- every year, I petsit for two lovely families when they go on vacation. one family owns the sweetest black lab while the other owns a lovely and highly energetic pitbull! the treatment I receive while walking either dog is so shockingly different, it actually disgusts me.
while walking the black lab named niki, children would often run up to me to pet her. she's a very friendly dog so thankfully I never have to worry about her biting them no matter how rough the kids get, but if they did this around any other dog it would really concern me with how violently they run at the poor animal and how roughly they pet it! niki does have a small fear of adult men after being thrown in the street by one as a puppy so I do have to advise dads to keep a little distance, but thankfully she would never bite them even if they did get close, only shy away.
the kids' behavior is what really gets me in this case. when I was a kid, I was taught to respect pets and pet owners. I don't know how parents these days don't understand that they need to teach their kids proper 'pet etiquette' when around animals! my parents always made sure I hung back and asked a pet owner if it was safe to pet their animal, and they never tolerated me tapping on glass or rough-housing with my furry friends. I was taught to be polite, quiet, and gentle, and I grew up remaining so.
now on the other end of the spectrum, people shy away from me while I walk the pitbull, named kimber. I have to be very careful while walking her; we can't go in certain areas due to the city's pitbull restrictions - if we did, law enforcement could seize her and put her down which is just so wrong. she's a very in-your-face type of dog, but in an extremely affectionate way and not an aggressive one; in the end, she just wants to playplayplayplayplay and may rough house a little when she's got her mind set on catching that toy.
while walking her, I've had people give me the worst looks simply because of her breed. she does bark sometimes, but usually just to announce her presence more than anything, and that can sometimes scare other people. but barking =/= aggression !!! I can't even begin to count the number of times I've tried to explain that to people. my friends' scotties always bark at me when they want attention from me or they want to play with me. in this case, kimber just wants to meet new people and dogs, make new friends, and play with them. she doesn't want to attack them or hurt them! yet people still shy away, crossing the street or turning to get away from the poor thing before she even gets close.
both of these treatments are horrible, and they're totally opposite reactions to an animal. one is trusting and loving an animal too much - overwhelming them with sudden, ferocious attention that can scare them - while the other is fearing them and hating them for no real reason. there has to be a good in-between somewhere, right ???