aw. I'm sorry your family was being rude. Let me get this straight though, they were visiting YOUR house, yet they were telling YOU to put YOUR dog outside? gosh! that's crazy!!
fortunatly, our family puts up with the dogs.
My aunt Joan pretends to not like Tucker but as soon as she sees him she goes, "Hi baby did you miss Aunt Joanie?" haha. They think we're insane because we have 2 (soon to be 3) but they do love them.