Sorry all,
Just had to vent a bit. Along with 4 Mini Pins, my wife and I have a soon to be 5 year old Rottie. We got him as a puppy, and even though we trained him ourselves, we still took him to puppy kindergarten just for socialization. Also, we lived in the Philly area until he was 6 months old, and we basically spent all of our weekends taking him everywhere we could that allowed pets, also for socialization, so I think he's about as well socialized as a dog can get.
Anyway, fast forward to the present, we now live in the mountains in western Montana, so as a treat, we'll take a few of the dogs at a time down to the city and take them to the dog park, Petsmart, the feed supply store, and pretty much anywhere else we can, just so they can get out and meet new people. Thor, the Rottie, loves kids (something I can't say about the Min Pins,) and he's trained that no matter if the kid is running and screaming at him, he'll just sit and wait to be pet, and usually, after a kid starts petting him, he won't let them stop. So, the other day, we took him and two of the Min Pins to the city and went to Petsmart, and after seemingly every kid in the store pet him, we were at the checkout, pretty far back in line, and two kids were all over him. Some woman, who was actually at the checkout counter, looked right at him, then us, then turned to the cashier and said "Why do you let big viscious dogs in here like that one? Somebody needs to talk to the manager and ban dogs like that from the store, he's gonna kill somebody and it will be YOUR fault!!"
She was quite ignorant about it, and kept looking at us the whole time. I guess she was too blind and ignorant to see how much he was enjoying all the attention the kids were giving him, and their mom just looked at the lady and shook her head, the older of the two kids couldn't have been more than 5, and mom didn't seem worried about our viscious killer dog. I guess I really shouldn't let people like this bother me, but it does, especially when the woman was in the store buying, of all things, dog food!
It's funny, she was all worried about Thor, but when we have our dogs out in public, we tend to worry more about the Min Pins. When we're in a store, we carry them, since we do have a great fear of them "defending" themselves if a screaming kid comes running up to them, and it's not because they're mean, they're more than happy to get attention from kids if it's on their terms, which is after the kid calms down, and approaches them kindly, but Thor doesn't care about terms, a pat on the head or a hug is all he cares about. If he was growling or barking, like a lot of the other dogs in the store do, I could maybe have understood her comments, but stereotyping a dog because of size or breed just irks me to no end.
Sorry for the rant, just felt the need to vent on this, I know it's all been said before. It would just be so nice if people learned to judge a dog for what that particular dog is doing, or how it's behaving, but I guess just like racism, it'll probably never change.
Just had to vent a bit. Along with 4 Mini Pins, my wife and I have a soon to be 5 year old Rottie. We got him as a puppy, and even though we trained him ourselves, we still took him to puppy kindergarten just for socialization. Also, we lived in the Philly area until he was 6 months old, and we basically spent all of our weekends taking him everywhere we could that allowed pets, also for socialization, so I think he's about as well socialized as a dog can get.
Anyway, fast forward to the present, we now live in the mountains in western Montana, so as a treat, we'll take a few of the dogs at a time down to the city and take them to the dog park, Petsmart, the feed supply store, and pretty much anywhere else we can, just so they can get out and meet new people. Thor, the Rottie, loves kids (something I can't say about the Min Pins,) and he's trained that no matter if the kid is running and screaming at him, he'll just sit and wait to be pet, and usually, after a kid starts petting him, he won't let them stop. So, the other day, we took him and two of the Min Pins to the city and went to Petsmart, and after seemingly every kid in the store pet him, we were at the checkout, pretty far back in line, and two kids were all over him. Some woman, who was actually at the checkout counter, looked right at him, then us, then turned to the cashier and said "Why do you let big viscious dogs in here like that one? Somebody needs to talk to the manager and ban dogs like that from the store, he's gonna kill somebody and it will be YOUR fault!!"
She was quite ignorant about it, and kept looking at us the whole time. I guess she was too blind and ignorant to see how much he was enjoying all the attention the kids were giving him, and their mom just looked at the lady and shook her head, the older of the two kids couldn't have been more than 5, and mom didn't seem worried about our viscious killer dog. I guess I really shouldn't let people like this bother me, but it does, especially when the woman was in the store buying, of all things, dog food!
It's funny, she was all worried about Thor, but when we have our dogs out in public, we tend to worry more about the Min Pins. When we're in a store, we carry them, since we do have a great fear of them "defending" themselves if a screaming kid comes running up to them, and it's not because they're mean, they're more than happy to get attention from kids if it's on their terms, which is after the kid calms down, and approaches them kindly, but Thor doesn't care about terms, a pat on the head or a hug is all he cares about. If he was growling or barking, like a lot of the other dogs in the store do, I could maybe have understood her comments, but stereotyping a dog because of size or breed just irks me to no end.
Sorry for the rant, just felt the need to vent on this, I know it's all been said before. It would just be so nice if people learned to judge a dog for what that particular dog is doing, or how it's behaving, but I guess just like racism, it'll probably never change.
There will always be someone like her anywhere you go.