Should You Expect...

[P-Nut Mom]

I think people should ask, but they often don't, which is fine with P-Nut, but not with Pickles depending on the gender of the person. Pickles can snap if a man he doesn't know bends down to pet him. Not always, but often. Last weekend, I took P-Nut walking in our downtown area which is very dog friendly and many people petted him without asking which freaked me out. He's a love bug, so it was ok except when three kids wanted to pet him at once. He's scared of young children (me too! Hahaha), so I picked him up and explained it was just too much activity for him. I also pick the boys up if there's a big dog near by. I think we have to be constantly on guard with these little guys.

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by KazzyK810

I think it's weird for strangers to be touching your dog in public, without permission. People should always ask first, before petting, IMO. But there are always those annoying people that are overly-familiar and violate personal boundaries, and are oblivious to the bitch-face.

ZoE doesn't seem to share my perspective. She likes people better than most dogs. And she loves little kids! She stares that them almost pleading for them to come pet her, and if they look away, she'll whine sometimes to regain their attention. At every public dog event we go to, she interacts with way more children than she does other dogs. My kids are grown adults, and I have no grandchildren, or nieces or nephews, so ZoE has no interaction with children other than in public. I don't know why she's taken such a liking to them. Every child over toddler age we've encountered thus far, has always asked, or been prompted by their parent to ask, if they may pet her.

OMG this is Uni exactly. She always tries to go up to people and say hi. I reel her in unless the person passing by is looking right at her and smiling. Most people don't want a dog jumping up on them and you can usually tell.

Years ago we had a boutique. We sold handbags and clothes. Uni got so used to saying "awwww!" when they saw her that whenever someone would awwww at a purse or something they thought cute, Uni would totally think they were talking about her!

Then later we had a bike shop. No more girls saying "awwww" about purses but what happened was Uni would come out to greet the customers and they would said awww or cute, then Scrappy would come bouncing out and he was totally adorable, barely half of Uni's size and they would say an even bigger AWWWWW!! and Uni would get all butt hurt! LMAO!!