Dog Daze?

Note: I told the following to a friend who has experience with service dogs just to make sure that it wouldn't be offensive to the people who use them. The dog I encountered wasn't in training (no kerchief with the word "training"), but it was obviously new to the job. My friend assured me that she saw no reason why anyone would be offended so here goes...


I was walking through the automatic door at the grocery store Friday when I encountered a blind lady, her guide dog, and the chaperon who had driven them there. I stepped aside to allow them to pass unimpeded and I intended from there to go about my own business. However, the guide dog had other ideas.

How can I describe the dog's personality? Think of Onyx as a guide dog. If you've never met Onyx, perhaps you've heard enough about Lulu's dog to understand. There's a picture of her on the sidebar here showing her in her meet-and-greet pose. Onyx is the dog who would growl at the other dogs whenever we took the pack to the dog park, but would sit at the gate and greet the people as they came in with that "Hi! I'm Onyx! Feel free to pet me." look on her face and wiggle in her tail. Lulu always says that the upkeep on her dogs is so expensive that they need to get jobs. Well, I think Onyx should apply for a position as Walmart greeter. She'd be perfect. However, guide dog might not be such a good idea.

The dog in the grocery store was also a female black lab, but a younger one. Everyone was ignoring the dog as well as they could and should, but the dog demanded to be the center of attention. She walked up to store employees and fellow-shoppers alike with her tail wagging a mile a minute. I have now seen the shocked look of someone who has been goosed behind the knee by the wet nose of a service animal!

After passing the floral section (where the wet-nose-meets-back-of-knee event occurred) the little entourage made its way into the produce department. The dog's attitude immediately changed from "Ooooh! People!" to "Ooooh! Food!" I saw the chaperon pulling the dog away from the edibles like I used to do to my children when they were toddlers.

I passed them soon afterward. I noticed, however, that they never made it as far as the meat department.