Many students around campus are suffering from a known disease: withdrawal-from-your-pooch syndrome. Exponential amounts of students at Ohio University feel the effects, myself included. Among the remedies for this disease are scrolling through old pictures for hours on end and forcing your mother to FaceTime and turn the camera to your loveable pup(s). Regrettably, others see a dog while on their walk to class or just perusing campus freak out and feel the urge to snuggle. However, the latter sometimes causes complete disregard for a service dog on the job trying to help someone.
One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing students stop and pet service dogs with vests without asking their humans. The pup has a job to do, plain and simple: to safely escort and assist their person, which is not an easy task. I silently salute service dogs from a safe distance to show respect for their duty and general focus — I recommend everyone else do the same.
But not all people keep this in mind, like me. They see the dog and think, “Wow, that's a cute dog, I remember a long time ago in a happier world where I had one.” This results, of course, in the resistible urge to cuddle and pet said dog.
I'm not saying you're a bad person for thinking this — I too miss my doodle oh so very much — but you have to be able to separate service dogs who are different from the playful, non-working dogs you have had experience with.
Some might say, “Why make a big fuss about it, it doesn’t seem like that big of an annoyance?" Well, the larger problem is how it disrupts the person being assisted by the service dog. Consider how a person with a disability or social anxiety feels about having to stop every time someone gets the urge to pet. Not only that, in worse conditions you might be putting them in danger from surroundings that could harm them.
Think about the risk of an interruption to a person who is blind or deaf on a busy street. It’s simply a big inconvenience to the owner and to the service dog attempting to complete a command.
So the next time you're walking about and see a service dog on the job doing our nation proud and working hard, ignore any urge you have to cuddle and snuggle.
They are on the clock and are helping someone go about their day. At the very least, ask the service dog’s human if you can pet it. No matter what the answer is, be respectful and then continue minding your business. Your sadness from missing your pup will be healed soon enough the next time you visit home.
Drew Haughn is a freshman studying communications at Ohio University. Please note that the opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Drew about his article? Tweet him @haughn_drew24.
