What are you sick of hearing in regards to your dogs?

OMG yes, the abused ****.

Just let them think shepherd mix, it saves a lot of head and heart aches.

My favorite story was when I snuck my rat terrier into an akc dog show as a kid and was berated by a basenji breeder for cutting off it's tail. :rofl1:


Today, three times, I was told OMG she has so much energy for 15, in a slightly disgusted tone as if it's a bad thing and they were disappointed my old dog wasn't a boring lump to be pet. Yes she is rude and yes I warned them, and yes they didn't believe me that she'll jump and grab them so I understand disliking the reaction. None the less It bummed me out, shouldn't this be celebrated at her age?

"She's so skinny!" And "That's hardly enough food."

"Boxers are really stubborn and hard to train."

"Those dogs die young from cancer, don't they?"

ETA... forgot to add, "is she a rescue?" Only abused dogs get to be wusses lol.

"Look at the head on that guy!" Often this precedes them grabbing onto Bear's head. Luckily they have always been introduced by that point ie: they had permission to pet him. I just never seem to expect a stranger to bear hug my dog though. At least Bear doesn't mind it, he usually responds by pushing into them.

"What happened to his tail?" and/or "Why did you cut his tail off?"

"Why is she so skinny?!"

"Can I pet your dog?" This was said as Pig and I were biking. Why yes, I'll stop my bike so you can pet my dog. It's surprising how many people think that this is a reasonable request.

"Does she want to play?" Also said while biking. The guy's dog was barking and pulling towards Pig, who I might add was making a valiant attempt to on by.

"She's mostly shepherd right?" Yes, my dog who hovers between 27-30 pounds and has a completely different body type is primarily GSD.

Did you get a dog?

After reading these replies I am so happy my dogs are as unremarkable as they are. I don't really mind the occasional random assumptions strangers make when we're walking, especially if they just make comments to each other and I can walk past without acknowledging it. And if it's a Captain Obvious situation (i.e. "Those dogs are really wound up!" as they hurtle past at top speed and top volume) I am happy to say "Yup" and continue on my way. I'm very much a face-value person so implications are pretty much lost on me, haha.

Nobody really seems to say anything about our dogs, but we also have 5 pet rats, and I get a lot of remarks about them that really get's on my nerves, mainly from people who seem to think having anything over 2 is way too many. Well it's a good thing it's not your house, now is it?

I never really got all that many comments, to be honest. Then again, I work in a wealthy part of town, where there's no pet stores selling crap food, so everybody feeds a good food, out of ease. The things I mostly got were people fighting me that she must be younger than I say... and people asking her breed, though they almost always got the German Shepherd part right.

Having to stop every few minutes and tell people what breeds my dogs are can be a bit much when we take them out places.

People telling me that they got a dog at the dog pound as a puppy and know one knew what he was. Now he's grown up and he looks JUST LIKE one of my dogs, so that must be what their dog is too! Yeah...I'm sure you just went to our local pound and picked yourself up a Groenendael or PyrShep puppy.

"Did you get him from the pound?" or "Awww is he a rescue?" always and once "Is this a savior dog?" about Savvy.

Like Keeva, Ziggy can't be a purebred Corgi because he doesn't look like everyone's fat Pems.

People assuming I watch Person of Interest because I have a Mal. Maybe they think that's why I got him?

Being given "helpful" advice about Roust's stranger issues. "Ya know, you should just muzzle him and take him to the dog park every day. Then you can have everyone pet him and he won't be able to bite". Yeah...ummm...I'll keep that in mind...thanks.

It gets old hearing how horrible PyrSheps are from everyone and their brother. Mostly this is an internet issue but I've had people IRL tell me all about how awful the breed is too. Usually while I'm standing there politely listening to them with my PyrShep. Although probably more often than not, especially at trials recently I've had people tell me how much they love PyrSheps. But on top of the negative remarks about the breed in general, there's the show people who come up to me at shows or matches or classes and sort of scold me for the breed having too much variation. I'm half expecting a propaganda film to be released about the evils of PyrSheps from "the concerned dog community".

This is something that I can feel you on. People that feel he need to tell you that they dislike your breed of dog. I have a Pit Bull and an ACD, and it seems like someone ALWAYS hates one or the other and feels the need to tell me about it. I don't care if you dislike my dog's breed, as there are some dog breeds I dislike too, but why do you have to tell ME about it?

Remind me if I meet any of you not to comment or ask about your dogs!

I didn't read through all the comments, but so many of these just seem like nice people trying to start up a nice quick conversation. I think the only time I've gotten annoyed with a stranger over a dog related "comment" was when a bunch of teenage guys started to "bark" at Boo as I walked her down the street. That was uncalled for. Of course, I'd probably also get annoyed with a stranger "arguing" with me, but as of yet that hasn't happened...

I can't imagine being annoyed by any of the above comments unless you were obviously in a hurry to go somewhere! Sure, they might not all be true, but most of those are just genuine questions/comments or even in a few cases what seems to be an attempt at a complement! Since when do people get up in arms over a compliment!?

