An Awkward Disclosure
I was in Wal-Mart yesterday to pick
up some odds and ends, and had a lady come up to me asking about
service dog organizations in northern Nevada. There aren't any, of
course, which is one of the many reasons I turned to
owner-training.
As is often the case, people assume that I'm a puppy-raiser or dog
trainer for one of these big organizations. To be honest, I don't
do much to discourage that line of thinking, mostly because it's
not really anyone's business that I'm owner-training a dog for
myself. Erroneous assumptions can occasionally lead to
some conversational awkwardness, though; this was one of those
times.
When I explained that Glindy was being trained as an autism service
dog, the woman became even more interested. It turned out that she
has an adult son with AS/HFA, and has been trying to find a local
service dog organization to help him. Since she assumed
(incorrectly) that I worked for one of these places, she began
asking me a lot of questions that I couldn't really answer, except
to commiserate on the appalling lack of resources available to
adults on the autism spectrum.
I didn't want to explain my life story to a stranger in the middle
of Wal-Mart, and I was reluctant to admit that I'd encouraged her
misapprehensions about me and Glindy. Still, I wanted to help her,
since service dogs for adults with autistic spectrum disorders is
something near and dear to my heart.
I eventually referred her to my blog, so it's quite possible that
she's reading this entry right now. If so, I trust she understands
why I didn't correct some of her mistaken impressions at the time,
and hope that the information in my blog is helpful to her and her
son.