I wanted to thank everyone for being so welcoming of Archie over the last few seasons! Champs especially is very hard for me every year so the fact that I know that Archie and I will be okay is very reassuring. And special shoutout to pit admin for letting us decompress on their magic foam carpet!
That being said, since Archie has lots of fans now, we were constantly asked/interrupted for people to say hi or take photos with/of Archie. I love that the community loves Archie but countless times, I was working with my students or with another team and someone would come up to us. I just ask that you give Archie the same consideration as other members of a team where if you see that they are busy, you come back another time. Many of you guys did and I greatly appreciate it, I just wanted to shine a light on the fact that since there are so many people, it quickly becomes overwhelming.
Also, do not just pet Archie! There was an instance of someone (I will not name any names) that ran up to Archie started petting him fairly aggressively (without my permission) and then them and another mentor of their team decided it was appropriate to say that Archie was not a real service animal anyway because his team shirt says, “Service Lime.” I can assure you that Archie is a fully-trained service dog and has been working for almost 3.5 years. The reason it says “service lime” is because, IDK, 1678 is the citrus circuits and we are, the LIMES… I don’t know if any of the other service dog handlers had similar experience but this experience and many others this weekend made me create the rule to not allow anyone to say hi in the pits besides my students and close friends. As there were were more people who want to say hi go up, the number of negative interactions we had also went up.
Again, I want to reiterate that almost everyone was more than respectful and thank you so much! For those that took videos or photos with/of Archie, please either post them in this thread of PM them to me. I am hoping to eventually make a massive collage of all the people Archie has met in FIRST! Shameless plug here: Follow Archie at Service_Archie on instagram.
This is seriously inappropriate behavior for ANY dog. I absolutely hate people who do this, unless its a tiny little kid…and then it is the parents who I hate.
Loved seeing Archie, it made me miss my dog a bit less while at Champs.
That is awesome!!
I saw the Citrus Service Dog multiple times during champs. I kept my distance knowing he was a working dog so I don’t have any pics. I’ll see if anyone on the team have any and share if they do.
My wife and I raise dogs for the Guide Dog Foundation in NY. Here is a pic of Willie during the 2018 season. He did not make it as a guide dog so now he is just a pet.
I really enjoyed seeing Archie walking the pits.
No EVEN if the dog ISN’T a service dog you ALWAYS ask the owner/handler whether it was ok to pet the dog “Archie”. Myself as a Mentor for Team 1708 right behind Citrus thoroughly enjoyed watching yourself and Archie wander around and made me think of my pup back home. Thank you and hopefully Archie was able to relax post Champs.
PS. Hopefully it was not one of our students, even if it wasn’t I will bring this up our next meeting as you brought up a great point about petting animals that may or may not be service animals.
I’m just waiting for Archie to receive the Woofie Flowers Award. Sorry to hear about those incidents, Austin. Everyone loves Archie, but I hope in the future people will learn to show their appreciation in a respectful manner. It’s always great seeing you two at competitions.
Rather than internalize anger, especially if you experience this behavior with your team (vs random strangers), please take the FIRST way and use the opportunity to educate on why one should ask permission before approaching strange dogs.
My wife and I were puppy raisers and trainers for Canine Companions for many years. Puppies, as you might imagine, are kid magnets. Well, actually, they’re just people magnets… Regardless of our timing needs, and almost without exception, we took the time to educate fellow, but unknowing, dog lovers the rationale and etiquette for approaching dogs and service dogs in particular.
If Archie has a million fans i am one of them . If Archie has ten fans i am one of them. if Archie has only one fan, that is me . if Archie has no fans, that means i am no more on the earth . if the world is against Archie, i am against the world.
I had the privilege of being a field resetter on Archimedes this season, where 1678 was competing. This meant that I got to sit next to Archie multiple times.
I mentioned in the FIRSTchamps feedback thread that the event needs more dogs. This is a fact, proven by that every time I even was in the proximity of this dog I was smiling. Having dogs around FIRSTchamps would make people feel a lot better about being there, and help relieve stress of competition on multiple levels. Heck, even cats would help! (Not so much with the carpets though)
At the very least, every district or region should have a dog, even if it’s a service dog, just to make people feel better about being there at the event.
Official petition for 1678 to be on Archi-medes for as long as Archi is involved.
Therapy dogs are absolutely a thing and could be a great add to events so long as the situation is set up such that those with phobias and allergies are not impacted negatively.
Our team has done work with a local org, Attitudes In Reverse - they bring therapy dogs to events! It’s always a hit. Highly recommend finding similar orgs nearby to you if you’re an event host / team wanting to do more in this line.
Though i was not at Houston, i asked @BlueAllianceAddict to get a picture of Archie for me; archie was very busy so he didn’t want to bug him, but he did get this picture!
I got to walk past Archie once or twice this weekend, and I love seeing him every time! Growing up, my dad trained search and rescue dogs, and ours was a career changer from a local seeing eye dog foundation. I know the vest mean’s the dog is working, and you don’t approach. I wish this could be taught more commonly in schools, and areas like that, so that kids (and eventually adults) would learn from a young age not to approach a dog who is working.
I was fortunate to get my pupper fix from Gizmo the CSA assistant this weekend, and he would come and give me a lot of support. I appreciate how inclusive FIRST is becoming with trained service dogs.
That being said, I wish people would stop making “service animal” vests and selling them online for anyone who wants to bring their pet places they don’t belong. I’ve seen this becoming far too common. So, thank you to Archie and Gizmo for all their work and service to their humans.
The one photo of Gizmo I managed to get this week for FLOOF tax:
Citrus Dog
