Things that make me wince

• Loud, smiling women who rush over to me in public and begin with a joyful, "Oh, my sister had a chihuahua with fur just that shade!", and proceed to ignore my escape tactics and lack of eye contact and regale me with little Toby's life story. (While some people with service dogs are probably dog lovers, I, personally, just want to finish my shopping.)
• Unsupervised children running nearby. They tend to gravitate toward a dog, and more than once I've accidentally made one cry by telling them not to pet it. The situation only gets worse should the absent parents pick that moment to appear. (True story; a mother once screamed at me in the middle of the produce aisle because her toddler had flung himself on the floor and was crying. He was crying because I told him not to touch my dog, and then (gently) removed his hand when he touched my dog anyway.)
• Whistling and clicking noises or other dog-calling behavior. Seriously, that's not cool. It's humiliating and irritating and very, very dangerous if they decide to do it to a more critical kind of service dog. Also, there's no way to get in the person's face about it without looking like I'm over-reacting. 
• Barking, from other dogs. My Poodleface is wonderfully behaved, but he's still a dog, and I'm uncomfortable in situations where his self-control is being tested.
• Barking, from other humans. Okay, that's just mean.
• NO DOGS ALLOWED signs. I see one of those and I know there's going to be a confrontation. I get to explain to some under-informed and probably under-paid employee how service dogs are exempt from that rule, and then I get to explain that yes, I'm allowed to have a service dog even though I'm not blind. 
• People who I swear I've never seen before who say I had a long and informative discussion about service dogs with them two months ago. Apparently I'm the only girl in town who goes everywhere with a white poodle and therefore very easy to recognize. 

Also, it's not easy to remember who you've given a speech to if you've given it about five hundred times.

• Mothers who have their babies say "doggie" as I pass.

Okay, I know I'm in the minority on that one because it's happened so many times it MUST be considered normal, but really, it bugs me. What if I was in a wheelchair? Would it still be okay to have a baby say it? 

What irritates me the most about this one is that I don't know how to get them to understand that I don't like it. I've tried just going over to them and saying "Excuse me, I find that offensive. Could you please stop?" But it doesn't work. They just look at me like I've requested something bizarre, or like I'VE said something offensive. Obvious eye rolling or annoyed body language doesn't work either, and neither does irritated sarcasm. It's a situation I don't know how to deal with, but that I'm apparently not supposed to feel I need to deal with. Am I really the only one it bugs?

And, finally, the thing that makes me wince the most,

• People who say, "But an allergy isn't a disability!