Dutch Shepherd Forum

Why when you are walking two DS other people either turn around or go waaaaay over to the other side of the street??

Now that the weather has settled, I have been walking the girls in town again. They both have prongs on for power steering. They both heel next to me, Sadie is on the outside, then Thalie, then me. They walk nicely with me and when ever I see someone approaching on the sidewalk they turn around and go the other way? Do we look scary or something?

Dutchringgirl wrote:Why when you are walking two DS other people either turn around or go waaaaay over to the other side of the street??

Do we look scary or something?

Yes. You are so used to seeing your dogs all the time, but to the average person they are very intimidating and most people have never seen or heard of a Dutch - plus you are walking 2 of these scary creatures!!

Heck, I even have people who are nervous around my tiny little Sugar snack!

I had people do that all the time with my GSD mix and she was tiny!

I would. If I don't know the dogs, I keep my distance.

We "pull over." Odin has been working on his halting command for competition obedience, so if we see someone that might be uneasy, or a group of people coming towards us, we move over to the curb, and he sits to my left. People seem to be appreciative of it, especially those with young children and strollers.

The best reaction was from a group of 20 something girls. He really seemed to impress them. When we stepped aside so let them walk by they all said "awww, what a polite little doggie" and "he's such a gentleman!."

I know my girls look very scary. I was goofing around. When I just had Thalie people used to avoid us, now with Sadie who is twice as tall with HUGE ears, Im sure we look like we are going to devour anything in our path. AND with big metal collars on. I really get a kick out of it though, we know our dogs are sweet but no one else does.

People have been avoiding little Mr. Thor since he was 11-12 weeks old! It makes it hard to properly socialize him when everyone backs away.

Xena on the other hand gives off such, waggy, sweet, smiling signals that most people understand that she is friendly. They ALWAYS ask, though.

whaha, I remember walking around proud with my baby Dingo, everyone liked him, came up to us, let their dogs sniff etc. When he turned 8 months, suddenly people crossed the street? No dog could come near him, moms dragged their kids away from us etc.
I learned to appreciate it tho

Marjolein wrote: moms dragged their kids away from us etc.
I learned to appreciate it tho

I would certainly appreciate that!!! (Not real fond of kids here!) Maybe I should think about one of those beautiful Dingo babies, I like them much better.

HAHAHA, I had a guy come by yesterday to look at a retaining wall in my back yard, Sadie was in her crate but Thalie was out, He knew there was a dog behind the fence but when he opened the gate he yelled "Wolf!!". It was in a funny way, he wasnt scared but looked at Thalie like " what the hell are you?"

It's funny, the super in my building asked if Zane was part wolf-dog yesterday. Evidently some dude who used to live in the penthouse had two wolf-dogs that terrified everyone else in the building.

Mostly, people on the street tell me how cute and well behaved he is, but I've had some girls run away screaming if he walks within a couple feet of them (not even paying the slightest bit of attention to them).

Dutchringgirl wrote:HAHAHA, I had a guy come by yesterday to look at a retaining wall in my back yard, Sadie was in her crate but Thalie was out, He knew there was a dog behind the fence but when he opened the gate he yelled "Wolf!!". It was in a funny way, he wasnt scared but looked at Thalie like " what the hell are you?"

woohahaha! That's too funny
I remember when we were building, these really rough tattood guys coming inm being all tough and all, untill they saw a dog... sissy's

HA, It does seem like the big burly guys are sissys when it comes to our fluffy friends.

Dutchringgirl wrote: Do we look scary or something?

Yes, you do. I have not seen your girls, but I had a big, powerful KNPV malinois who was a dog to beware of. And a lanky goofy teenage boy brindle who I was fostering for the drug dog school in Holland. Walk with mal alone and nobody steered clear of me. Walk with the brindle and mothers would grab their children and scurry to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street! Crazy! (and I have gotten used to it now. My brindles during detection searches will cause several panic attacks -based on appearance- per scheduled visit)

Zodiac ignores people when we walk past them but as a courtesy to people who may be fearful of dogs I always either cross the road or give as much space as possible to oncoming people. Even so, recently while I was walking on the opposite side of the road a little girl who must have been about age 4 began to scream from fear, then shouted "Wolf! Mommy it's a wolf!" while pointing at Zodiac from across the street. Her mother and I both laughed, I reassured her that it was not a wolf, and then the mother began asking me questions about Zodiac's breed commenting on how pretty she is

What bothers me much, MUCH more than the people who avoid us are the people who run up to Zodiac with the intention of petting her without even asking first .

My grandchildren call Zip, the "The big bad wolf", as she plays the part well. I was walking Gris the other day and someone actually asked if she was part 'hyena'. I giggled because I remembered reading on one of the recent posts here that others' DS had been referred to as hyena. I do get a lot of inquisitive looks when I have mine out in public. Most everyone gives us a wide berth but I remember working with a k9 security group at a mud fest years back and some drunk that night stumbled over toward me and said, oh what a tiny puppy police dog (referring to Zip). It was dark and all I could see were Zip's white teeth and the guy stumbling, scrambling to get away. Oh yeh! I didnt let her nail him although it was so very tempting!

One time a drunk guy - friend of a friend - showed up at our camp site. I had Copper and Vada in their crates in the van. Suddenly I saw the guy had opened up Copper's crate and was sitting in it petting him. Thank God Copper didn't bite him. He totally got in the wrong crate as I trust Vada way more than Copper. But she's black and has pointy ears so people make assumptions. She has dark eyes too and likes to stare at people confidently. Probably more people are scared of her than I know. Almost no one ever asks to pet her and when they do they are surprised how soft she is. Letty is lighter and has lighter eyes and people stare at her all the time (which gets them barked at - although less now) and want to pet her.

I have a pretty complicated yielding rule list (that I made up over many sidewalk walks):
For example, if I am walking and one person is walking towards me, sorry you have to yield to me and my 2 pups. (but if they don't budge I will move)
If 2 or more people are walking towards me, I will yield.
Kids, always yield.
Person on a bicycle riding on the sidewalk, I am not moving. And the list goes on.... I think it's fair but I evaluate each situation individually.

I guess Thalie is pretty scary looking, she is small but stocky and has big eyes. Sadie, well, I guess she may be scary, she is tall and has the huge ears. I have pretty much the same rules as Ashlee, I wont yeild for one person, but two or more and other kids and dogs, Ill pull to the side and have them sit.