Stupid Human Tricks

One of my pet peeves (no pun intended but it is funny) are idiots that do not know how to greet a dog. Almost never is it people who don’t know dogs and know they don’t know dogs but usually the people who know dogs (or at least say they do) but really do not.

Example: A week or so ago I was walking with a pit bull in downtown San Diego trying to get her ready to take her Canine Good Citizen test. We walked by a store where I knew someone who worked so I stopped outside the doorway to talk to him. As we were standing there a young woman walked by and asked it she could pet the dog. Sure I told her. She started petting the dog and before you could say Jack Russell she had her face pressed up against the pit bulls face and was kissing her. “I just love dogs” the young woman said as she stood up to leave. She demonstrated how little she knows about dogs, and I sincerely doubt that she knows how lucky she was. Had the pit bull been either the boxer or German shepherd I worked with recently the end of the encounter between the two cultures might have had a very different ending; Say with a run to the emergency room.

Sadly I see this kind of behavior from humans all to often and when something goes wrong somehow it is always the dogs’ fault. That just seems wrong. The dog did not ask you to pet them; they did not stick their face into yours (a very rude thing in the dog world and a challenge to fight to boot). Please, when you see people doing this most stupid of behaviors say something. You just might save them a few stitches and more importantly a dogs life.

I have attached a great cartoon of how not to greet a dog. It is very well done. Lili Chin did the work and you can view more of her work at http://doggiedrawings.net