"Every walk becomes an open invitation for strangers to stop you for pointless conversations about dogs. Suddenly some bloke you’ve never seen before is standing there for 15 minutes talking about breeds, dog food, dog behaviour or telling you stories about his own mutt while you awkwardly stand there wanting to leave. Half the people that approach dog owners are bizarre as fuck too. I never once understood why I was expected to happily stand around talking to random strangers in the middle of nowhere just because they spotted a dog. And honestly, I’m convinced a lot of dog owners enjoy this because the dog gives them instant validation and attention from other people. The animal becomes a social prop."
From a rant at Reddit called
"I dated a dog owner and this is what I found." I'm only quoting one point on what is a 5-point list. To get the full effect, read the whole thing.
The ranter has a very receptive audience, because it's on the Subreddit
"Dogfree: We Don't Like Dogs." It's not really anti-dog so much as anti-dogpeople: "This is a subreddit for those who do not like or own dogs to discuss modern-day dog ownership and its effects on society. This is our corner of the world. Weigh-in from dog owners is off topic and disallowed. Thank you for respecting our space."
Posts
42 comments:
So it's a site for losers, got it. :-)
"I’m convinced a lot of dog owners enjoy this because the dog gives them instant validation and attention from other people. The animal becomes a social prop."
No shit, Sherlock. Yes, for many people one of the benefits of walking their dog is to interact with other people who like animals. Because they tend to be a better class of people
Been all over the ME and arabs and muslims hate dogs. Tells you a lot.
It takes two to tango.
It's like that "Do you want to see the baby?" episode of Seinfeld.
You formed a community based on a shared hate of a certain group of people? Yea, that sounds helpful. Maybe you can get some money from the SPLC.
Ugh, these people and their performative miserableness. So tedious.
The problem has a root cause. Dog people are often open, accessible and friendly. But when seen out walking a dog, dog people might reasonably assume you are not a POS.
I'd love to see how the former boyfriend views this witch.
"Hair everywhere. Smell everywhere. Dirt tracked through the house constantly. Despite it not being my responsibility, it felt like it was because I just wanted to clean constantly - and of course, none of this bothered her as much like all dog owner’s they must be used to living in filth. You could never fully relax because the dog was always climbing on something, licking something, scratching, pacing around or shaking hair into the air."
Sound like a Lesbian, or maybe a Gay like Felix Unger.
Most Dog people are friendly and well-adjusted. Bitter asocial loners usually don't want to stop strangers and talk about their dog. Weirdos do own dogs, but the dogs are usually pit bulls or some vicious breed that they use as guard dogs or to dominate other people.
I'm generally an animal loving weirdo.
"Been all over the ME and arabs and muslims hate dogs. Tells you a lot." Yeah, they're cat people, and that's all I need to know.
I wrote "lesbian" because they constantly write they are dating "Her", and straight men don't usually write the way the 5-points Doggie owner hater writes. But there are exceptions. cf: the anal retentive chef.
Cat haters are usually assholes. Not always.
The real problem with dogs is its like having a kid. You really need two parents not one. And a house.
Fear not!
Soon the unclean canine scourge will be elimated by Mandami and his activists in the name of Allah.
And Spanberger and the neo-Stalinists will simply tax any that are left.
Man's best friend is the Marxist gender peformative solidarity collective.
Pets are opium of the masses.
First they came for the children...
“I never once understood why I was expected to happily stand around talking to random strangers in the middle of nowhere just because they spotted a dog.”
Just say the magic words: “He’s a biter.”
Huh, can't say I've ever experienced anything like that over the last five years we've owned a dog, though I've only rarely taken either one walking outside the neighborhood. We've got a couple of folks that enjoy petting him but I mostly try to respect people's space (I'm not going assume anyone feels comfortable getting up close and personal unless they indicate it). I do have more problems with dog owners than dogs, most of the time.
bbface21 said, "Yeah, they're cat people, and that's all I need to know."
Not really. They're not animal 'lovers' in general. Their criminals sometimes get better treatment.
“ I do have more problems with dog owners than dogs, most of the time.”
