Are You A Dog Lover?

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Chip – Old English Pocket Beagle

I took a trip to the beach today with my 15 week old Pocket Beagle. He’s only 8 pounds and quite adorable if I do say so myself. I always get a lot of attention when I walk him in public because like I said, he’s adorable and he’s so tiny!  Today I noticed something pretty hilarious as I walked him down the boardwalk…

There are three types of people in dog loving world:

  1. The Yellers
  2. The Askers
  3. The Touchers

You’re probably looking at the screen all confused right now, what am I talking about!?  I’ll explain.

The yellers are those people who stand a few feet away or walk by and say to their friend/family or to you things like: “Oh! Look at the puppy!” “What a cute puppy!”  “Did you see that puppy!” and then proceed to continue to do that until you either give them eye contact and ask them if they’d like to say hi, they get up the courage to come over themselves or you just walk away.

The askers are the group of people who walk right over and say things like, “Can I pet your puppy?” “What kind of dog is that?” “How old is it?”. It’s basically their way of saying Hey, I want to pet your dog but I’m going to be polite and talk to you first. Normally these are the people who then proceed to ask you a bunch of questions about your puppy and seem genuinely interested in your answers.

Last but not least we have, the touchers. They are the group of people that no matter if the puppy is on the ground or in your arms they just come right up start petting, talking and calling all their friends and family over. They don’t ask questions first, they don’t hesitate they just go right in for the kill. I had a couple people do this to me yesterday and it caught me off guard. I was holding my 8 pound beagle in my arms, walking along and looking at the beach and BAM! Someone was all up in my bubble, petting my puppy and leaning in to get puppy kisses.

I have to admit I tend to sway between the three depending on the situation. If the dog is far away, I’m a total yeller. If  it’s just walking casually along and comes up to me as I pass, I’m a toucher. If the owner is in a protective stance around their innocent looking pup, I’m an asker. (If the owner looks protective over a dog that doesn’t look friendly I just walk away.)

What type of dog loving person are you? When you see a puppy are you a yeller, asker or toucher?