First Dental Visit
One of the challenges of having a
service dog, and with dog training in general, is that you can
never be absolutely certain how your dog will respond to something
new until it happens. You can make educated guesses based on
temperament and past experience, but you can't really be
sure.
Recently, it occurred to me that I had no real idea how Glindy
would behave at the dentist's office. While she has solid public
access behavior, I wasn't sure that I could trust her to hold a
stay while a burly dentist was shoving a whining drill the size of
a jack-hammer into my molars. :)
It would have been a bad idea to make a filling or other
high-stakes appointment our first test, so I decided to take Glindy
for my next routine cleaning instead. I figured that the worst that
could happen would be an access challenge, or even an interrupted
cleaning if Glindy couldn't behave herself. Either of these
negative outcomes would be a lot less troublesome than not being
seen while suffering from a toothache, or having to leave with a
cavity half-filled.
When we got to the dentist's office, Glindy knew we were doing
something different and started giving off the high-pitched
excitement whine she's prone to using in new situations. I find it
annoying when she does that, but all the ladies at the dental
office wanted to say hi to the dog, pet her, and reassure her that
everything was all right. Clearly, her whining triggers something
maternal in most women, and they find it irresistible. I, on the
other hand, just worry that other people might find it
disruptive—but clearly I'm in the minority, so I just grind
my teeth quietly when it happens.
Anyway, despite the initial whining (which always passes quickly)
nobody gave me a hard time. In fact, curiosity and excitement
seemed to be the order of the day.
My hygienist did ask some nosey personal questions, though, when I
mentioned that I was training the dog for myself and not for
someone else. This isn't uncommon; many people assume I'm a
professional dog trainer or working for a service dog program when
they see her marked "in training." They usually make some comment
about how hard it must be to give up the dog after training them,
at which point I'll usually let them know that I'm training the dog
for myself. Many folks (including the hygienist) often respond to
that by saying that I "don't seem autistic," which is hard to
interpret (is it an insult, or a compliment?) since I have no idea
what they think autism looks like.
Anyway, I wasn't really offended by her questions or reactions. I'm
pretty "out" about having Asperger's Syndrome, so I don't really
mind those sorts of questions as long as it isn't in an
access-denial context.
Next, we went into the exam area where I found that there was no
place to tie Glindy up. I ended up putting her in a down-stay in
the corner of the room and just dropped the leash beside her. She
only broke her stay once during the entire cleaning, and a
rinse-spit-stay! were all that was needed to finish out
the appointment smoothly.
Even though I wasn't sure what to expect from Glindy, and had never
even mentioned either the dog or my disability to the dentist
before, I'd say the visit was a success. I still wouldn't want
Glindy roaming around—and perhaps joggling someone's
elbow— if I had a diamond drill in my mouth, but things
definitely went better than I expected.
Overall, I rate Glindy at 9/10 for service-dogness, with a point
off for whining. The dental office gets 8/10, with points off for
petting without permission. I, of course, get 10/10 for having
clean teeth and the foresight to set up the whole chain of events.
*grin*