Flying Poodles

John Q. Public and Poodles

Before I got poodles, I had a nice dog, Lily, whom I adopted from the Humane Society. She was black and looked like a black lab/golden retriever mix, or maybe she was a flatcoat. She had her idiosyncrasies, and it was quite possible she’d been abused at some point, because she was dog-aggressive. But she adored children and always behaved perfectly to them, even when they pounded on her. However, children never ran up to her and hugged her. Never. They always asked politely “can I pet your dog?”

Now that I have poodles, though, I constantly have to deal with a stream of young girls–any girl over about age 4 is a possibility–who run up to my dogs, shrieking “oh a poodle!” and then want to pet them, hug them around the neck, follow them as they try to remove themselves from the shrieking person. Even adults who should know better will reach out to touch my dogs as they walk by. I’ve had to proof them against kids who grab their topknots and their tails. And I’ve had to talk to adults about allowing their children to approach without permission:

“You should remind your children to ask before petting a strange dog.”
“But it’s a poodle. They’re friendly.”

Yeah. My dogs are friendly. BUT that doesn’t mean they always want to be petted by strangers, much less have their necks grabbed.