1) If my dog is standing on her hind legs and frothing at the mouth, she's not friendly. Even if your dog is. Even if your dog is a lab.
2) Your dog does not need to be on a 30' leash; he will not suffer depression or a wrenched back if he feels the touch of a collar against his neck. Collars will not flatten his coat, strangle him or quench his free spirit.
3) Your dog is beautiful and loveable--to you. To others he is an animal. If he appears pleasant and they suffer no unfortunate phobias, he may be a nice animal. But they probably don't want to meet him, hold him, or talk about him and his breed, your philosophy of life with him, and other sundries. If he appears at all unpleasant, this truth applies in spades. (Truthfully, this applies to your children as well.)
4) It's a vet's office. The other animals in the waiting room may be ill. That means they may be contagious or in pain or just upset. It is not the time to socialize. If eyes meet across a crowded room and it's love for your affable Golden and someone else's affable Bernese Mt. Dog, please take their owner's phone number and schedule a playdate. Because staging a romp session in front of a dog dying of cancer, a terrified cat in a crate, or a dog-aggressive mutt, is wrong.
5) If you feel a deep and burning need to emphasize your masculinity, bolster your self-esteem or otherwise play doctor with your emotional needs, please consider not buying a dog.
6) If you insist upon having a midlife crisis and dragging a dog into it with you, please don't write a book about it.
7) If my dog is staring at you and growling low in her throat, she's not friendly. Even if you are. Even if you are a man. Even if you want to pet her. Even if you know dogs. Even if you owned dogs just like that for years. What's more, I'm not friendly either.
8) No, it's not acceptable when your dog rushes me, and it wasn't mean of me to bop him on the nose with a stick. How would you react to my 6'8" brother running straight at your 5'6" wife? How about my running hard at your 6-year-old son?
2) Your dog does not need to be on a 30' leash; he will not suffer depression or a wrenched back if he feels the touch of a collar against his neck. Collars will not flatten his coat, strangle him or quench his free spirit.
3) Your dog is beautiful and loveable--to you. To others he is an animal. If he appears pleasant and they suffer no unfortunate phobias, he may be a nice animal. But they probably don't want to meet him, hold him, or talk about him and his breed, your philosophy of life with him, and other sundries. If he appears at all unpleasant, this truth applies in spades. (Truthfully, this applies to your children as well.)
4) It's a vet's office. The other animals in the waiting room may be ill. That means they may be contagious or in pain or just upset. It is not the time to socialize. If eyes meet across a crowded room and it's love for your affable Golden and someone else's affable Bernese Mt. Dog, please take their owner's phone number and schedule a playdate. Because staging a romp session in front of a dog dying of cancer, a terrified cat in a crate, or a dog-aggressive mutt, is wrong.
5) If you feel a deep and burning need to emphasize your masculinity, bolster your self-esteem or otherwise play doctor with your emotional needs, please consider not buying a dog.
6) If you insist upon having a midlife crisis and dragging a dog into it with you, please don't write a book about it.
7) If my dog is staring at you and growling low in her throat, she's not friendly. Even if you are. Even if you are a man. Even if you want to pet her. Even if you know dogs. Even if you owned dogs just like that for years. What's more, I'm not friendly either.
8) No, it's not acceptable when your dog rushes me, and it wasn't mean of me to bop him on the nose with a stick. How would you react to my 6'8" brother running straight at your 5'6" wife? How about my running hard at your 6-year-old son?
I think most of it is similar to bad owner behavior elsewhere--letting your dog charge up to others, etc. But one thing that I think people just don't get if they've never lost a pet at the vet's is that this is a different situation than a doctor's office. Humans who have grave illnesses and terminal illnesses are generally going to be at a specialist's office for it, not in their family doctor's waiting room. And by the time they're very sick or dying, they and their family aren't in a GP's waiting room with kids with flu. But animals who are very sick or dying are usually cared for by their normal vet apart from specific procedures. The yakking and laughing some people indulge in at the vet's office is torture to someone waiting to euthanize a pet, or hear news they already know is bad.