I never let the strangers know I'm irritated by the comment! I'm just tired of hearing it. :] I'm always super nice when people say anything to me about Elsie; but I'm not exaggerating when I say I've been asked if she's a GSD two or three hundred times. It isn't the comment that I mind, it's that I'm tired of having the same conversation.

Of course that's not the individuals problem or fault at all, and so I'm always cheerful to answer.

:rofl1: I should rephrase.
I don't actually SAY those things to people under my comments.. in fact, I am NEVER anything but friendly and receptive when people talk to me about Merlin (even to tell me about their friend Tom's aussie or tell me how smart aussies are..)

I am VERY friendly to strangers who want to interact or talk to me about him.

It's just kind of an internalized.. "ugh. again with this." We take the train in a city to/from work and walk through the city twice a day, every day.. I kid you not I have heard some of those things easily a few hundred times.

but I would never take out my irritation on someone who is honestly just curious or friendly or trying to be nice. Even if it's like "what happened to his tail?" I always am nice and explain to them that breeders take it off because they were bred to work with cows so their tails don't get stepped on.

Especially with things like "he is so cute!" even when I am in a rush to get somewhere, I always say thank you and smile and offer to let them pet him.

I live in a city where A LOT of what dogs do/don't get to do is decided by people without dogs, they are the majority. I don't ever want to give someone the impression that "dog people" are mean or that dogs are simply a nuisance.
Purely selfishly, it's GOOD to have a lot of people of all kinds have pleasant experiences with my dog.

Don't want to give the impression that I'm that much of a grump lol on the inside I totally am :rofl1: but on the outside I am totally friendly.

I mean, they likely have NO IDEA that I hear this stuff 50 times a day. So I wouldn't take it out on them.

Well, I would say 'what a pretty girl!', but it always makes me laugh that everyone thinks Wes is a girl named Leslie. :rofl1:

But futurepuppy is already getting obnoxious things said. Namely "border collies are crazy, they'll destroy your house." Ummm, okay, I don't understand why people think I am not aware of the exercise requirements of a dog I am getting. I just like how people think they are tornadoes or something lol.

To be fair, I know a lot of BCs do have docked tails, especially from cattle herding lines.

Yup.

We're venting here. There's no need to assume we're all taking peoples' heads off on the street.

But for the record...commenting negatively on my dog's weight/appearance or making assumptions about their dispositions is rude. Telling me you had a vicious German Shepherd as a kid with a tone that implies "you'd better watch out!" is both ignorant AND offensive, lol.

The rest of is just a nuisance. Everybody think they're first person to make a comment about the size of Keeva's ears, when really they're like person 200. So I give them whatever chuckle I can muster and just say, "Oh, I know, you should have seen her as a puppy, they looked even bigger." *shrug* And then I crab about it on the internet because I can and I want to.

Asking if a dog is a rescue/abused is not always a compliment, it often infers pity or the presumption that something bad must have happened to have a dog that doesn't suit their ideals.

Yeah, I'm with the others who said it just gets tiring after a while. I literally have the same conversations about my dogs at least ten times a day and it gets tiring and really old after a while, and often people do say things really offensively and rudely. Journey, for example, is with me almost every day, and I hear the same things about her every day and get asked the same questions about her every day. Multiple times. And we are headed to work and from work most of the time, so I often am in a bit of a hurry. I'm very polite to everyone unless otherwise warranted, because they don't know they're the hundredth person to tell me the same thing/s I get to hear all the time, but it is annoying after a while and it's nice to vent about it every once in a while. If someone compliments me about my dogs, or attempts to, I thank them. But many of the comments I get about my dogs are very judgemental and rude unfortunately, whether they mean it to be or not.

LOL! I know I can only speak for myself, but I don't get upset at people for talking to me about my dog. I was merely venting that I'm told that my dogs need exercise at least half a dozen times a day. My dogs go everywhere with me, I have lots of conversations about them. However, a blanket, generalized statement that is meant to educate me about my own dogs does tend to get under my skin after awhile.

Generally this is how the conversation goes: "Is that a border collie?" "Yes, she's actually a mix that I adopted." "Oh, those dogs need a lot of exercise." "Yup they do! My dogs compete in sports to keep them sane." "Oh that's so cool, what do they compete in?" (or some other question).

However, I figured I could vent about it because this is a conversation I have repeatedly and I'm sick of it.

Well I'm glad nobody is taking any heads off!

But with regard to the "compliments" comment, I was mainly referring to:

Wow, she's really well behaved!
She looks very fit
Your dog is so cute...
She's so soft...

etc, etc, etc.

The abused/rescue comment strikes me just more as an honest question - unless it was said in a condescending way of course.

I wish people would comment on Boo that much...

Edited: nevermind.

I'm sorry Boo doesn't get as much attention. I would love on her if I could.

The main thing that gets me with the soft comment is once people realize it is the food, and I try to tell them what good food can do for their dog, they are totally gone and don't care. That's what is irritating! I love when people compliment my dogs, I just don't love how when I finally get around to telling them what makes her that soft, they don't care, or think it is too expensive.