What's The Worst Reaction Somebody Has Had To You Dog?

[Malakita]

We were walking through SouthBank (in Melb) a couple of weeks ago. An elderly lady who was sitting on a bench and whose first language wasn't English made a passing comment to us. We stopped as she said something to us we didn't catch because of her heavy accent. She told us to take our dogs away as she was scared of dogs. We were baffled. We were minding our business, the dogs werent anywhere near her and we were about to walk past her when she stopped us to basically tell us to keep moving along.

Aside from that, we have had the minority give us a really wide berth. Some of which literally jump out the way.

95 % of the public are terrific.

[Nic.B]

A guy threw himself over a table into a pile of boxes head first. Pure swan dive straight into them.

Over a Malinois... pfft

:laugh:

[pepe001]

I had a kiwi lady run into her house screaming wolf a few months back. She was scared of my 6mth black GSD. If she saw him now she would have a fit as he is much bigger.

Many years ago I had a work do at my place. I had a GSD and Great Dane and a friend bought a lab to play. They were locked under the house playing. All guests were in the courtyard including two Indonesian men who were special guests visiting for training purposes. We catered for them food wise and did all we could to make them welcome. Someone didn't know they had an aversion to dogs and let the 3 large dogs into the courtyard. Well, the confusion was hilarious, now, but not at the time. Dogs ran through the gate and men very quickly climbed the 6ft wooden fence and disappeared into the night. We spent many hours searching the streets looking for the scared men who spoke little English and were clearly terrified. They said they were scared because they never saw such big dogs and definitely didn't touch them as they were dirty.

[Nic.B]

No bad reactions aside from an electricity meter reader years and years ago who was in a fowl mood, screaming, yelling and waving his arms about like a banchi before coming into the house yard.

I was home and asked him to wait while I called the dogs, he ignored me, continued and started going off at me! I was shocked and kept looking at the van to make sure it was an integral energy employee.

He then told me my small breed was going to get his boot up his arse if he didnt stop barking. At that point I told him to leave our property. Then he really went off :laugh:

I put in a formal complaint and the area manager and another lady came out to meet with us. The dogs were laying about around us and chilled out as usual. I was told there had been disiplinary action though not what that was (which is fair enough). Self read metres even since!

[Kirislin]

Haven't had any horrible reactions, just one that sticks out was a woman who had a fear of dogs. I was at the shops with mine dressed up in Christmas gear. She came and sat next to me and the dog and smiled and just said "I have a fear of dogs, I don't want to pat yours, but I think he looks cute". She was sitting about half a meter away from him just smiling to herself. Scout ignored her [didn't go to her for his normal give me lots of pats].

awww that's sweet.

[tdierikx]

When Zeddy was younger, we were at the park up the road near the freeway, and some kids and their mother were there. The kids wanted to play with Zeddy and I said OK.

Anyways, chatting away with the mother for a good 10-15 mins before she decided to ask what breed Zeddy was...

When I told her that Zeddy was a Rotti/Pittie cross, she went completely mental, screaming at the 3 children (who were playing ball happily with Zeddy for a good 10-15 mins already) to get away from the "vicious" dog... *sigh*

Another observation... walking my male Rottweiler, we'd get lots of people wanting to come pat him... different story if same dog was wearing a muzzle... go figure? Ummm... muzzle usually means he CAN'T bite you. Poor Rastus had had a bad experience with the neighbour's children throwing bricks at him over the fence, and was quite leery of children after that - hence the muzzle on walks... just in case a child ran up to him and scared him... as is their wont.

T.

[Brandiandwe]

I've had a few, but the worst was a man who was walking his dog coming towards us. We went to cross the road, he crossed first, but began screaming atbus. When he started screaming, his dog began pulling at us, getting very excited and pulling him towards us. Unfortunately, I was still poop picking, so I could only stand still, and juggle increasingly antsy greys as he screamed that my dogs are vicious, aggressive, and that he'd shoot them if they killed his cats. His dog, who was getting increasingly excited, got him close enough to trigger Brandi's protective instincts, and she ramped up enough. Seeing a bigger brindle grey begin showing what they can do seemed to make him think twice and he dragged his dog off screaming all the way.

