Middle aged woman acted like my innocuous French Bulldog was a pitbull. Weird?
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Anonymous
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Not even five minutes earlier a random family of three with a five year old daughter were petting her, with the daughter right in his face remarking how "perfect" he is. (Hilarious.) I say that to say everywhere we walk people want to pet him or call him adorable. He's very easy going. Later in the walk, a seemingly normal looking woman dressed in typical fitness mom garb started backing up and getting tense and seemed to have her hand on mace. I had his retractable chain loose because I figured she was a typical dog friendly person. Then it clicked she was sort of freaking out about my pup and I apologized.
Do some people just have a phobia about dogs in general and can't distinguish between them? And if you do, why walk a trail with so many dogs on it? |
Anonymous
| Weird, but some people are afraid of dogs. Maybe she didn't know his breed. |
Anonymous
| Seriously? Your default assumption is that everyone is a “typical dog friendly person?” Retractable leashes should be banned. And you shouldn’t let random children get in your dog’s face, either. |
Anonymous
| It's the retractable leash. You shouldn't walk around assuming that anyone is "a typical dog friendly person" so your dog can roam wide and far; you should be visibly in control of your dog at all times. You might think that your dog's size and personality means everyone should love it (or at least give it a chance), but there are people with real fear of dogs due to past encounters, and little kids, and other dogs, none of which should be encountering your dog when you're more than 5 feet away. |
Anonymous
| There are way more people than I realized who are afraid of or hate dogs in this area. But on a side note, please stop using a retractable leash. A close friend is a vet and there are way too many accidents and injuries as a result of retractable leashes. |
Anonymous
I assume most outdoorsy people walking on a trail (with a lot of dogs on it) probably like dogs. Outside of scary dogs like pitbulls. |
Anonymous
| I'm scared of dogs, now I can't go anywhere? |
Anonymous
 I'm not going to deny that joy. I love petting other people's dogs and they love petting mine. I'm not petting a pitbull or anything scary but cute breeds are fair game.
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Anonymous
Scared of 20-25 pound Frenchy? That's a bit much, I think. |
Anonymous
| Maybe she thinks people shouldn't breed more French Bulldogs? I find them adorable but feel bad for them that they are bred despite their breathing problems. |
Anonymous
| I feel like this is a troll designed to start a breed fight. I remember a similar post about someone letting her dog chase ducks at the park on a retractable leash and she managed to work in "but mine is a cute breed, not a scary pit bull!" in every reply on that thread too. |
Anonymous
Why would enjoying being outdoors necessarily equate with liking dogs? Just because I’m out walking on a public trail doesn’t mean it’s a free invitation for people to let their dogs encroach on me- it’s not a dog park. Personally while I do like some dog breeds, I find French bull dogs disgusting and their owners cruel for propping up the industry of breeding them. |
Anonymous
I hate dogs and am outside a lot. I find it infuriating that so many dog owners ruin trails by not keeping dogs leashed and/or picking up their crap. I go with my kids a lot. My son is allergic so please don’t let your dogs run up to everyone. Do better! |
Anonymous
| So you are the kind of bad dog owner that makes the rest of us look awful. |
Anonymous
| I like dogs just fine but don't want yours to jump on me and I'm not planning on petting it while I'm out running. Keep your dog on a short leash by your side when passing other people. I'm not bothering you, please don't let the dog bother me. |