@Flea, they’d leave me for you (and your Jones goodies) in a NY minute!

I didn’t know you were afraid (and that is perfectly understandable)! I hope Dewi didn’t terrify you when he practically sat in your lap. 🙁 I have, interestingly, become much more respectful of dogs since I started the blog. Before that, I had no concept that some dogs don’t relish getting lavished attention from over-zealous strangers (me). (This is a good thing, btw.)

It was so nice getting to spend time with you, Mike and Honey!

P.S. Who is that person with my dogs up there? She looks like she could be my sister (who’s always making weird faces in family photos). 😉

Re: this post. I am exactly like you. Cautious with new dogs, dogs tied up on the street, and dogs that don’t look interested in saying hi to me. Cushion will pat and put his face in any dog’s which IMO is a recipe for disaster. But will he listen to me? No. He goes up to strange seals sun baking and says hello to them too. Nuts.

If you’ll forgive the long reply, I find this story interesting. Part of the deal with the loose pittie was that it was dark, and I was facing him head-on – I saw as I walked through my yard that he was standing very still and just looked ‘off’ but I thought he was lost. When I first approached him and he growled, man, my hair stood on end!

I carefully backed away and went back inside my fenced yard, and he was still standing there, so I walked up again – now I really understand why even shy dogs will bark from inside a fence. It’s very nice to have several feet of chain link between you and something scary! Anyway, the second time I approached him, he did growl again, but I saw him tuck his tail that time. So I knew then that he was reacting out of fear and uncertainty.

I went in, got a bowl of kibble, and sat down with my back to the gate chucking kibble over it until he approached. Then I rolled kibble under the gate until he was right behind me, and then I started feeding him with my hand under the gate. Once we got to that point, I opened half the gate, kept my back to him and my eyes aimed away, and started chucking kibble up my driveway.

It didn’t even occur to me at the time that this was an animal that had growled at me not even 10 minutes ago, and I was sitting on the ground with my back to him. He was perfectly physically capable of taking a chunk out of my back or my face at that point. But once I got a ‘read’ on him by seeing his whole body the second time I walked up, I wasn’t scared at all. Only later on, telling the story, did people ask if I was afraid. It didn’t feel like a risk.

Anyway, to wrap up the tale, he had a prong collar on, twisted so the prongs faced out – and so the collar couldn’t loosen up. Once I had him in my yard and closed the gate, I was able to approach him and pet him and hand feed him, and then he let me get the collar off. Once he didn’t have uncomfortable metal squeezing on him, he turned into a big wiggly face-kissing puppy. XD

LOL – awww, you’re just saying that. 😉

Dogs were in my home before I was and my love for them, as a result, is unbridled. Honey is an absolute doll and I wish I had more time with her.

It was also such a pleasure to meet you. And I love Mike even more now that I’ve met him than I did just from his occasional comments here. Geeks are welcome here. 😉

Still, I think I’ve found myself loving on Honey and other pups in at least a couple/few BlogPaws posts, pics and videos. So maybe next time I need to pay as much attention to the people attached to the dog as the dogs themselves. Notes for next time, I suppose. Oh who am I kidding – my motto will always be: life is short, play with dogs. :}

As Julie said in a comment above, she has been bitten by dogs whose people said they were friendly.

People are in such denial. If I were you, I’d trust your dog sense before I trusted a random dog owner. 🙂