It is the basic respect if you see a dog in public that you want to pet to first ask the permission of the owner of the dog. Sometimes, owners politely refuse (for reasons they don’t even need to explain), and that’s okay.
A man has shared his unpleasant experience with a woman and her child who insisted on petting his dog while in a store, claiming that his son was “just a child” who had the right to touch the dog since he “loved”. Now, the man wonders if he was wrong for the way he reacted.
The man was with his service dog when a mother and her child approached him, asking if they could pet.
Share your story at the subreddit, r/AITA, the 20-year-old revealed that he has severe PTSD and struggles with anxiety and depression.
“I don’t go out much. If it gets loud, I’ll have a PTSD flashback/anxiety attack and collapse,” she admitted. To help him deal with his problems in public, the man revealed that he has a service dog named Rex, which warns him when he is going to have an anxiety attack. “He did really well with the commands and they alert me,” the man wrote.
One day, the man needed to get groceries and his medication at a local store, and he and Rex took the trip. “Rex had his service vest on, saying not to distract him while he worked, and that he was a service dog,” he shared.
While in the store, the man met a family in one of the aisles, a father, a mother and a child who looked about six years old. “The entitled boy pulled his mother’s arm, pointing to Rex and shouting that he wanted to stroke him,” wrote the man. “The mother hugged the child, and after seeing me and Rex, she made her way.”
As she approached the man, Rex signaled that her heart rate was starting to skyrocket, and he rewarded her with a treat. Then the woman asked the man if her son could accompany his dog since he did not stop “crying” about it, and it would be soon.
The man politely told him no, but his answer was alarming.
“Well, if you bring a dog here, don’t you expect a child to want to play with them? Don’t be so selfish and let my son welcome them,” he said to the man.
At this point, the man’s anxiety was getting worse, and his dog started nipping at his leg, signaling him to sit down and calm down to lower his heart rate. “I went to go to the counter for my medication, dragging myself to go down another aisle to get away from the boy,” the man wrote. “As soon as Rex was out of the boy’s vision, he started screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘Mom! I want to accompany the puppy!”
After the man got his medication back, the woman asked him again if her son could pet the dog, and once again, he said no. “If he’s distracted, it could be life threatening for me,” the man explained. However, the woman was not satisfied with his answer.
“How dare you?! Why do you have to be so selfish? My son is only six years old and he loves dogs, let him buy your dog!” The woman shouted at the man. She also threatened to call animal control unless he let his son adopt the dog. At this point, the father intervened and apologized. for the behavior of his wife and son. “I heard him keep yelling, threatening to call the police and animal control on me,” the man recalled as he left the store.
After the interaction, he sat with Rex’s head in his lap for 30 minutes until the anxiety symptoms subsided.
The majority of people agreed with the man since his dog was a service dog that could not be distracted by the people who pet it.
“A service dog is not the same as a domestic animal. And even if your dog was strictly a domestic animal, this does not mean that strangers have the right to accompany it,” said a Reddit user. “Your dog has a job, and it’s not to mitigate the tantrums of strangers’ children.”
“I don’t care if your dog was a service dog or not, no one has the right to walk your dog if you don’t want to,” another user said.
Others noted that the boy would have a pretty difficult life if his mother never wanted him to say no.
“Just because a kid loves dogs doesn’t mean he has the right to go and buy every dog he sees, and the sooner he learns, the better his life will be,” said one user. “Your child does not walk on water. The world does not revolve around them nor should it,” wrote another user.
If a child is told no, he may be upset, but more often than not, his life will not be in danger. If a child ignores a person’s request not to touch their service dog, the person’s life may be at risk.
The dog, if he is distracted, an important signal may be missing which could imply that its owner is in a medical emergency.
But beyond working dogs, we should be able to control our own cuteness aggression long enough to afraid to touch a dog we see in public, even if they are not a service dog. You don’t touch someone’s baby in a stroller in public without their parents’ permission. The same applies to dogs.
You should always get consent before touching and petting them.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango covering entertainment and news, authorship, love and relationships.
