being avoided

on our morning walk today Russell and I encountered our first 'staffy avoider'
a man with a jack russell quite clearly saw us walking towards him and he turned a corner, but when I turned the same corner he looked at me in a panic (he was on the other side of the road and about to cross to where I was walking) I said don't worry it's okay! and he just looked at me and turned around to walk in the opposite direction.
I haven't encountered this before because most people here love staffys but it does hurt a bit when it happens doesnt it!?

I like to believe that he was only avoiding us because his dog is DA and he was being responsible.... what do you think?

Could be his dog isn't well socialized.

Well, people do that all the time to me, but do their best to try to look like they aren't doing that. Lol. Wait till they see me with 3. hehehehe

jstaff wrote:Could be his dog isn't well socialized.

you could be right Jstaff! I hope you're right, it makes me sad if there's people who wouldn't give Russell a chance on first glance.

I think that sometimes it isn't easy to stop the sudden feeling of panic when you see a dog breed that you've always thought was 'dangerous'.

A lot of people don't really discriminate as such, but follow their instincts! If the guy has read things that say a staff can eat little dogs then it'll be hard for him to relax around a staff!

Others, of course, are just stupid p*ats!

I think he may have been afraid whether because his dog is DA or because he saw a bigger dog.

Caryll wrote:I think that sometimes it isn't easy to stop the sudden feeling of panic when you see a dog breed that you've always thought was 'dangerous'.

A lot of people don't really discriminate as such, but follow their instincts! If the guy has read things that say a staff can eat little dogs then it'll be hard for him to relax around a staff!

Others, of course, are just stupid p*ats!

^^^ spot on !!

I was quite upset at one reaction (yes upset, not angry like normal ), was lead walkin Max, and two guys were walkin towards us, one of which started lookin a little concerned at the sight of Max, now at this point he just looked like a typical ignorant sort, that was gonna tell me how I shouldnt have a dog like that and so on , but as he began to move towards the wall sort of behind his mate and as far away from us as poss, I realised he had some sort of issues ... so I gave them a wide birth, and said "its ok mate, he's very freindly, he wont hurt ya" ... at which point he was freakin out, with his hands on his head and trying to physically put his mate between him and Max ... scared sh!tless he was ... I tried to make good of the situation, but he was havin none of it ... poor Max by now was just stood there lookin at him with his head tilted to one side

It was obvious this guy had mental problems, which is why I really wanted to calm him down and let him stroke Max, but I think that would have taken weeks thinkin back , its a shame some people are so brainwashed towards them sometimes

very true and quite possibly that was the reason - he did look a bit of a nutter actually... now that I think about it, it was quite a warm morning and he was rugged up with a full tracksuit and a beanie on.. hmmm.

any way it is a good point, people do get these beliefs into their heads and I'll admit I've done the same (when I was younger) because I had heard of a boxer dog on my street attacking an old lady and her dog it killed her dog and after that (I was about 10 years old) I did not like boxers and would avoid them. glad that didn't stick with me - I am not scared of boxers but I think they are silly dogs now. always using their paws my friends one is so annoying

If people are obviously going out their way to avoid me & Romeo OR see me coming and start panicing and screaming at their dog to come back to them OR pick them up off the ground I have given up telling them Romeo is friendly, I useally ask 'Oh is your dog very aggressive then? Thanks for looking out for me.'
Once I went to the field across from me and there was some man and his daughter with some sort of mixed shih tzu type dog, off lead playing. They saw me coming and starting screaming at the top of their lungs 'SHAYLA SHAYLAAAAAAA COME HERE! OH MY GOD! SHAYLA'
Both of them completely hysterical-the man was about 6.5 and built like a brick sh*t house I hasten to add-the dog ignored them. Feigning ignorance and horror I ran over to them shouting' OH MY GOD WHAT'S THE MATTER-HAVE YOU LOST YOUR CHILD!?'
Knowing full well they were yelling for the little scruff bag They completely ignored me like I was an apparition.
Romeo ran out into the field straight past them and the dog. Their screams got louder-the man was almost crying. The dog continued to ignore them and so did Romeo, their dog went up to him and he wagged his tail and then as she was a small breed and he won't play with them, sauntered on up the field.
The man ran foward and yanked his dog back to him and his daughter said very loudly:
'DID YOU SEE THAT?! THAT DOG TRIED TO BITE SHAYLA!'
I rounded on both of them and snarled;
'No he didn't hes perfectly friendly and you should work on your dogs recall!'
They both just looked at me like I had fallen out the crazy tree.
People will see what they want to see.
The other day in the park I called for Romeo and he came bounding out a bush straight towards me, running past a family who had some puppy on a lead. I hasten to add he was several metres away from them and obviously running straight to me as I was bending down and cooing to him. The people with the puppy screamed and yanked the puppy up into the air! Such awful idiotic people shouldn't own dogs-they could have broken the puppies neck! I didn't see what breed it was (thats how far away I was!) was mostly likely a spaniel though as it was white and brown.

