"Can my dog say Hi?"

Contagious...i like that..lol

 the water bottle trick sounds interesting...hope i never have to use it,and hope i think of it if i have to.

 

 

ORIGINAL: JaneyB
If not, you can always squirt the dog, and it won't hurt them!

i have done this while biking too. many people here let their dogs roam free 24/7. i have been chased by everything from a small chihuahua to a very large rottweiler. i little squirt of water from a bike bottle will usually stop them in their tracks.

It's the people that don't ask if my dogs are friendly that make me nervous. I can't count the number of children who have run over and thrown themselves on top of Loki or Odin. We don't have kids, so at first I had no idea how they would react. Luckily, they both turned out to like kids. But what kind of parent doesn't teach their children to respect an animal that could easily turn and kill them?
 
The other day at the vet's office two women came in with 5 children from 4-12 years old. At first just a couple came over to Loki, but next thing I knew he was swarmed by all 5. They were all talking at once, petting him, grabbing his ears and throwing different commands (sit, shake, lay down) at him. He took it really well, but after a bit, he put his tail and his ears down and gave me a really pitiful look. I had to ask several times before the women made the children back off of him. Some other dog could've very easily gotten fed up with that situation and attacked.

Honesty is best. Not rude, just matter of fact. No reason to feel bad. Best for everyones sake as I see it!

ORIGINAL: cyclefiend2000

the worst for amelia is the pack of unattended children (literally children ... the youngest one still in diapers) that roam our neighborhood. she is skiddish around even people she knows fairly well, and they come running up to pet her like some screaming bunch of banshees.

 
I'm worried about this in our neighborhood...we have neighbors at the end of the block that literally allow their diapered toddler to walk BAREFOOT in the road (he once made it all the way down to the end of the street before his FIVE year old brother came to get him.) There's like 3-4 kids total at this house, and apparently, their parents hate dogs and have taught the kids to dislike them as well. One of the neighbors we are friends with lives next door to them, separated by a fence. He has two amazingly sweet and extremely well behaved dogs, a wheaten and an Old English sheepdog. He said a while back he would occasionally catch them teasing the dogs through the fence or throwing stuff at them!!! [:@] Not cool at ALL.

The humane society where I volunteer takes dogs to Petco sometimes just to get a little exposure for the dogs and the shelter.  I took one of the Labrador puppies up there one day and this man was dragged in by a pair of Labs on a brace leash.  He walked (was dragged) up to Sofiya and let his two dogs land on top of her despite my obvious efforts to keep her in a sit-stay.  Thankfully Sofiya is very dog-friendly.  He then proceeded to tell me how he was training them to be service dogs, but they only obeyed when they were one GLs.  I was about to hit the guy, but I held back.  The guy couldn't take a hint!  He sat at the table bragging about how he had spent hundreds of dollars getting the dogs trained until we left.  People can be such idiots.