No you aren't crazy! I'm from DC, but live in Texas now and trust me....you meet all kinds there. They know how to run "game".
Plenty of folks always admire my boys, but no one has ever asked me to hold my dogs and I would never let them. I always say, he's skittish or wouldn't be comfortable being picked up.
But it's the ol' evil eye that I give them that lets it be known....."Don't even try it!"