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By the wonderful Jessica Olien.
P.S. Nice moments and airplane thoughts.
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This is so me!
Me everytime I see a dog! Also, people who let you pet their dog are awesome
I always whisper “you’re doing a great job buddy” anytime I see a service dog at work. I know not to even approach a working dog, or their human but cannot help cheering them on!
It completely makes my day when I see doggies out and about and always say “hi!” to them in my head…ok, sometimes even out loud. ha. But when the urge strikes to pet a dog, I always, ALWAYS ask the owner for permission. Being the owner of a rescue that is very skittish and then comes across as aggressive, I know that each dog is different and no matter how friendly they may look, they have their own issues to deal with. Love the comments about not petting from behind but also want to include NOT TO STICK YOUR HAND IN THE DOG’S FACE either. This causes my dog major amounts of stress and she completely freaks out. And I beg parents to please PLEASE teach your children not to run up to strange dogs (or really any dog for that matter!). My neighbor’s son was 3-4 years old when we moved in to our house and I was in the front yard with my dog when he came full speed running at her. She went ballistic trying to protect me and our home from him and he ran screaming and crying back home. No parents in sight, FYI. And, for the record, my dog is pretty much scared of everything without a mean bone in her body, except when she perceives a threat, as I found out. I am in the camp of “I love dogs waaaay more than people” too! Intensifies as I get older as well.
I’m a vet, and while I totally agree with the comments about asking to pet dogs and respecting their body language etc, I also have just that.much.love. for all the happy doggos I see out and about (and thankfully lots of them seem to love to be patter by me too)!
Haha love this one.
haha, this is me inside but I try not to do it. I was once walking my dog at night a car pulled up, parked and someone jumped out, it scared the crap out of me at first. It ended up being a woman who wanted to pet my dog but with tinted windows at night, perhaps a bit much.
Ha! This is me too!!
ME.
as soon as i see a dog, almost any dog – i immediately SMILE. then i’ll smile at the woner, and if they look pleased that i am smiling at their dog, i’ll ask if i may pet them and if it’s YES, oh my – it’s wonderful. forget people, give me all the dogs! i’ve 2 of my own who i adore, but i can never get enough dogs!
1,000% me. Not even ashamed to say that I prefer dogs over people most days!
Oh, I can relate to that statement, Thank you so much for saying it!
I have a timid rescue so I know not to do this. I do, however, whisper “hi puppy” to every single dog I walk by on the street, I just can’t help it.
oh my gosh that made me laugh. DEFINITELY me.
I unconsciously clean the “eye boogers” off every dog I meet. It’s a problem :)
I have to chime in with the others and agree, though the comic is cute, PLEASE don’t do this!! It’s a little like if random strangers ran up and tried to snuggle your child, except your child has very sharp teeth! I have a well trained, well socialized dog who really does not prefer affection from random people. It’s my job to advocate for him and I do.
I will say I’ve pretty universally been impressed by kids – they nearly always approach and ask politely if they can pet my dog (love that!!). Puzzlingly, it’s usually the adults who need some education on appropriate behavior.
Also, as someone above noted, please don’t let dogs from behind. It’s a really good idea to do a little googling about basic dog body language and best places to pet a dog if you have permission to touch them. It’s a whole separate issue but it makes me insane how many pictures I see of children climbing all over dogs and the dog’s body language so clearly shows stress, yet everyone thinks it’s so cute. We are so fortunate to have these amazing creatures in our lives and should do right by them
One side benefit of all this is I have found my pets have spurred some great understandings of consent for my young kids. On almost a daily basis I find us discussing what and how our pets want (or don’t want) to be touched, recognizing and respecting their boundaries and practicing self control. I think it’s so good for them to learn to curb their impulse to interact/touch based on the input they get from that living being. It’s kind of profound!
This is me (on the inside) ever since my 16 year old dog/best pal died. I want to get in there and snuggle every dog I see. But I do try to restrain myself.
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