Radical Canines

It’s not uncommon that people ask to pet my dogs in public. I get it, this was 100% me at one point. I loved dogs and wanted to say hi to all of them, all the time. But I was only thinking about me. I wasn’t thinking about what the owner wanted or what the dog wanted. Literally just me. I’m not sure exactly when but at some point, I started to change my approach. I gave the power back to the owner and arguably more importantly the dog. Now I prefer to observe the dog and their relationship with their handler. If the dog deems I am worthy of their attention, great! If not, that’s okay too. If they’re working on skills I ignore them altogether. I don’t know their story or their goals and I don’t want to interrupt something bigger than myself.

When it comes to my own dogs, my answer to the request to say hi is almost always some form of no. The exception being friends/their dogs. This is for multiple reasons. First, when I’m in public with my dogs there’s usually a training component we’re working on and rarely does that include interacting with strangers. More often than not my goal is for them to ignore strangers and strange dogs. Second, most of my friends are dog sports people that I trust to not do something dumb or questionable around or to my dogs. Third, for most of them I have an idea of their dogs temperament and/or quirks so I can make a more informed decision about them meeting.

Each of my dogs have different needs and wants. When it’s just Ryder, he would love nothing more than the be adored and fawned over by all his fans. But guess what, there’s a time and a place for that, and Mr. Social and I have worked really hard on him not opting to seek rewards and attention from other people because that is his crack. Ryder does get to receive unlimited adoration and love when we would visit the nursing home I used to work at, or during meet and greets after demos. He loves it and most often flops over on his back and requests belly rubs from all of his fans. When we lived in Texas, the college de-stress event days around finals time were some of his favorite days because he got all the pets!

Rumor doesn’t care a ton about other people but does get amped around other dogs, so when the question comes of can their dog say hello, my answer is almost always no. His job is to chill and it’s hard to chill when you’re acting like a fool.

Rugby doesn’t appreciate people or dogs coming into his space. He prefers to approach in his own time and of his own decision and I am 100% okay with that so long as the other party is also okay with it and he does so appropriately. Rugby and I have worked really hard on just existing around other people and dogs. At 5, it’s really nice to see him requesting attention from more and more people, but again these people are people that I know and trust to follow my directions to keep him and them safe and ensure a positive experience for all involved.

All of this to say, I just don’t trust Joe Public to listen to me when it comes to interacting with my dogs so it’s easier to just say no. And even listening to that is hard for a lot of people. I have had multiple people get angry with me about not allowing them to pet my dogs. It doesn’t bother me because I’d rather keep my dogs safe and reinforce that I will have their back.