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?

From two of the OP's posts upthread,
She must have seen him, he had half his body under the bench and the front half sticking out. I think it was probably a gentle lick on the ankle because he was lying down
And the bench we were sat on was huge, she really didn't need to sit right next to me

What's baffling is why would anyone who objected to dogs choose to sit in such close proximity to one, then overreact massively to the tiniest contact.

The dog only bloody licked the stupid woman, a tiny lick at that! Major grip needed by a lot of dog haters oops I mean people here.
The woman sat next to the OP (her choice), sorry but if you don't like animals your a bit lacking in compassion in my book.
Sadly I fear thats the way our society is going, downhill fast...

I don't like my own dog licking me, let alone anyone else's.

I stand by what I said in the first place sweetgrape. You really are quite strange.

In a nice way of course .

I can go one above you.

I have a bulldog, so sloppy, big droopy lips and lots of drool! Well, I was walking her and some man asked if he could fuss her, so I said yes go ahead. In her excitement she started to drool and decided to wipe her big inside lips over his bare legs to dry herself

I apologised. He laughed and said it was fine.

I did feel bad but he was making a fuss of her and I wasn't to know she was going to decide to use his legs as a towel while she was getting fussed! Will warn people in advance from now on. I keep my dogs under control but even the best dog owner will have times where they can't predict that a dog will lick someone in time, especially if the dog is laying under a bench.

A lick on the ankle is not the end of the world so she was being stupid.

I don't like being licked by dogs. I've seen what goes in my dog's mouth over the course of the day. However, I know some dogs like to lick and if I don't want to be licked by one, I don't sit down next to one!

I wouldn't like it and if I shrieked it would be an instinctive reaction, not designed to make you or your dog feel bad.

I adore dogs. I'm always the first one queueing up to coo at pups, I don't mind little cute puppy kisses but big dogs licking me, slobbering ect eeeeeeeewwwww boak shudders. No I wouldn't like that either

Train your dog to not lick others. I have had dogs - 'tis not bleedin difficult to do.

Mi have a dog and love her very much. I do not lie to be licked by her or any other dog. And anyone can come near my dog and not be subjected to a licking, because she knows not to do it to humans.

Cause well trained dogs never put a step out of line right?

It's a little licked ankle ffs.

Sorry about typos!

The OP reacted properly the the lady's distress, she apologised which is tbh all that could be expected.

I do stand by my assertion that being 'hurt' on behalf of your dog is an odd on your part though.

I would genuinely like some advice from the dog owners on this thread though. How would you prefer me to react to your dog's presence?

Many of the responses on this thread seem to say 'if you don't want a dog up luck/paw/jump up on you stay away from dogs as it is unreasonable to expect them not to do these things.

However in real life, I find that the majority of dog owners seem to be offended by me stepping back out of the way/lifting little children out of the way of their dogs saying "he's friendly" in an annoyed tone.

How do I resolve this dichotomy?

See LadyAmber I find that mildly offensive. You can't dig up enough empathy to understand why someone might reasonably be scared of dogs but I'm lacking in compassion?

Wow I'm amazed some of you lot dare leave the house. The streets could be teeming with wild untrained dogs who might have the temerity to lick you. Shock horror, how disgusting. Dont worry about the untrained savage ones off lead who might bite or savage you, just worry about the gentle one who hasn't a bad bone in his body, he might just lick you (especially if you plonk down next to him).
Where are all these highly trained dogs who wouldn't dream of doing something so awful? Most dogs I've come across have a few faults. But according to some of you licking is the number 1 bad habit. Even above biting it seems.
Wonder if any of you use the office phone regularly? More germs on them than an average toilet apparently. Go into work tomorrow and tell the boss his phone is disgusting. The dirty things.

Im not keen on being licked by dogs, but shes a fucking idiot to sit down next to one and then freak out that it licked her.
Her problem, not yours.

Yuk! It's gross!! How would you like it if she had licked you?

Toad if you think I'm strange, so be it. But I'd rather be strange than nasty. Not you in particular, but some of the posters on here. Some nasty folk out there.

It's not germs in particular- I just don't like being licked!

Well yes, but what kind of responses were you expecting?

U2TheEdge Cause well trained dogs never put a step out of line right?

Sure they do. But I see everything my dog does as a result and reflection on my training of him. I don't think its the duty of people to avoid reacting to being unexpectedly licked (or as some dog owners seem to think, leaping onto the road so my dog doesn't have to make way for people on the pavement). If this incident had happened to me, I'd simply have apologised to the woman for him licking her and taken him away. Problem solved.

Quite possibly the woman didn't see the OP's dog because he was sitting under the seat?

I wouldn't be particularly happy with anything or anyone licking me unless it was by mutual consent, Bradley Cooper maybe I wouldn't be too offended by

If she shrieked in shock because she wasn't expecting the cold, wet, sensation of a tongue on her leg I can understand that but maybe she didn't mean to shriek and it caught her off guard? Sitting next to a dog doesn't necessarily mean you expect to get licked ?

Also think you're overthinking it slightly by being hurt on your dogs behalf because he seemed wounded by her outburst - he probably hasn't taken it to heart.

Personally, I wouldn't have sat next to you as I am very allergic to dogs and that's my problem to address but I do find people take it very personal that I can't be near their dogs and am labelled as a 'hater'

My dogs would definitely lick someone who sat next to them, even the well trained one. Shes obsessed with licking, its gross. She doesnt do it as much to me, but if im wearing a dress she will try and give me a crafty lick of the leg as she walks past.

Im not expecting anyone else to love or even like my dogs, but if they come up close or sit next to one they WILL get licked.

Its like expecting to sit next to a duck and not get quacked at

Well there's no need for rudeness. One poster called my dog disgusting. That's beyond rude. My dog doesn't slobber all over like lots do. When he does do it it's usually little timid gentle licks often done to reassure someone that he's not going to hurt.It's his way of showing friendliness rather than a growl which some might do when a stranger just flops down next to you.