Encountered with a dog

I suppose it’s partly guilt about knowing it’s kind of an honour to be liked and trusted that much by an animal. No person would ever be so overcome with excitement just to know that I exist! And yet there’s a big part of me thinking ‘please stay away - this is really stressful… and an assault on the senses’ 

An aunt of mine had two incredibly friendly and affectionate dogs (different cross-breeds). One was a medium-sized female and the other a small male. As far as I know, their diet was the same. The female didn't seem to have a noticeable doggy odour, but the male certainly did. Now, I am not suggesting for one minute that male dogs have an odour issue, as my aunt had previously owned other male dogs that hadn't had an overpowering odour issue... just this one particular dog who I considered to be an adorable cheeky chappie. 

When I used to visit for a family get-together on Christmas Day, my role was to keep the dogs entertained and out of the kitchen and allow them to burn off their excited energy (they LOVED visitors). For me, this was something I really looked forward to... apart from when the smelly male dog insisted upon returning the affection by licking my face. Not because I had an issue with my face being licked, but simply because of the intensity of his doggy odour. In hindsight, I possibly should have gone equipped with a nose clip (like swimmers have).

For what it's worth, I don't think you don't sound horrible for having an aversion to strong dog odour and dog saliva. We're all different in terms of what we can and can't tolerate.

Actually I do know one or two cute wee dogs with calm Temperaments. But have only met them outdoors so can’t really judge the smell  factor too well. 

God that’s one of the worst things. I have two lovely friends, a married couple, and they’re on their second dog. Both dogs have had that smell. And both have been enthusiastically friendly (terrifyingly so if not used to them or needing personal space) to the point where it will climb up on me, or start chewing my shoelaces. When I get back in the car I can still smell the dog-ness on me. Only when I get home, get a bath, and take antiseptic wipes to my shoes does that finally go away. I couldn’t live with that scenario even if I did like dogs - the nose-blindness required is too big a sacrifice. As is the knowledge that their saliva would be everywhere. I sound horrible don’t I? I just find cats cleaner and with a much less overpowering scent. Maybe I’ll get one some day. 

Dogs are extremely predictable when you understand them. Though obviously to someone that has never owned or had dogs in their life won’t know that. I’ve always said (before I knew I was autistic) that dogs are autistic. They don’t like change, anything out of the ordinary. They have amazingly strong senses-hearing and smell. They like routine. As an example, I’ve had dogs freak out and start barking at a football in the water they came across. They walked there all the time, loved going in that water, would have tennis balls thrown in the water. But this was an object that shouldn’t have been there, and had never been there before. They knew what footballs were and had they found one on the path would have played with it. But to them, in this situation it was wrong, and they were scared. 

Some dogs can have a rather overpowering and unpleasant doggy odour, whilst others don't.

Dogs are noisy and smelly.  I was terrified of them for most of my life, but I'm getting better now.  I can uncomfortably endure an unfamiliar dog.  My sister has a dog that I'm gradually getting used to after two years of infrequent exposure.

I live within close proximity of a recreational playing field that is popular with local dog walkers. One of the access routes is via a winding path. In general, I am rather fond of dogs, but I often feel frustrated with some of the dog walkers. Long before they have reached the playing field, they will let their dogs off the lead. More often than not, the dogs will run ahead and out of view. Aside from the fact that the dog walkers cannot see if their dogs have made a mess that needs cleaning up, they also cannot see how their dogs may be reacting to other people or other dogs.

If there is a friendly dog on a lead, I have no issue with stopping to give it a bit of a fuss (providing the owner is OK with that). What I do find unnerving is when a dog comes charging at me, perceives me as a threat, and the owner is nowhere to be seen. 

I can understand you being nervous around dogs. I was once walking to work and an unaccompanied dog was sitting on the pavement. I carried on walking and it came over and bit me. It turned out the owner had not realised it had come out of its house. I also had a dog run into me across our park and left me with a large bruise and the owner ignored it.

I am therefore wary of dogs and avoid getting too close as you don't always know if they are trained unless you can see the dog obeying it's owner. Unfortunately there have been several people locally bitten by dogs where owners were not in control. I therefore always err on the cautious side and do not appreciate owners whose dogs approach me and say they won't hurt. If I don't want their dog jumping up on me I appreciate them being controlled in a public place.

It is good when there are understanding owners.

Mainly general dogs.

It's great you found someone who understands.

With charity shops I think that's actually primarily for guide and support dogs, which you can't really do anything about. But I've also never seen an actual guide or support dog jump up at anyone (they are calm and predictable) so maybe that is less of the issue than general dogs?

They make loud noises, unpredictably, so I dislike dogs. At my age I can carry a stick with no-one being surprised, so if I am going on a long walk and might come across dogs, I now carry a stick. It makes me feel more confident.

Had a dog jumped on me when I was  three years old. Also happened several times and even chased me. Got worst during lockdown. One nearly eaten my Danish pastry. Thought the Newfoundland going to eat the dog.

Poor old squirrels! Just the way of things I suppose. Owners are way more diligent than they used to be at least. Outside was genuinely like a post apocalyptic tundra full of practically wild beasts when I was a child. One would have to suddenly sprint or roll across broken glass (no soft landings in playgrounds in those days!) into a hiding space when the cry of ‘here comes Max!’ or ‘Spike’s got out of the gate!’ or similar would go up from the first child to spot one of these terrors bounding over. 

Sometimes hear dogs barking, off the lead and chasing squirrels. 

That sounds horrible. Id dread leaving the house with that scenario. Some wee dogs are cute though. There’s some wee Westie type thing in the house oppposite me and she’s wearing a Christmas jumper this week and stands up like a person when I walk past. She used to bark but now she knows me. I don’t interact beyond a smile and friendly nod or wave because I feel weird doing all that ‘who’s a good girl then?’ or tactile Stuff that comes easily to other people. Maybe she’d like it though. Is it mean to be so reserved if well meaning? 

im ok with dogs, but one time there was this guy down the road who let his annoying yapping howling jack russle out all the time freely and allowed it to freely roam the streets and it was aggressive so if it saw you it would howl and run at you and try bite at you and harrass you and when it was out it always stayed at the end of our street making it so you had to walk past it and have it try attack you every time. was pretty annoying and didnt like that at all.

I get nervous around them too. Not as badly as I used to but I’ll always be more of a cat person. I think it goes back to childhood. We never had that sort of pet growing up, and yet a 1980s childhood routinely featured running into feral dogs (neglected by owners) just freely roaming the streets. It was not uncommon to turn a corner only to walk straight into an aggressive pit bull or something and they’d sense your fear and start mauling or chasing straight away.  Occasionally, the distant shout of an owner going ‘don’t mind him, he’s just playing’ could be heard as they sauntered back indoors, letting the savaging continue. 

there may be the tiniest bit of exaggeration in the above, but not much!