Let's talk about service dogs!

Before I got Poodleface my biggest pet peeve was people who dramatically overuse the word "like." After I got Poodleface, however, my biggest pet peeve became people who really have no idea how to behave around a service dog.
For anyone who doesn't know, the correct thing to do when you see a service dog is to ignore it. Don't coo at it, don't try to make eye contact with it, and for the love of God, don't try to make it come to you. I assure you, its human needs it more than you do.
What you can do is calmly approach the dog's handler and ask them questions about the dog, such as, "can I pet it? What kind of dog is it? What kind of service does it do? Where was it trained? Which groomer do you take it too? Does it prefer regular rawhides or the ones with the dried meat in them?" Or any other question it might occur to you to ask. Some kinds of service dogs can be petted by anyone, but the vast majority are supposed to be ignored. It never hurts to ask.
The reason service dogs are supposed to be ignored is that giving them attention while they're working confuses them. The dog has two standards of behavior that it switches between depending on whether or not it is wearing its service dog gear. When it's not wearing its gear it acts like a regular dog, and when it is it calms down, stays close to its person, and doesn't seek out attention. Giving the dog attention makes it wonder whether it should be acting like a dog or a service dog, and you might distract it from doing its job. So hands off!