[QUOTE=Anaamika]
They’ve got their dog, who is truly their best friend; UOTE]
From what I understand, this is not true. It’s a bad idea for the dogs and masters to have a friendly relationship, as this interferes with the dog’s proper functioning.
Or so I’ve heard. I could be wrong.
I don’t mean to sound like an ass, but are there really a lot of blind people going to movies? Or does this refer to people with other disabilities who require service dogs? And if it does, what other disabilities require the use of a service dog? I’m genuinely curious.
woodstockbirdybird,
I know someone who has a service animal to help with her panic attacks. I wasn’t aware they were used for that until I ran across her, quite frankly.
It’s not like the dog was taking food off your plate.
I’d much rather have a dog breathing on my food than someone’s phlegmmy-coughing, snot-spraying sick 4-year-old kid.
[QUOTE=tdn]
Not true. I went to highschool with a girl who had a seeing-eye dog and she answered a lot of questions from people on it. The dog got a couple hours of free time/playtime every day, where she’d play fetch, etc. with him. The same goes for other service dogs like police dogs, and the dogs are trained to know the difference between playtime and worktime.
Interesting, thanks for the 411.
We were once on a plane with a woman whose service dog pulled her wheelchair.
I’ve also seen on Animal Planet that some dogs can detect seizures before they happen.
First lab puppies, now seeing-eye dogs. I’m going to pit baby seals.
Bastards! I just want to bash their heads in!
I just wanted to highlight this part of the excellent points you made to add to it.
Not only is it a trust issue, but it can be a safety issue. Things that offer no danger whatsoever to the sighted, that even a sighted person guiding a blind person probably won’t think to mention, can be dangerous to the health and well-being of a blind person.
Uneven floor? No big deal; you can accommodate - except if you don’t see it.
Chair slightly out of the way? Veer around it - unless you don’t know it’s there.
And so on. All of these things are items that we sighted people wouldn’t even THINK of mentioning, because to us there is no issue. We’re not being cruel, we just don’t realize it’s even an issue. But the guide dog does. The dog’s been trained to slow down or stop whenever there’s anything the least little bit out of the ordinary that might be a problem.
I read a story once written by a woman who was blind, had a guide dog, and regained her sight. The dog would slow down at a particular point along her walk to work every day. She couldn’t figure out why, and the sighted people she asked all had no idea either - until she took the dog on the same path after she’d regained her sight. There was an unevenness in the pavement at that point - something that never even registered with her sighted friends - but the dog, thanks to his training, knew it might cause a problem and took it slower at that point.
I just want to say I’m glad bubastis managed to start a pit thread that hasn’t devolved into chaos.
Welcome to the SDMB, bub.
I recall reading that guide dog owners are taught and encouraged to keep their dogs scrupulously brushed and groomed, because they do spend so much time in public. So yes, guide dogs ARE probably cleaner than your average Fido.
I’m torn: who is the bigger asshole? The guy who pits puppies, or the guy who pits seeing-eye dogs? Decisions, decisions.
Another situation of needless stress and irritation that could probably have been easily averted by a little etiquette!
If you don’t like your seat in a restaurant, at whatever point in the meal or for whatever reason, you’re always allowed to politely ask the server to seat you somewhere else. “I’m so sorry, but dogs make me nervous” would have been a gracious way to phrase your reason for wanting to move. (You could have mentally added “when they’re panting all over my food”.)
If there really isn’t room to move anywhere else, or if you would rather try to solve the problem without moving, then as others have mentioned, you can certainly politely ask the dog’s owner to help. “I’m so sorry, but your dog’s making me a little nervous, as he’s panting right onto my plate; could he possibly move a little further away?” is a nice way of putting it.
If neither of those options works, then it just isn’t your lucky day, and you have to put up with eating lunch next to the panting dog, sustained by your consciousness of having exhibited perfect manners and your anticipation of getting to rant about the experience in a Pit thread. 
By the way, if you want to rant freely without worrying about possibly seeming like an asshole who just hates blind people and their beloved canine assistants, why not pit overly-small restaurants that crowd their seats so close together that a well-behaved service dog can’t even sit next to its owner without breathing all over somebody else’s plate? I’d be with you all the way on that one.
Someone must have tied up Siegfried & Shtarker.
Taking a real thrashing here, eh, bubastis? 
I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets moved to MPSIMS before it’s done. Or GQ.
Pretty good session of ignorance-fighting going on here.
It is the most carefully-qualified Pit OP that I ever recall reading. Kind of hard to work up a significant amount of vitriol when we’re starting from that posture.
Anybody that could pull it off is liable to be the sort of person who gets into fistfights with Jimmy Carter or Kofi Annan.
There are hearing-ear dogs, too. Supposedly my favorite dog breed, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi, is sometimes used for this purpose. They’ve got big ears- they look like they’d be good hearing ear dogs.
Not only that, but pointing at whatever it is is pretty instinctive to some of us. I used to have a friend at work who had a seeing eye dog. I was outside with her and the dog, and noticed some dog doo on the ground (don’t know if it came from her dog or not). I instinctively pointed at it when I told her not to step in it, then I thought for a moment and tried to tell her how to maneuver around it. It was harder than it sounds to do that.
There’s a fairly regular customer where I work who has a collie seizure dog. Beautiful animal.
I can’t say anything about anybody who would pit service animals. I can’t come up with anything scathing enough.
Thanks for all the answers on service dogs, guys. I figured after the movie example in lno’s post they had to be used for other purposes beyond seeing-eye dogs. Interesting.
I’m perfectly capable of making my needs known, and can and do. What about somebody who comes in 10 minutes after the dog has left and isn’t aware there was an animal sitting there? Someone with allergies, perhaps?
I’m capable of handling myself when I know there’s a risk. That’s a far cry from saying that “dog hygiene isn’t a problem” and pretending that it’s always true.