To pet or not to pet: that is the question.

I had just boarded the plane and sat down when the gentleman in the row behind me stood up to look over at my new service dog, Scout.

He asked, “May I pet your dog?”

I said “Uhh, yeah.”

He did.

But a lot more went into that than it looks.

First, this was Scout’s first flight, and he’d had a lot of new things he’d seen and dealt with already.

Second, he’s my service dog and my usual go-to is, “No, he’s working now, but thanks for asking.”

Third, Scout can be a little unsure of people. Especially tall people looming up and over a row of seats to reach for him.

How did I come to the decision I came to? In part just making service dog choices, but also by looking to see what Scout said.

For the service dog aspect of it, I weighed teaching him that he doesn’t get petted and therefore shouldn’t be interested in people when he’s in his vest, with the awareness that we’re on a crowded plane and people feel safer and less annoyed if they feel like they know the dog. (This also means they put out calming body language instead of uncomfortable body language, either of which the dog may pick up on and start to match.) That was part of my yes answer.

The much bigger part of it was checking with Scout. He was sitting up, twisting around to look at the man. His ears were soft, forehead relaxed, which meant he was aware of me (and that I wasn’t worried about that looming man). The whites of his eyes were showing, so he was telling me he was stressed, but they’d started showing a few minutes earlier: he may or may not have been stressed about the man.

I needed more info, so I stalled for time.

“Uhhhh…”

I was waiting to let Scout talk to me. The whites of his eyes lessened slightly, so I knew his stress levels were dropping and that he wasn’t stressed about the man. (If he were, they would have stayed the same or increased.) It wasn’t until then that I said “Yeah.” If things had stayed the same or gotten worse, I’d have said no, regardless of his soft eyes. I was letting Scout make the decision about who could touch his body. Doesn’t seem so unreasonable when I phrase it that way, does it? 😉

Jenna