Embarrassed to Be Seen with Someone with a Service Dog

I've never had this problem.  Or maybe some people do prefer not to be seen with me with my service dog and I'm just oblivious to it because, well, I don't really care.  But mostly I assume that if someone needs a service dog or a wheelchair or a cane or hearing aids or an interpreter or whatever, that should be just fine with everyone around them because, well, why wouldn't it be all right?

But this is an issue I hear about kind of often from other people that have service dogs.  Their mom or their sister or their girlfriend or whomever wants them to go to the grocery store or out to eat or someplace with them, but does not want them to bring their service dog.  They are embarrassed about being seen with someone with a service dog. 

And  yes, in some cases, those same people are embarrassed to be seen with someone that uses a walker or a wheelchair or some other assistive device.  Someone recently talked about her girlfriend wanting to go to the mall, but wanting her to leave her walker at home because she was embarrassed to be seen with someone that wasn't elderly but used a walker.  Apparently she thought only elderly people should use walkers.

This type of thinking really confuses me.  Apparently a fair number of people think like that, but I don't get it.  Why wouldn't you want your girlfriend or your family member or whomever to enjoy their trip to the mall with you and be glad they had a walker or whatever device they needed that would allow them to do that?  Why would you prefer they leave the walker at home and get tired out or maybe even fall and hurt themselves?  And I'm sure it's not that the girlfriend wanted this person to get tired out or fall and get hurt.  But if you don't want that to happen, why wouldn't you welcome the walker or whatever other device would help prevent that from happening?

When you go into a grocery store or restaurant with a service dog, you often get some attention.  I guess that embarrasses some people.  It doesn't embarrass me, but I don't really like it, either.  I would rather people leave me alone. 

But the attention isn't usually that bad, and people aren't paying attention to whomever I am with.  They are looking at my dog, and sometimes, at me.  I doubt they even notice my human companion, they are so busy looking at the dog.  And sometimes people do ask me questions, like if I am training Isaac for a blind person or why I have a service dog, but they don't ask questions of my companion.  I deal with any questions or comments as needed.   My companion doesn't have to deal with them.

I guess I don't see why someone should care if my service dog is with me, because it doesn't seem to me that it affects them very much.