To feel hurt that my lovely dog licking someone caused such distress.

[sweetgrape]

He's just a big affectionate softy, the only trouble is he thinks everyone loves him. We went for our walk this morning in the park and sat down on a bench for a rest. We'd only been sat down a minute or so and this woman sits down next to me. We were just chatting about the weather when all of a sudden she jumped up shrieking, "ahhh the dog just licked my leg"
Now I know not everyone loves dogs but i thought it was a bit of an over reaction. I did apologise but I felt kind of sorry for my dog, who seemed to have a bit of a hurt look on his face. Wabu to have felt sorry for my dog or should I have felt more sorry for the woman?

sorry reni1.

Dogs lick their arses, other dogs arses, many of them eat shit and vomit!

Arguably they are significantly more germ-ridden than many other things.

I don't mind dogs, probably wouldn't mind a strange dog-licking me, but people aren't weird because they don't like it.

My middle son would hate it as would my husband. Neither of them like dogs!

Will try out 'ohbollockscuntfuckshitsodandbuggerit' on the school run tomorrow. Will tell them I learned it on mumsnet, innit. starts practising

You have to say it fast, all in one go reni. It sounds even better if you do it in a Margot Leadbetter accent.

DamnBamboo that boat has loooong sailed baby

Busy trying to untangle tongue. We've derailed a perfectly spiteful thread.

Urgh, I wouldn't want to be licked by a dog. Full of disgusting germs. Urgh.

Please control your dog for the sake of the human beings present.

Mrstwee, read the last 2 pages, we are safer not talking about dogs tongues and ladies' ankles.

The trouble with strange tongues is that you never know if/what they've been rimming.

I was referring more to the 'shagging her toddler' comment.

I avoid strange tongues at all costs, myself!

Go and bleach you fingers and keyboard, Tiggy, I'm off to wash my brain.

Figure it would have whatif but as someone who doesn't mind a dog licking me and uttery adores dogs generally, I am married to a man who barely tolerates them and a son who hates them!

i get it, I really do.

A tongue that has just rimmed an alsatians arse on my ankle, is not order of the day

OP, please let Barney know that he's welcome to lick me any time he likes - springer snogs are the best! He may have to negotiate licking privileges with my springer though.

I must have that type of skin, dogs seem to find me irresistible, and I've been licked by cats, horses and cows.

I eat cow tongue, must be interesting being licked by your dinner.

There have been experiments on dog's saliva "in a 1990 study done at the University of California, Davis, researchers found dog saliva killed E. coli andStreptococcus canis, another harmful bacteria."

Sorry prorsum but if you had kicked my dog then you would be facing criminal charges, if you were looking after my dc and I found out you kicked a dog for that reason we would no longer be speaking.

This thread has turned out as mn at its finest; posters who think that all animals should be locked up as obviously they don't have a right to be breathing the same air as humans

I personally would have had no problem with your dog licking me. I love big, affectionate animals!!

She sounds like she needs a good shag.

She sounds like she needs a good shag.

FFS.

shadowfax A horse licking me would terrify me. I am almost as scared of horses as I am moths, with the plus of horses being that the bastards can't fly, so I can avoid them quite easily. Much like dogs. Expect bigger. I would never sit down next a horse.

My children made me go a horse back trek on holiday once. My horse kept picking fights with all the other horses. While. I. Was. On. It's. Back.

It was the single most terrifying experience of my whole, entire life.

They want to go a horse back adventure holiday around Lazarote next year. I suspect they harbour a secret desire to kill me.

I've never heard of teaching your dog not to lick unless there's a problem with excessive licking.

We adopted our dog as an adult and he came with a few ishoos (not aggression) . We took him for training but his recall still isn't perfect so he stays on the lead at the park as I completely understand not everyone likes dogs and he needs to be under control. He won't approach you or bother you as he's on the lead but if you invade HIS personal space, you may get a lick.

In the 5.5 years we've had him, its never happened. Park benches aren'tllike the tube on a Monday morning. There's plenty of space for everyone. Don't sit within licking distance of a dog's mouth if it is such an issue, it's really not hard t do.

And by the same logic don't let your dog go within kicking distance of someone's foot if you don't want it to get kicked! Ffs.

YANBU

There's a big world out there full of animals and other people. Sometimes one might touch you. Get over it!

The same logic would be a toddler's grasp.

Most adults (all of the ones I've met) seem to be able to control their kicking impulse.

Its really not that difficult not to go that close to a controlled dog to avoid being licked.

Somehow my dog has got through his life without dog-hating strangers putting themselves in his tongue's way or being randomly kicked by psycopaths.

Which kind of confirms my belief thattthe responses on this thread aren't representative of normal folk.

Its perfectly reasonable to expect to sit on a public seat without being licked by a dog or grabbed by a toddler. Its the owners/parents responsibility to oversee that and not expect other people to be as indulgent of their beloved dog/child as they are.

If you come within grabbing distance of my 10 month old's hands, she will try to grab your hair.

We do try training her. She doesn't listen. Maybe we're over-indulgent parents

What with our dog's lick risk and our baby's grab risk, maybe we shouldn't go to the park where strangers will assert their right to sit within licking/grabbing distance of dog/baby when they have an entire park at their disposal.

To be honest, even if I didn't have a baby or dog with me, I'd find it pretty weird that a stranger come and sit THAT close to me on a park bench if there are other places to sit.

But, again, this is really a non-issue because it's never happened to me and if someone did do that (unless they wanted a friendly chat about something which is fair enough but then they'd have to take their risks with a dog-lick or baby-grab) I'd be the one getting up and walking away.

Even the most perfectly trained dog or toddler may also sometimes break rank (as others have said). I really can't believe a random dog-lick or a baby-grab (under the circumstances described, a dog or toddler who runs up to you is something different) is something to get hot under the collar about. This thread is downright strange (although I'm guessing it's not a representative sample - after all, the vast majority of people who couldn't care less probably wouldn't even bother replying!).

I'm also interested to hear how all the people with dogs who are trained not to lick have done this with adult dogs. My old boy is 11 so probably way too late for him now but the dog trainer we used when we adopted him never even mentioned training not to lick. We had our work cut out with the basics when we adopted him (stay, bed, down, sit, walking nicely, recall, not barking when left, behaving nicely with other dogs) and we weren't totally successful (recall not perfect, still barks if left) and training him not to lick (not that he licks excessively) seems ott. Again, we've never had a problem with him licking a random stranger, but I'm sure it could happen if someone came up that close to us (again, pretty weird situation which has never happened).