Since I started my current job a year ago, I’ve had only a couple of coworkers and they’re all awesome with my SD. We just hired a new employee though, which is great—we need more staff and she’s good at her job so far—but in the two weeks since she started she’s been driving me crazy.
Some of the things she does that bother me:
-
She’s constantly making jokes about how she should get a service dog for menial issues. For example, if she overslept in the morning it’s “I need my own service dog to be an alarm clock!” If she forgets something it’s “I should get a service dog to help me remember things!” Or “I’m such a bad driver, maybe a service dog could help me with that!”
-
She’s made comments about how jealous she is that I have a service dog and that I can bring him to work with me.
-
She saw my dog doing DPT once and ever since then she’s repeatedly joked with me and the students we work with (which is what bothers me the most and I correct this one anytime she brings it up) that my dog helps me by cuddling me and couldn’t we all use a service dog for that?
-
She frequently makes comments about how my dog probably wishes he didn’t have to be a working dog and could just be lazy and relax like a pet, joking that he has a “miserable life.”
It’s basically just a bunch of little things that are really getting on my nerves. She isn’t distracting my dog or interfering with him or discriminating against me or anything like that. I don’t know if I’m being too sensitive and overreacting, and I don’t know if it would be worth it to speak either to her about it directly or to my boss about it so he can talk to her about it. I haven’t felt comfortable addressing it with her other than correcting her when she says my dog helps me by cuddling with me in front of the students we work with because it’s important that our team trust each other and have each other’s backs, and I don’t want her to think I don’t have her’s or start any kind of hostility between us.
Is this the kind of thing that as a SD handler I need to just suck it up and deal with because it’s what comes along with this kind of life? I would really appreciate some outside perspectives on the situation to help me figure out what to do and if I’m being too sensitive about this.
Dr Bryan Goodchild
Dr Bryan Goodchild,” has spent his life working toward better health for pets and the people who love them. He is the founder of Likeablepets.com , which works to prevent and alleviate fear, anxiety, and stress in pets by inspiring and educating the people who care for them.
