Thank you Pearland

I have to give a huge shout out to our current town of Pearland. In the back of my mind I have been braced for negative reactions in relation to Fern. I have worked with Mika on how we will respond to people who question us and people who refuse us access. We had one issue the first night we were hear, from an ER nurse, of all people. He must have gotten ripped by a supervisor because he came to find us and profusely apologized.

We have taken Fern to Target, Michaels, groceries stores, libraries, Lowes and more and never once have we had any negative reactions. Most people are extremely respectful and will briefly look, then go about their business. We've had kids stop to stare and their parents will tell them that the dog is working and needs to be left alone. We heard one parent call her a 'helper', which I thought was a really great response to her 3 or 4 year old. Another parent told her child that it was a 'police dog' and she had to be left alone so she could catch bad guys. Mika and I struggled not to laugh at that one, but I appreciate the sentiment. We have only had a couple of people ask to pet her and they were very careful in how they approached us, as if expecting to be snapped at.

There are service dog trainers that have a firm no-petting rule while the dog is in the vest and I can understand why. As of right now, we have agreed to let Fern decide. She is usually very reserved around strangers, especially in her vest. If you watch her body language, it's easy to see if she is willing to get close to a person. I would never let anyone reach over her head, but anyone who has approached us has always held their hand out for her to sniff. After she sniffs a person, she'll either lick their hand, which means she's ok with being petted, or she'll back up, which means no thanks. If she backs up, she'll usually offer her paw to shake instead. We have never given her the cue to do that, so she truly decides on her own. She's a smart dog, and I have full faith in what she decides.

We're off to the main library of the big city, so we'll see how that goes, but if the citizens of Pearland are any indication we should have no problems at all.  It's so nice to be pleasantly surprised in mankind.