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Unsolicited Comments From My Neighbor (A Rant)

4K views 34 replies 19 participants last post by  KaiserandStella 
#1 ·
It happened a few hours ago and I'm still so angry. I was just coming in from a walk with Stella. At the same time, my neighbor's daughter was leaving. She was obviously nervous about Stella. Here's how it went:

Neighbor's Daughter: "I'm just gonna stay right here till y'all get inside."

Me: "OK. But you don't have anything to worry about. She's as friendly as can be."

Neighbor: "That's the same thing my son said. He had a dog just like yours and it turned on and tore up my grandson. That's what those kinds of dogs do."

Me (as congenial as possible): "Well it's all in how you raise them."

Neighbor: "My son treated his dog good, too."

At that point, I just walked inside without another word. It might've gotten really ugly if I took her bait.

As a quick back story, this isn't the first time she's made snide comments about our dogs... among them that she's "not a dog person."

Ugh!!!




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#2 ·
I know that sort of thing can be frustrating. I get it all the time around the town anytime I take my pup anywhere. The "he's going to turn on you" and "no matter how nice he acts, he's just waiting to bite". It makes me want to scream sometimes. But the best thing you can do is focus on your dog. Keep working her so you can rub her excellent behavior in their face anytime they want to say something! :)

I'm not above calling my dog to a snappy heel when a stranger's made a snide comment, asking them to leave, and telling Kaiju to wave goodbye to them. The look on their face when he actually waves is pretty priceless. :D
 
#3 · (Edited)
Don't let what others say get to you. You know your dog better than anyone else.

I'm going to add my opinion on what they said - Dogs are not unpredictable monsters that will attack randomly and they are not "fur babies"/humans. They do not attack out of nowhere and with no warning signs. When attacks happen it's human error that led to it. They didn't see the signs or they were in denial that there were any. They completely neglected the dogs needs or didn't take action to improve the crumbling relationship. Failed to prevent the dog from doing harm to others and vice versa. Sometimes just generally in over their heads. Raising a good dog citizen takes more than just giving affection, food, and a comfortable home to live in.
 
#5 ·
I would have just shrugged and said "ok." If she wants to inconvenience herself I don't see a problem with it, snide remarks only work if you're listening to them. Otherwise they're just hot air being wasted ;)

You have absolutely nothing to prove to them outside of the fact that your dog doesn't do anything to bother them
 
#31 ·
I would have just shrugged and said "ok." If she wants to inconvenience herself I don't see a problem with it, snide remarks only work if you're listening to them. Otherwise they're just hot air being wasted ;)

You have absolutely nothing to prove to them outside of the fact that your dog doesn't do anything to bother them
I agree. Smile politely, and move on. I understand the urge to defend your dog, but if you had just accepted her original comment without engaging with her further she probably wouldn't have continued making statements that offended you. Less stress and bother on both sides. It's really not worth arguing with ignorant people, and as Jean said, respect their discomfort around your dog. Whether you feel it's justified or not isn't really the point.
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
I don't believe it's always how you raise them, although it plays a big role.

I agree with Jean, respect their discomfort with your dog, and not everyone is a dog person, and that's perfectly fine.

Maybe one day your dog will make your neighbor see that GSD's are wonderful dogs, but they have obviously had a very bad experience.

Sorry they said that, don't let it get to you.
 
#8 ·
Maybe one day your dog will make your neighbor see that GSD's are wonderful dogs, but they have obviously had a very bad experience.
That's exactly what I was going to say! :)

This is what happened to me, when I was getting to be friends with one of my neighbors: I was invited over and I asked if I could bring my pup along. I didn't know this woman had had a bad experience with GSDs in the past - all I knew was that I'd have to decline the offer if I couldn't, because it was after I'd been working that day (he was crated for hours and I wasn't going to add to that, just so I could socialize) and she graciously said yes. Fast forward to today, we're close friends, and she loves my GSD.
 
#19 ·
Yeah, I got that with my White Swiss Shepherd. Everyone would be like "wow, what breed is that dog? Is it a wolf? No, wait, it must be a pure white Husky/Malamute"! Actually, I even had one person think that he was a white dingo and I was baffled. :crazy: Dingoes have short coats and they are much smaller and slimmer, like a Kelpie. My dog was a long coat. Then for some reason my friends always said that he was a horse and I was even more baffled until someone pointed out to me that they meant size, not his actual appearance . . . Still horses are way bigger . . .