Talking to someone else, I found out that he and his son are regularly in and out of prison, that he is regularly drunk or high while out and about, and told me the house. Guess who is responsible for many if the free range cats in the area?

I avoid him and his house. I also reported it to council. I'm kinda known in the area as the greyhound lady. Normal crazy I can manage. Crazy with a serve of extra unpredictability and a known history, I don't put it past possibility for further problems including attempts to bait my dogs.

On the other side, there's the little Asian woman who is quite elderly and less than four foot tall. She walks laps around a park we cross. I always kept out of her way until she stopped walking to look at the dogs. She bowed, waved and moved on, but we began greeting each other and she got closer and closer. Then Hermon took matters in hand and walked straight up to her. She was pretty surprised but he rested his head up her chest and made direct eye contact with his nose touching her chin as she cradled his head. They both stayed perfectly still for a minute while the girls and I watched. She then gave him a big cuddle and stroked him, patted the girls, bowed, waved and smiled at me then we moved in. Next time, Hermon headed over and was greeted with delight and she said to me, while pointing at him, Ching Hai. I looked it up, and it's apparently a sect of Buddhism (matching an insignia on her jacket). I don't fully understand what relationship she feels it has to Hermon given our interactions are mainly sign language, smiling and good mornings, but I think she recognizes Hermon's old soul. Or she's a sucker for a handsome hound. Either way, I feel happier for having seen her each time.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Brandiandwe

[Guest hankodie]

I have the opposite problem with Hank! I get parents encouraging their little children to run up to him and pat him without asking because he looks so friendly. I guess the parents assume just because he is a GR he's going to love children. Luckily he is great and very gentle with strangers but it still makes me worry that those parents are going to encourage their kids to run up to any dog that "looks" friendly.

With Odie people usually just point and laugh because she's so funny looking lol.

[Brandiandwe]

Can I also say that I have people asking if my dogs are aggressive or if they'll bite while patting them? I can understand beforehand, because two are muzzled, but why pat the dog before asking???? And further, if I've brought my dog in as a therapy dog, it's unlikely to be the unpredictable one......

[Steph M]

Can I also say that I have people asking if my dogs are aggressive or if they'll bite while patting them? I can understand beforehand, because two are muzzled, but why pat the dog before asking???? And further, if I've brought my dog in as a therapy dog, it's unlikely to be the unpredictable one......

I get that all the time with no muzzle. Sometimes I say yes just so see their reactions, then after they jump back in horror I say I was kidding and he means no harm unless you're bacon. That's usually the best way to point out that's a stupid thing to ask when you're already patting him.

[Rainy]

Yep get horrible reactions regularly ( i have staffords) from similar to you to a person telling me i owned baby killers and they should be shot immediately.

African immigrants and of Islamic faith

Out of curiosity what has this ^ got to do with it?

Obviously a generalisation as I have a Muslim friend who also loves dogs but many are often not accustom to dogs as pets and come from countries where they are more commonly strays/working dogs and therefore seen as unhygenic or dangerous. There is also a stipulation in the Quran that if a dog were to lick you you must clean the area 7 times (something along those lines at least) and I believe there is something else about dogs being kept for reasons other than work and service being a negative thing. This is just something I've heard my Muslim friends tell me when I've asked why. Most of the immigrants in my area have moved here relatively recently and so are not used to seeing pet dogs so I am more than understanding of why they react the way they do. Conversely I am sure their are plenty of Muslims who love dogs and plenty of non-Muslims who hate dogs, I'm just considering the factors that may be the reason.

siiigh. I'm gathering by the 'white' comment that you're implying I was making a big deal about race. I am sorry if it appeared that way, I don't think it is racist to acknowledge cultural differences often have something to do with how people approach dogs nor was I condemning it in any way...

