It's A Burden Being Different...

[wuffles]

Yes, people appear to be drawn to Ava's white face...

[Guest Maeby Fünke]

At the risk of sounding like one of those supermodels who has a massive whinge because it's such a burden being beautiful because they can't go anywhere, blah, blah, blah...

Gosh I wish we could take Josie out for the day without literally every second person stopping us to pat her or take photos! I have learnt to not make eye contact anymore with the people who comment as you are walking past, that's an open invitation for cuddles. She loves going places with us and just chilling out. I took her with me today to watch a local triathlon and she'll happily just lean against my side for hours while I watch but I don't think I saw any of the triathlon due to everyone stopping to ask for a pat, or ask about the breed or the twelve! sets of photos that were taken of her...

Anywho, that's my white whine for the night :laugh: Anyone else suffer from the burden of an interesting/particularly gorgeous dog?

Yes I have this problem. It's like owning a movie star child. It can be a pain but I try to be on my best behaviour because, to me, owning a purebred dog is like being an ambassador for that breed. I always enjoy meeting other Pugs/Pug owners though.

[kelpiecuddles]

You need to move here MF, seems to be a lot of pugs around here :)

Edited November 10, 2013 by kelpiecuddles

[huga]

I don't mind when people are genuinely interested, it's the stupid comments I can do without.

This morning I was trotting along with Sid and had an old couple try and catch up to me :laugh: They called out in the end. Turns out they babysit their sons Frenchie a lot and were dying to talk to Sid. It was very cute.

[Bullmastiffmum]

Yes I too have to suffer excessive attention towards my boy when we are out and about.

Only 2 photos but hundreds of cuddles and pats.

Regular drivers toot there horn and wave, regular walkers stop to say hi to him, ignoring me, knowing his name, not mine.

When out of our suburb, walking, at markets or fetes, people often stop and 50 % dont even ask if its ok to pat him before they do, I have had parents rush there children in for a pat, all are amazed when they ask what breed? I answer "bullmastiff" Then all of the usual conversations...arent they aggressive etc.

He now knows at 6yrs old when people are talking /staring at him and he does seem to enjoy the attention. I not so much, but I guess if he is a good ambassador for the breed, it cant do any harm.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

I have no issues with talking to people who stop me and want to ask about Danes. It gives me the opportunity to stress the importance of buying from a registered breeder, doing your research and the availability of rescue. Despite not being raised around kids, he loves them and I love getting the opportunity to show that big dogs aren't scary and how to properly approach a dog.

It is just one of those things you have to deal with if you have an uncommon breed.

Also, the bigger the dog, the more attention - which I guess is a factor with Danes.

We had two eye catching breeds before getting our IW. You would think Salukis and Afghans would be stop in the street breeds, and by and large they are, but the attention we got with them from Joe Public was nothing compared to the number of people who stop to talk about the IW. There is something about Wolfhounds that draws men and their sons from everywhere to look and pat and talk about how their cousin's mate's best friend had a bigger one. (ahem..)

When we're out in public doing socialisation walks, I actually just take my dog and leave my OH to it, because I have an internal limit on saddle jokes. My OH is much more patient.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Most people think my Iggy is a Whippet puppy! :D She's magnificent at 12 yrs of age.

[RiverStar-Aura]

I both love and dislike the attention when I have my guys out in public. The main issue is that Kirah, being small and cute, everyone wants to pat her -- she's wary of strangers and doesn't really want to interact with anyone other than me. Zeus on the other hand loves the attention but because he's not cute, fluffy-ish and little, he's often ignored. If anything and it was me approaching my two dogs, I'd want to know about Zeus because he's so goofy looking -- only problem with that is he's a "designer dog".

Having said that, by people asking about Zeus when they do, I do not hesitate to tell them that yes, whilst he did win the pretty looks lottery, he's not a cross I'd ever wish to own again. He's a lot of hard work and definitely not for a time poor family looking for a dog to be content alone in the backyard for half the day.

I dislike hearing Kirah being called Toto -- Toto was a Cairn Terrier, Kirah is an Australian Terrier, developed here in Aus. There is mostly likely Cairn in the Aussie's make-up, but the exact breeds used in their development is an unknown. Other than that, I love talking to people about Aussies because very few people know about them, and are usually very surprised to learn that they are indeed an Aussie dog, unlike the Aussie Shep.

[RiverStar-Aura]

Most people think my Iggy is a Whippet puppy! :D She's magnificent at 12 yrs of age.

Because I'm unfamiliar with Iggies and Whippets I'll sometimes get the two confused. I have met some (what I think to be) small whippets and without an Igg standing next to a Whippet, I do struggle with their sizes.

How big do full grown Iggies get Dogmad?

[huski]

I've always liked people asking me about the dogs, I used to get stopped all the time with Micha and Daisy. I think only one or two people have ever asked me about Wiz though, people often thinks she looks mean. Venom however who is the exact same breed and the same lines gets a lot of attention as he's fluffy!

[Kazhak]

I get stopped a fair bit when I'm out with my boys, usually to ask what breed my boys are. also get photos taken by the media when we're at events cause my boys look so different, I look at it as a chance to educate people about the breed.

its a shame you've had to watch your eye contact with people in case they may stop you.

[kelpiecuddles]

its a shame you've had to watch your eye contact with people in case they may stop you

I don't always Kazhak, but if we were to walk through a couple of hundred people like we did today for example I can honestly say that well over 100 of them would have been involved in a conversation with their friends about my dog. If I stopped to make small talk with every one of those people we would never get anywhere. At one stage my son needed to go to the toilet and I was trying to extract myself from a very persistent family LOL

Maybe it's a factor of where I live too, lots of tourists so while there would be some regulars there are also a lot of people when we go places that would never have seen my dog before.

