My job involves working with parents who have infants and toddlers with disabilities. At a recent training session, we invited a family who had graduated from our training project and had recently received a service dog from Guiding Eyes for the Blind Heeling Autism Program. It was very hard to resist the urge to talk or touch this remarkable dog, and I think in addition to knowing the name, people are drawn to how smart and special they are.
The dogs trained for the Heeling Autism Program are required to protect the child by preventing them from 'bolting' which is a serious problem for many children with autism. But similar to all animals trained to work with children or adults with disabilities or sensory impairments, they are 'working' and distractions can prevent them from doing the job they are trained to do.
The Guide Dog Foundation has a wonderful "Etiquette" sheet they have developed of dos and don'ts when around service animals.
http://www.guidedog.org/content.aspx?id=1416

Margaret