No i wasn't implying anything just curious, i haven't had an issue with any one like this however we don't see newer immigrants here often.

[denali]

Actually once someone kicked my dog. She didnt react but he kicked her square in the hind, he was lucky he kicked the non reactive one. Rather random. Or do I just attract nutters?

I had someone kick my previous cavalier. Thankfully he wasn't to phased by it and still loved people.

Though he was a little wary of men after that.

Let me tell you, i was not happy!!

[denali]

Can I also say that I have people asking if my dogs are aggressive or if they'll bite while patting them? I can understand beforehand, because two are muzzled, but why pat the dog before asking???? And further, if I've brought my dog in as a therapy dog, it's unlikely to be the unpredictable one......

I get that all the time with no muzzle. Sometimes I say yes just so see their reactions, then after they jump back in horror I say I was kidding and he means no harm unless you're bacon. That's usually the best way to point out that's a stupid thing to ask when you're already patting him.

:laugh: :laugh:

[Aidan3]

I think frightened people just do stupid things, like the guy who called my dog then got upset that he ran over to him on the (off-leash) beach this week.

I did have a guy tell me he'd knock my block off and actually kicked my dog. But he was just an idiot, probably goes around starting fights for all sorts of reasons.

[wings]

I had a little kid start screaming her head off at the sight of Hansel. The mother was not impressed and gave us huge death glares as we went past.

Hansel is a mini dachshund! We were also on the ONLY dog beach on that bit of coast with beautiful beaches either side that are complete human access. Hansel was nowhere near the kid when she started, had shown no interest until she started screaming and recalled beautifully when we decided he should be on leash to get past them.

Weirdest reaction I have ever had! Most people can't get enough of him.

[Canisbellum]

I had a Asian lady sit on the only (narrow) trail at the Simpson falls and watch me walk up to her without moving. I even stopped Jonah to give her a chance to move and she didnt. Of course the minute Jonah tried to walk past her she started carrying on like he was rabid, plague bearing vicious beast.

As for the people who think that describing people by their race is racist I can only advise that you find something more important to worry about.,

[dididog]

[quote name='Rainy' timestamp='1397770071' post='6465323

No i wasn't implying anything just curious, i haven't had an issue with any one like this however we don't see newer immigrants here often.

Don't worry Rainy the comment wasn't directed at you, I didn't think you were implying anything.

[dididog]

I'm glad everyone seems to only get these reactions occasionally!I'm beginning to get nervous on walks because I hate confrontation and I know at the moment Didi is likely to freak out over little things. Luckily after most of my bad incidents with people I get a good one, like after the incident with the child these two girls from the dog park ran across the road to give Didi a cuddle because they recognised her which I think made Didi forget what just happened. Then straight after the mother who yelled at us for scaring her kids we walked passed a mother with a toddler in a pram who kept saying things like "Look there's a doggy! Look how nice the doggy is, isn't it a pretty doggy!" as we walked passed which cheered me up a bit.

Another one I found slightly amusing was I was getting off the train at Flinders Street Station and there were those typical people who crowd around the doors on the platform as if they expect to get on before everyone else can get off and because you couldn't see Didi through the doors when we stepped off everyone scrambled out of my way gasping in surprise.

[Little Gifts]

We have a snooty husky/shep cross (called Wolf, which gets some interesting reactions if ever shouted out in public), a naughty sbt and a quirky shar pei. The only comments we get out in public are about how different they all are. Someone once asked if we couldn't decide what type of dog to get so just got one of each! No-one ever gets frightened of our sbt because she loves people and constantly sports a big smile and a licky tongue at the sight of a potential new friend. Everyone wants to pat the husky/shep though which I always think is strange because she is our guard dog and quite aloof. Maybe people are attracted to her coat? Only pei people want to cuddle our pei girl but she is very fussy on who she will let touch her these days.

[Yonjuro]

An African man said to be last week when I was walking my Siberian Husky puppy, that my dog was illegal and he was going to kill me and my dog.