Modern Dog Blog

It’s no real secret that I am not a huge fan of people in general. Three (or was it four?) years of working at a big box pet store really made me see how asinine the general public can be on a daily basis, and even before that I was known to prefer the company of dogs. Is she really yelling at that poor stocker because we are out of “her flavor” of cat food? Wow, take a pill.

Yesterday, I am out at a little high end strip mall with a client and her little fluffy dog, who we know has a history of biting people. Shit, he tries to bite me at least once a lesson. But he’s all of maybe 10 pounds, well controlled on a gentle leader, and not lunging at people snarling. Like many small dogs, he only gets twitchy when you stick your hand in his face or get too close to his mommy. Hell, I get twitchy if you put your hand in my face!

So he’s done really well, ignored lots of people, not once tried to go after anyone (except me), his obedience is looking good, and we’re just kind of going over homework and wrapping up the lesson. The whole hour we were there, not one person approached or tried to pet him, which I consider very considerate since it was fairly obvious that we were working with him. Tall guy in a suit walks by, shoves his hand in the dog’s face and as the dog is shrinking back in fear says “Can I pet him?” I politely replied, “Please don’t, he’s doesn’t exactly like people.” Easy enough, right? Guy get pissed off and INSTEAD OF TALKING TO ME LIKE A GROWN UP HUMAN (I’m sorry, but the hick in me is screeching - ACT LIKE A MAN, FOOL!) the guy mutters as he’s walking away “Well he shouldn’t be in public then.”

This is where I fell into total “now you’ve pissed me off” mode and acted just a bit impolitely. I spoke rather loudly and said “I bite too!,” followed closely by “I bring my boobs in public and you can’t touch them either!” As he left the store the dog’s poor owner tried desperately to explain that “this is his trainer and we’re working with him” while I’m muttering “stupid asshole.” It was not exactly a pretty scene and while I rarely lose my temper in public like this, something about this guy’s complete disregard for my efforts to protect his flesh from a cranky little dog really pissed me off!!

Here’s the thing. My dogs are perfectly friendly, but I HATE for people to touch them. When Teak was a baby, I never let anyone pet her, mostly because I was constantly working on her focus as a pup and didn’t want her to think that she should react to people who coo “oh, look a puppy.” Like nails down a chalkboard. Even now, my dog are trained, I don’t take them out so strangers can pet them. I take them out because I enjoy their company. I don’t like people that close to me, and dog only knows where their hands have been. I’m sorry, no, your sticky fingered, candy covered child can not pet my very clean dog. Working at said big box pet store, I had my dogs with me all the time, and got very good at politely telling people that no, they may not pet, the dog was working and needed to focus, blah blah blah. You would not believe how pissed off and offended people get. It’s amazing. It’s just a dog folks! I’m sure you have one of your own at home to pet!

The dogs belong to me. They are, for all intents and purposes, my property and I am under no obligation to let strangers touch them. People who believe just because a dog is in public means they should touch it, fluff it’s ears and make over the poor animal are stupid and rude. I would be just as incensed if you reached out and touched me. (Thus, the boobs comment.) So, yesterday’s little fiasco just set me off, and now that I don’t work at a big box pet store, I can be as cranky as I want.

I don’t ask to pet your kids, leave me and my dogs alone. And don’t get bent if you ask and someone says “no, don’t touch.” It’s not your dog, get over it!

Posted on April 16th, 2008 by michelle
Filed under: Not my dogs, The Naked Part, Training