Edited November 10, 2013 by kelpiecuddles

[Kazhak]

My advice in that case is you need to get firm, be a bit more assertive & just tell people you need to leave, if they don't listen get rude & walk away, I've had to do it on a few occasions when people just wont let me be.

still a bit of a hard situation in a crowd situation like that, my boys being small means I wouldn't take them to an event like that cause I'd be carrying them the whole time :)

[Danois]

I have no issues with talking to people who stop me and want to ask about Danes. It gives me the opportunity to stress the importance of buying from a registered breeder, doing your research and the availability of rescue. Despite not being raised around kids, he loves them and I love getting the opportunity to show that big dogs aren't scary and how to properly approach a dog.

It is just one of those things you have to deal with if you have an uncommon breed.

Also, the bigger the dog, the more attention - which I guess is a factor with Danes.

We had two eye catching breeds before getting our IW. You would think Salukis and Afghans would be stop in the street breeds, and by and large they are, but the attention we got with them from Joe Public was nothing compared to the number of people who stop to talk about the IW. There is something about Wolfhounds that draws men and their sons from everywhere to look and pat and talk about how their cousin's mate's best friend had a bigger one. (ahem..)

When we're out in public doing socialisation walks, I actually just take my dog and leave my OH to it, because I have an internal limit on saddle jokes. My OH is much more patient.

Yeah - Danes draw the male attention. Have a super friendly dog too means he will stand there and want attention and people find it very hard to walk past him and not just put their hand out as he's at the right height.

Saddle jokes - I just smile these days. While I have heard all the horse jokes before, for the person saying it, its a novelty and I can't blame them for that.

[Diva]

The Borzoi get a lot of attention, especially the white one. Fortunately she is a party girl and laps it up.

[cali]

I get stopped and talked about because of the number, rather then my dogs thmselves. I have 6 dogs which I walk all together, people pull over in their cars, veer off coarse on walks to talk to me etc.. I get a few people that ask for pictures, but most people, just stop and take cell phone pics from a distance apparently hoping I don't notice that the car up ahead is stopped in the middle of the street with a person holding a call phone pointed at me... I get a lot of "dog walker" comments and I correct them and say no they are all mine which usually get an incredulous "why??" or "how do you take care of them all???" questions I really have no idea how to answer, its usually "uhh...I like them" and "uuumm..I feed them, I exercise them, I train them?". its at the point that I actually have to plan out my walk routes to avoid certain area's because I will get stopped for a good 30 minutes at a time by people in that area. I actually like that Gypsy is not friendly on walks and I am not sure I WANT to fix the issue completely, because it gives me an excuse...the rest of my dogs are very obviously friendly and want to say hi and play with strangers, having Gypsy allows me to bypass people quicker, especially kids, because I can say "sorry, this one is not friendly and I don't want you to come too close and get hurt" instead of sounding like a complete jerk lol

apparently I am well known though....my friend who is a private dog trainer texted me last week that one of her clients who is also a red head and about my size when walking in my area and she was stopped a few times by people asking her "why don't you have 6 or 7 dogs with you this time?" :laugh: luckily she had seen me before so she knew the mistake that was being made, otherwise that would be REALLY confusing comment

Edited November 10, 2013 by cali

[disintegratus]

It would be nice to get stopped all the time because people want to compliment my dog/s. Unfortunately, now that Bones has lost her puppy-cuteness and looks more like an idiot than ever, we rarely get stopped. I also can't see Thundercleese and I getting stopped any time soon, as not only is he large and fear aggressive, he's ugly too! (I still love him though, and think that underneath all his outward ugliness, he's got a beautiful soul :p)

[kiwifeathers]

Breeze being one of two Italians in town, and the fact there are very few Italians in the country we get stopped a lot out walking and at public events like the A&P show, and I get asked the usual "is that a whippet, is that a puppy greyhound etc". Once when Breeze was a baby I had an old couple that were very insistent she was a mini foxi puppy! Most people say how cute or pretty she is, though some say rude things as they pass instead and I get a lot of kids say "look how skinny that dog is" when they walk past, which is funny to me because she's actually a tad overweight atm. Breeze is fairly outgoing for an IG, and as long as people don't go straight for the top of her head out of nowhere she is fine with adults patting her after she gets a sniff in. She's gotten much better with kids over time but still not as keen on them, so I pick and choose what kids I let touch her. I don't mind talking to people about the breed at all, its only when you get stopped every few meters it gets annoying :laugh:

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Most people think my Iggy is a Whippet puppy! :D She's magnificent at 12 yrs of age.

Because I'm unfamiliar with Iggies and Whippets I'll sometimes get the two confused. I have met some (what I think to be) small whippets and without an Igg standing next to a Whippet, I do struggle with their sizes.

How big do full grown Iggies get Dogmad?

Mine's about 5 kilos, 5 or 6 kilos is the norm but we at Iggy Rescue have had one at 3.5 kilos, an adult. We've also had the larger end of the scale. If Iggies are from an American line, they can be around 10 or 11 kilos like my first Italian "Luigi" - he was a rescue back in 1999.

[tdierikx]

Pickles gets attention because of her funny walking style - she walks kind of like a marionette puppet due to the scar in her brain sustained as a wee puppy - and when people ask what "breed" she is, I just tell then to pick one, as it's probably in the mix somewhere... lol! Pickles is a tart for pats, and we get to talk about rescue dogs - so I'm not too fazed at being stopped with her.

I've had people ask what breed Trouble is, and then when told she's a Labrador, get the comment that she can't be because she's not fat... *sigh*

T.