Idiot Parents - Caution - Rant

i feel ya!

well, i gotta say that is one of the good things about living here in china. first of all the one-child policy. people are WAY protective of their kids. usually when little kids wanna go and pet my dogs (who are both VERY nervous around kids) the parents take them and tell them" no, the dog will bite you". now, i don't like the sentiment and wonder if these kids will one day grow up to be afraid of dogs. i sure hope not. but it's still better than the other way around. it just makes me sad, because i do want to have children in the future and i wish i had more chances to get them accostumed to kids.
this summer i had a nice experience though. i was walking them and this french family was there with their two duahgters (4ish and 11ish). they were very interested in my dogs so i called moca and jason to me, and let the girls pet them (the right way) with one hand on each of my dogs. it was nice, because the girls didnt really know how to pet a dog, but the parents were very aware and told them to not scream, run around and pet their heads. they even thanked me (for what??) when they left. it was refreshing! wish i had more encounters like that...

That's horrible to hear. I love children, and I love dogs - so I love to see well-behaved children getting a kick out of well-behaved dogs. Kids like that ruin it for everybody. I don't think I could have been so patient. I would have asked them to leave - or as someone else said, "gotten alpha on them" - LOL! Last weekend at the dog park, there was a little girl that wouldn't leave poor old Duchess alone and I had to get pretty firm with her after I'd asked her twice to stop. Duchess isn't a biter, but she's wary of new people and so she side-steps and trots away from them - this little girl thought it was hilarious to chase Duchess and make her bark and run.

Strauss is very tolerant of nose honking, cheek grabbing, tail pulling, being crawled on, having his tootsies accidentally stepped on, having his ears played with...one kid even accidentally poked him in the eye.  He never growls, he just looks to me for direction and allows me to take care of it.

Same with Balto. He can be tugged, grabbed, pushed, hugged, poked and prodded . . . you think poking in the eye is bad? One time I turned my head and a little kid nearly inserted their finger in an even worse location. He just looked at me like, "Er . . . are you going to . . . do . . . something about this?" []

you think poking in the eye is bad? One time I turned my head and a little kid nearly inserted their finger in an even worse location. He just looked at me like, "Er . . . are you going to . . . do . . . something about this?"

 
ROFL!!!!