Guess folks have real fears and just cant gandle certain things. My sister is a airline captain, in charge of tons of steel going 500mph but wont come near my very stable Germanshepherds. Me, I gave problems with horses. Awesome majestic animals but they scare me. Weird humans we are!
I can agree with this. I have grown up with horses all my life and I used to love them. I loved riding them, especially my mum's black Arabian gelding named Nip. Then one day when I was about 6 my sister took me out riding on her pony mare and one of the stallions escaped his paddock, I think one of the helpers mustn't have closed the gate properly, they were difficult gates, and the stallion wanted to make love with the pony while I was on her back. Luckily I fell off just in the nick of time but it was scary. As a matter of fact I was scared of horses for a while but now I have almost gotten over it. Instead, as a kid I opted instead to riding rams. :p Now I can pat horses and feed them, and have really come to admire their beauty and power. I guess that experience made me realise how dangerous horses can be.
 
#13 ·
Guess folks have real fears and just cant gandle certain things. My sister is a airline captain, in charge of tons of steel going 500mph but wont come near my very stable Germanshepherds. Me, I gave problems with horses. Awesome majestic animals but they scare me. Weird humans we are!
 
#15 ·
There is a good chance your neighbor is still shaken up by the fact her grand child was torn up by a dog. Instead of placing blame on her son, she is placing blame on the breed. I feel pity for the neighbor.
 
#16 ·
Neighbor: "That's the same thing my son said. He had a dog just like yours and it turned on and tore up my grandson. That's what those kinds of dogs do."

If in fact the above is true to the degree stated, it is very hard not to be a bit sympathetic toward the experience your neighbor had. I rather doubt there were any words you could have said which would have changed her mind....such is life.

Her comments certainly do not define reality when looking at the big picture but they most definitely express her reality and it is tough to expect someone to change their opinion after an event as she described.

Time and patience might win her over someday but I wouldn't worry about it rather I'd feel a bit of empathy for her.

If she is embellishing the story and the grandson took a nip or two....then your neighbor is a lunatic and I would simply steer clear of her as no good will ever come from her regarding you and your dog.

SuperG
 
#17 ·
I do not feel pity for the neighbour, in my experiance people like that get all riled up and cause problems. The minute you try to pass peacefully and they are still rammbling on spells out "oh boy here we go with the crazy", do yourself a favor and avoid that person like the plague, the last thing you need is some crazy made up "your dog is vicious" story floating around.
 
#20 ·
Thanks so much for the kind comments everyone. Even after some sleep I'm still a little annoyed, but this has been an ongoing problem with her for quite some time.

I suspect her story about her grandson is embellished simply because she's had negative things to say about my Cocker as well. If it's not her accusing my dogs of pooping on the sidewalk out front, it's something else. She even got bent out of shape one day when I found her son's social security card on the sidewalk. Slammed the door in my face after I delivered it to her.

In contrast, her husband is a delight. He's helped us with car repairs and we have regular conversations with him.

And THANK YOU for the article Jean. I agree! The author put it all so well, too! I'll be putting those responses to use from now on. If you don't give your dogs the proper outlets (e.g. regular exercise, training) and you ignore the signals they give, you're certainly setting them up for failure. I'm not even gonna try explaining that to this woman though. It'd just be a waste of my breath. LOL!






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#25 ·
I suspect her story about her grandson is embellished simply because she's had negative things to say about my Cocker as well. If it's not her accusing my dogs of pooping on the sidewalk out front, it's something else. She even got bent out of shape one day when I found her son's social security card on the sidewalk. Slammed the door in my face after I delivered it to her.






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Well, that changes things, then.

I wonder if she has any animals at all. Cat, maybe? :wild:

And I can say that because I do have a cat :D SOme of my "cat friends" are very anti dog.
 
#22 ·
All this talk of white shepherds! I'd love to have one! Very gorgeous!

As for my Stella, she's a bicolor. I've had folks insist that she's not a german shepherd because of her color. I've had just as many recognize her breed right away.

Sometimes I wonder if the fact that she's almost all black has a hand in people's perceptions. I know from my volunteer work at the shelter that black dogs in general have a hard time finding homes. A lot of times it is a psychological thing. Black = evil. But both of mine are black. LOL!


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#23 ·
Yoshi - Horses are amazing. I had several in my childhood. I had many bad experiences with them - getting thrown, bitten, stepped on. But the good experiences outweighed the bad. Like you said, it taught me to respect them. To this day, I dream of having some again. ;-)


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#29 ·
"She even got bent out of shape one day when I found her son's social security card on the sidewalk. Slammed the door in my face after I delivered it to her."

Okay, I take back my " try and be understanding, high road solution"

She's a loon...


SuperG
 
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