I know the feeling well. We have some at our local park who do the avoiding thing. There is one in particular who shouts at his dog whenever he sees Rocky (who btw is always on a long line anyway). He is going to make the little fella very nervous about being around other dogs.

Maybe it is very aggresive or just has not been socialized very well, who knows

Not had it happen i guess people in the north east like staffies. most people fuss Olly ,i worry someone will steal him because hes so friendly

you get used to it at least that way you get to walk where you want

had em hide behind benches, walk behind bushes, pick up there dogs all sorts but have also had the oposite which is nice when it happens. Someone even accused Marley of having Pit in him which totally through me as where the hell they got that from a staff husky cross I dindnt know. when I asked why they said you can see it in his ears which he folds down and go pointy when he's excited. i was too stunned to point out that pits with little pointy ears have had them cut that way the idiot.

Recently since we walk Riley and Marley together it has got conciderably worse. such a shame becuase there both incredibly dog and human friendly

Happened a while back, a woman had a poodle and as soon as Jimi and I got close she quickly picked it up. As we walked past her I kept telling Jimbo what a good boy he is.

hehe quite funny / and sad these stories.
but yes I can imagine it being frustrating having it happen so often - lucky for me nearly every one here likes staffys and knows someone who owns a staffy so most people love Russell.

Ive had that before as well.Some woman had let her new puppy off lead up the park.Far to young and not well trained enough to be off lead.Anyway i let Cairo off to play as the park is huge and enough space for a few dogs to be well apart.The puppy came bounding across the field,where this woman starts screaming the puppys name,then starts crying hysterically.Cairo turned round and wagged at the puppy and started to play with the puppy.The woman nearly passed out,she had to sit down I said to her you shouldnt have such a young dog off lead,because the next dog you meet might not be as friendly as a staffy.Point taken she said.She let them play for a while then went off home.

Its really down to attitudes isn't it. I was guilty of letting Romeo run up to an on lead dog the other day-It was in the cricket field, dark apart from a couple of street lights and I was rootling in my bag for his lead. A woman entered the park with a golden lab on lead, I told Romeo to leave but he didn't listen and raced across. I quickly ran over shouting 'its okay hes friendly'
The lady was completely unperturbed, let her lab off and they played together for a good half hour. She was very interested in Romeo-I don't know if it was because she was polish they don't have bad press about staffies over there?
Anyone know any polish people with dogs? All the ones i've met seem to own labs or pointers. My area in general doesn't have massively paranoid people in in thank God.

lucky she was one of the understanding ones! you could have had some one screaming down your throat that time!

Russell went a bit silly (barking and harrassing) with a blue heeler at the dog park the other day, I decided to take him home (they were the only 2 dogs there) but the lady who owned the heeler told me she wasn't worried and I could stay and let them go, but I didn't want to because Russ just doesn't let up once he has found a dog to annoy.
point being - its nice when you find understanding dog owners

Its crazy that people avoid you for no reason, we have been avoided by 3 sets of people in a a row while walking through the park. It is kinda funny because we have a Jack Russell Terrier with us, so he disarms people with his cuteness and then she puts them away with her funny grunting noises. These people were not at all buying the tandem and just looked at our Staffy with disapproving looks. Oh well to each their own.

its sad but its happened that often now it just makes me laugh and i make sure the other owner can see me laughing hysterically - you can see how vicious Woody looks!

its also karma when other owners look wary of woody playing with theirs and theirs ends up tormenting him - he has no idea how to be aggressive, if they look at him in the wrong way he comes running back to mummy and hides behind and cuddles my leg!

luckily most people up at the field now know what a softie he his and actually make an effort to come greet woody

Recently in the park i use with my two a man and his dog were attacked by two staffies after he'd got away from them they ran off and attacked another dog . The owner of the staffies was really abusive and of course it made the local papers so you can imagine the looks i've been getting the last couple of weeks.