Access Issues
January 12, 2014
Nothing really big.
Yesterday at the robot competition one of the volunteers got on me because Dulce was walking on the basketball court.
She was okay with it when I replied that the university knew about Dulce (they did) and that she was a service dog. I also spent the day trying to keep her off the court as much as possible.
But right after that a competitor barked at her. Now I'm usually pretty gentle with people about that, but I got in his face and told him in no certain terms that not only was the behavior unacceptable but it was a behavior that would get him bit. The whole thing was getting on my nerves.
PEOPLE, teach your children.
But keeping Dulce off the court surface meant that I had carry her when we had to be on it, and she does weigh 15 pounds. That also meant that a few people had the ability to reach over and pet her and did -- ANOTHER good way to get bit. Dulce is a really good dog, but because she is a service dog she is very protective and I don't like putting her in a position where she feels the need to protect me. She also weighs 15 pounds.
By the way, she is still tired, but I think she enjoyed the afternoon off.
Other notes: it's the first time I've been in public with students and they saw in a quick hurry what a PITA it can be. I think they got it in about 5 minutes, as we were followed with comments of "puppy" and cute.
After we were done competing, we were in the audience in the bleaches and one of my kids, an athlete looked down at her, looked at me, and said,"wow, Miss, she's really ripped". I just rolled my eyes, looked at him, and said, "you expected less, she's more of an athlete than you -- she runs dog agility plus all her relatives are show dogs". We then spend some time talkimg about conformation and what judges are looking for. Of course, I didn't use the "c" word. I did use the "B" word, as everything thinks it funny she won "Winner's Bitch"