us seemed very impressed with Dougal creating space and watching my back. Yeap, the mini muncher caught wind of us and again went into fits. Dougal checked on me and I gave him the stay-hand sign and he complied. Moments later a worker came and talked with the lady and ended up escorting her out without her groceries. Passive aggressive? Yeap. Childish? Possibly.
