04/12/2025
I talked yesterday about an incident where an entitled mother was upset that I told her child they couldn’t pet Flirty. Let’s talk today about why you shouldn’t pet service animals, unless you have explicit permission, and when it is okay to ask for permission.
Service animals have vital and often life-saving jobs to do. If they don’t remain focused, they can miss an alert or a cue to perform a task. The result of that distraction can result in the handler having a preventable medical incident and sometimes leads to injury or even hospitalization.
For instance, I once talked to a woman who was in line to check out at the grocery store. The man behind her patted her dog. She corrected the man, but the damage was already done. Her dog was distracted long enough to miss his normal alert window. As a result, she passed out while walking back to her car, struck her head on the concrete, and ended up in the hospital for a concussion and stitches.
“But, Abrea, shouldn’t service animals be trained to ignore distractions?” I can already hear someone asking. While they are trained to ignore a good many things, it is absolutely unreasonable to expect them not to be at least temporarily distracted by someone touching them. I’m pretty sure most of us humans would agree that we would be at least temporarily distracted by someone unexpectedly coming up and touching us while we are doing a job. Why would we expect an animal to be able to do better?
So, when is it okay to ask a handler for permission to pet their service animal? There are a few things to keep in mind. First, check to see if the animal’s vest has an indication that you shouldn’t pet or interact with them. If you take a look at Flirty’s vest above, there is a large “DO NOT PET” and symbols below that to indicate not to talk, touch, stare, or photograph her. If there is a label like this present, it answers then question for you and you shouldn’t even ask the handler.
Assuming that there is no label against petting or interacting, check to see if the handler is busy. If they are walking somewhere, or reading a label on some food, on their phone, etc. it’s best not to bother them.
If the handler doesn’t look busy, and there is nothing on the vest to indicate that petting isn’t allowed, maintain a polite distance and ask the handler if it is okay to approach and pet their service animal. Be prepared for the handler to say no, and graciously accept this if it’s the answer and move on.
Service animals get lots of pets while they are off duty, I promise you that they are not deprived. Some handlers will allow them to be petted while on duty if they are feeling well enough and it’s okay for them to be temporarily distracted. Others will not allow it. I’m in the latter group, because end up with a cluster of people around me waiting to pet any time I allow one person to do so.
[image: a grey mini horse, standing in a grocery aisle, looking at the camera with an alert expression. She is wearing a black halter and leash, black harness with rainbow trim, Starry Night themed vest that says “DO NOT PET” on the side, and black hoof boots.]
