Day 41: Socializing

Though I think of myself as a friendly person, for obvious reasons, I do not go out of my way to start conversations with people I don't know.  (For similar reasons, I do like going to parties or any large gathering where everyone talks at once.)  Gracie is a conversational magnet, and I have been trying to work out a way to handle this.   She is cute and perky.  As we walk together, she looks from side to side.  When she hears something, she focuses on that.  When we approach another person walking a dog, for example, Gracie stares at the dog. She wags her tail.  She must look eager to greet the other dog.  Thinking ahead to being on campus with her and with other service dogs, I have been trying to dodge these confrontations.  The other day, however, a neighbor had her dog, another small, cute dog like Gracie, off its leash, and it ran up to us.  The neighbor called her dog, and we stopped walking.  I thought Gracie would sit as she usually does when we are walking and I stop.  Instead, she snarled and snapped at the other dog.  Cute Gracie!  I was surprised.



Remember Monty Python's killer bunny?



Later, when I told Bruce what had happened, he said, "She's taken on your personality" insinuating that the reason I avoid what I avoid is due to lack of friendliness and not due to not being able to hear!  I decided to contact Bob at IHDI about this.  Meanwhile, I wondered if Bruce could be right.  Was I just using not being able to hear to cover up basic unfriendliness or even hostility and Gracie had picked up on this?  I decided that the next time we came head-on with a dog, I would be friendly (or what many dog owners seem to think is friendly) and allow a brief interaction between the dogs (which seems to be what dog owners want for some reason). 

The first dog we met up with was a burley, male chocolate lab who was clearly damp from a swim in Minnehaha Creek.  I smiled at the owner who I think then said, "Can they say hello?"  "For a minute," I said, still smiling.  The lab moved in to sniff Gracie who growled and snapped at his very large nose.  "Sorry," I said, and we hustled away.

When we got home, an e-mail from IHDI was waiting for us.  "Be firm," they said to me.  "Remind Gracie that you are the boss.  Use the training collar to get her attention away from the dog and back to you."  This made sense, but what about the person at the other end of the other dog?  Should I just hurry by or maybe cross the street?  So many people around here keep their dogs on a loose lead, letting their dogs run ahead or run up on other people's lawns.  Dodging them would not be easy.

I was still wondering what to do about this when another e-mail arrived from IHDI.  "Smile and say hello," this one said, "then hurry on by.  If they ask you what's up, say Graice is a service dog and you are training her to work with you."  All true!  Just keep walking but smile and act friendly.  If this doesn't work, I may resort to wearing a sandwich board.