I don’t understand people who don’t like dogs

When I was growing up, I had a fear of dogs because every dog I knew (only about 4 dogs at the time), was mistreated and seemed angry or hyperactive constantly , they were loud, smelled like rotting garbage ,would jump at people and knock them over, would run to every person and sniff people's crotches, were too aggressive and not interested in any forms of play with anyone, they did not cuddle, and would bite anybody who touched them or walked up to them. The dogs set the boundaries. Sometimes if the dog sniffed your hand, he's rub his head against you, and you could pet him. But he would just as likely growl and bite at you.

The owners would laugh and just say that the dogs were being dogs. It was unpleasant. Most of the time the dogs were chained up outside, or locked in a room inside that was his own so he wouldn't "destroy the house", and people were warned not to go near the dog. They made little no effort to teach the dog to adapt to living among people.

And yet as soon as people came over for a BBQ. They they would let the dog loose and let it do whatever and shrug off the inevitable dog bites to crying children who were guilty of nothing more then hiding behind an adult, or pushing the dog away for being too aggressive, or holding out there hand to pet it, or gutsy enough to take a bite for their brother. 🙄

It was weird.

So even the sociable sweet dogs who didn't do any of those things were scary to me for awhile. Until I realized not all dogs were like those.

After having experiences with dog owners who train their dogs to be indoor dogs and to get along with other dogs and humans... and take care of them and work on their dogs to be obedient, social, and sweet. Then I started to like dogs. My cousin has a dog who I fell in love with. I used to dogsit when he'd travel around.

My husband and I have a dog, he is very sweet.