I’m the kind of person, that has a hard time telling people “no.” I like to keep everybody happy and avoid conflict. So it is and has been a challenge for me to tell people “no” when they ask to pet Bradley. When I am out in public, I actually enjoy having people stop and ask if they can pet Bradley because it gives me an opportunity to educate them about Dogs for Diabetics. The problem was primarily at work….
Prior to getting Bradley, I met with Debbie, from Human Resources, and we talked about how my future service dog would be at the office. She had questions about things like, where he would sleep, would his being at the office interfere with other’s or my work duties, and other things along those lines. Debbie was great and did some research on interacting with a service dog, or more to the point not interacting with a service dog. She reviewed an e-mail with me that she put together on this topic and the fact that there would be a service dog on the premises, before sending it out to the entire company. So when I brought him to work, no one was surprised to see him with me and they all had been given “the rules.” But it is a totally different story, once you see Bradley in person. He is a Lab and he loves people and attention and one look from those “warm pudding” eyes, as my friend Barbara would say, and people would completely forget all about “the rules.” The first and foremost rule was this: (continued at http://www.bradleyandme.net/?p=1815.)
Thanks for reading!