How to educate about service dogs when having medical issues.?

Have some business cards printed up with some basic information about service animals. When you are unable to speak for yourself, simply hand them a card. When it's an idiot you can ignore, simply do so. You don't have to kill yourself educating people. We all do what we can and if you aren't up to it, just let it go.

A few of us in the Service Dog Central community have been working on making sample cards that people can print off for just this sort of situation. The project is still under construction, but you can see some of what we have come up with here: http://servicedogcentral.org/docs/lawcards/

Join the community at http://servicedogcentral.org/forum to find the rest of our discussion and participate in the project if you are interested. We're even talking about having some cards printed out to sell at a nominal fee (just covering costs of printing and mailing) for those unable to print their own.

The Delta Society also has brochures you can print off that are quite nice:

http://www.deltasociety.org/Document.Doc?id=239

and a law card at:

http://www.deltasociety.org/Document.Doc?id=346

Tell the father and all other stupid people that no, you DON'T pet service dogs when they are working. Do explain to the father that should anything happen, he could get sued. Make sure everyone around you hears. Embarrass the crap out of them. Do tell them you have such and such a disorder and that it isn't only blind people needing service dogs. If nothing else, you'll be able to educate the child.

As much as it sucks, it's not really your place to educate the ignorant. You pretty much have to ignore what you can or you'll be so addled with the ignorance of others that you'll go crazy.

In the case of the "blind lady", I probably would have said to the child, "Actually, I see just fine, but you still shouldn't pet anyone's dog without asking."

In the case of "mean dog", I probably would have said more with a roll of my eyes and a laugh directed parent than any words.

Added: If you'd like to reach out and educate more people, perhaps you can work with a group to give talks at local schools? That would be a great way to stop the ignorance before it begins!

I'm not sure that Y!A is the best place to be asking such a question. I would suggest visiting forums where other service dog handlers congregate and getting some of their opinions.

That being said, why do you need to respond to the comments at all?

Tell them your dog doesn't bite, but you do. Don't be afraid to look any idiot straight in the eye when they assume you're blind.