Strangers' Comments... - Page 1

I have lately had to put up with people making unsolicited comments about my dog or asking intrusive questions. I try to be polite but I have to wonder what is wrong with them.

Lately it is something like: "You're dog must be VERY OLD."

If I ask why they think he's old, they say it's because he's so well-behaved. One guy said that "his face looks old" even though my dog has no white hairs on his muzzle yet.

Or "I can tell there's something wrong with his hips"; "His back legs look very weak." One woman said, "He's limping." Then she started to follow and harrass me, saying I should take him to a vet, I'm a bad owner, and she should call animal control on me. (MY dog is fully vetted, OFA'd non-dysplastic, and if he was limping no one would need to tell me to have him looked at.)

And my favorite is: "MY dog looks JUST LIKE YOURS but he's 130 pounds!" (My dog is about 83-85 lbs at his heaviest.) 

I don't understand why they even think I care about their opinions or that they even should be expressed out loud.

Any ideas on more appropriate responses to these oddballs?



 

Cant' help ya...most of what I hear runs along the lines of, "that's what a German Shepherd is supposed to look like!"  

 That's just life, and you'll get that wherever you go.  One thing, a lot of people come up to your dog with a mindset of.....they had one just like that, or have one and they think that your dog will be just like theirs.  Or you have the people who will ridicule you and your dog or make harsh comments.  And you'll also get the nice comments as well.  With Shepherds you'll always hear, what's your dog mixed with, he's too small to be a Shepherd. We all know the standards though and most of the public has either really fat dogs, or dogs who are just over the standards. The only Shepherds I met who were lean and athletic were at the Schutzhund clubs. All others were fat.  And then for the people who have black sables or blacks.....people think they're coyotes, wolf/Shepherds, or a Lab/Shepherd mix.

 

What I liked the most was when I was in a store one time and these little kids knew exactly what that dog was, a German Shepherd.... They had seen them on tv with the police.  There are always ones who will make rude comments.  If you're dog is well behaved, who cares what that person says.  I have a few Huskies, and to the public around here, two of them resemble wolves slightly. To the educated, they don't that much, but I get stuff like, oh man we had wolf dogs once, how much percent wolf do they have in um (typing that how they said it) And some just ask how much wolf is in them.  There was another guy at Tractor Supply, he was probably in his mid 60s. I was walking, and stopped for a second, and then he came around one of the aisles and saw Sierra. He just froze, and turned ghostly pale. I told him it's fine, you can go on through. He would not do it.  Then he asked if she was a wolf, or part wolf, and asked if she would bite him if he walked through.  Sierra just sat there, looking at me for direction on what to do next, as calm as could be.  There was another time I had Buck with me at Tractor Supply. A couple thought he had wolf in him as well, and this guy might as well have had the word ego written all over his face from what he started telling me, and he was kind of rude. He then asked if my dog would bite and if he could pet him....so I just told him, he'll bite if I tell him to...and then I walked off.  Even though Buck wouldn't want to bite him, I just did that to get the guy to go away.

 A girlfriend of mine has an oversized male GSD.  My male GSD Rocky is right at 75lb.  When we go places together, people ask if hers is a male and mine is a female and if we breed them.  :rolleyes:  

What line of dog do you have  kinolog?

Actually the most common comment I get is "is that a crossbred?"  asked because he was black by the vet assistant, and by another because he had a square head, and their GSD  had a long narrow head.

I really don't let it bother me though.  Most questions are asked out of ignorance.  However, if someone told me they were going to call animal control because my dogs back legs looked weak or because they thought it was limping?  I'd have to wonder why they think that?

I doesn't only happen when you walk a GSD, I used to own 2 Minature Fox Terries and little kids would shout out chicken legs * and they sure were not talking about mine  *

 LOL dogshome

LOL

 I have a bi color. Every place I take her everyone asks what breed she is & when I say German Shepherd they ask right away "what is she mixed with?"  Then I have a ten min conversation about there uncles friends sister's "show dog". 

Kills me too but not everyione is familiar with the GSD as we know it.  So, when people aproach me and ask questions like that I try and educate them.