SERVICE DOG PSA

So today I tripped. Fell flat on my face, it was awful but ultimately harmless. My service dog, however, is trained to go get an adult if I have a seizure, and he assumed this was a seizure (were training him to do more to care for me, but we didn’t learn I had epilepsy until a year after we got him)

I went after him after I had dusten off my jeans and my ego, and I found him trying to get the attention of a very annoyed woman. She was swatting him away and telling him to go away. So I feel like I need to make this heads up

If a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help

Don’t get scared, don’t get annoyed, follow the dog! If it had been an emergency situation, I could have vomited and choked, I could have hit my head, I could have had so many things happen to me. We’re going to update his training so if the first person doesn’t cooperate, he moves on, but seriously guys. If what’s-his-face could understand that lassie wanted him to go to the well, you can figure out that a dog in a vest proclaiming it a service dog wants you to follow him

via

          • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
            36·
            2 days ago

            This is a meme image satirizing a scenario in which a disabled person is especially vulnerable, implying the obvious response to someone in such a position is to take advantage of them, as opposed to helping them.

            Beyond its value for humor’s sake alone, it being a particularly funny meme helps spread awareness that a service dog on its own is an emergency that requires attention.

              • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
                3·
                2 days ago

                Oh okay. Then in that case I’ll explain here so as not to double-inbox them and split the thread:

                Thats a popular meme in which a dog is accidentally making a very human-like expression from a humorous posture, which in combination looks like a shameful but frolicking admission of guilt. Someone placed a person making a reciprocal gesture in the sightline of that dog, appearing to gaze back while making a similarly lighthearted expression of judgement. Underlining the point is the caption, “Oh, you!” an idiom often uttered in similar scenarios between people in sitcoms.

            • Case@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
              1·
              2 days ago

              No service animal, but I was in the “down town” area of a college town, and donated plasma cause I was broke broke.

              I’m epileptic, I don’t think the plasma donation contributed, but as I was walking back to my car, and waiting to cross a street… well, seizure.

              No one helped me, but someone took my phone, wallet, and some meds I needed to keep on me at the time, probably other stuff I don’t recall.

              The meds had no recreational value. They were seizure meds, and no, nothing like ativan that has any sort of redeeming quality outside of treating epilepsy.

              Some people just suck.

              • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
                1·
                2 days ago

                True. I think it’s very much a Trolley Problem where this might lead to the pickpocketing (or worse) of a disabled person and simultaneously lead to saved lives.