Spot on. I do however notice that, in my part of the world at least, people have gotten way more intelligent and considerate in how they handle their dogs around other people and dogs. There is the occasional idiot, but there’s always the occasional idiot.
Geez. You don't have to talk to everyone. Just say thank you and move on.
Another person who must be great fun at parties!
Just last week I went into the Kroger and almost collided with an attractive young blonde who had a beautiful male chocolate mini-dackel in a basket in the kid's seat of her cart.
We talked about the breed, and I tried taking a picture to show my wife but without my eyeglasses I missed the right buttons on my dumb phone.
I thought she was a high-class person, of course, but at check-out I was a few places behind her, and she was apparently trying to scam the store somehow and was seen out.
How awful, to use a dachshund for nefarious purposes.
Service animals have become a literal Dog & Pony Show.
I've had a dog for most of my life and I have never experienced this. There are people I talk to on my dog walk, but that's mostly because I walk my dog at regular intervals and see many of the same people. If I'm in a hurry and can't chat, then I say so. It's never been a problem.
The dirty part is not wrong--there is a limit to how clean your house can be when you have a pet. (How many people on that thread have cats, which are worse?)
Everybody needs something to vent about and some place to vent about it. If you discover somebody else's venting place it may sound weird or crazy or neurotic or repellent. If somebody else discovers your venting place they will think the same.
...lots of hot women do the dog walk thing and if you are walking the dog you're dogsitting they like to stop and chat...so yah...
Man's domestication of the dog is his greatest achievement.
Owning a dog doesn't make you special. And pick up the dog poop and take it with you. Don't just leave it in the little baggie on the side of the path.
Well, at least he's not talking about the Israeli Rape-Dogs that Nick Kristoff imagined.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/05/the-times-strikes-again-3.php
Pointless conversations? Not really. When I walked my miniature dachshund on the Virginia Beach boardwalk I'm pretty sure she became a star on Tok-Tok in Korea. Must have been petted and hugged by a dozen young women. Would have been a great icebreaker were I not 69 and married for 48 years...
But conversations started over a friendly dog are never pointless. They establish a connection, however brief, between two totally unrelated people, enriching both their lives, if just for a moment.
Now with unfriendly dogs it's a whole other matter. And unfriendly dogs are a reflection on the owner.
I have a collie and a chow/collie mix, we get stopped nearly every time we pass the playground at the park- kids love the "fluffy dogs". A couple of months ago, a lady in a minivan driving by stopped and parked, got out and asked if her kids could pet the dogs.
I don't mind being stopped and the dogs like the attention.
Well people/dog owners can get obsessed with their critter. But hoo boy get a life if you can't compete with the dog for your partner's attention and affection.
Redditors are bitter people. Of course dogs are haram for them.
I wasn’t a dog person but my wife is and getting a dog/walking her regularly has resulted in our getting to know several dozen neighbors with whom we had had essentially no relationship for the prior 15 years of living in the same house. Have seen the “dogs as connectors” notion in action.
If you can't cut short an unwanted conversation well short of 15 minutes (one usually suffices), that's a you problem, not a dog owner problem.
Man's domestication of the dog is his greatest achievement.
Also, dog's domestication of man is his greatest achievement.
"Have seen the “dogs as connectors” notion in action."
About a month after I bought my house in Phoenix, my agent stopped by to see how it was going. I told her "Fine" and she said "Good! Now you need to get a dog." I wasn't sure about it but she said "No- really. Get a dog, go for walks, meet your neighbors." I went ahead and did it, and it worked.
I left Phoenix nine years ago and still keep in touch with people in the neighborhood who used to stop us to say hi to the dogs when we were out for a walk.
I am perceived unfairly as a cat-hater, but really I'm just allergic to them and must admire them from afar. A former colleague of mine was allergic to both cats and dogs, which I consider a major affliction, almost a curse.
When we walked our small standard (20 lb.) dachshund in the local parks, kids would come running to pet the wiener dog. He lapped it up (ha). June 30 will be a year since his extinction.
Battlespace prep.
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