To wonder why people stand at the bottom of my drive looking at my dog?

[MrsOverTheRoad]

For context...we live on a high street in a rural town. We're at the "quiet end" so no shops here but a pub next door.

We have a drive leading from the high street to our garden...it's pretty long but you can clearly see our big gates which separate our back garden from the driveway....our dog sleeps in the garden by the gate.

He's a distinctive dog....a big one. People sometimes stop by the end of the drive and stare at him which makes him bark.

They then stand there STILL staring!

I went out earlier today to see why he was having a hissy fit and there was a man of about 60 standing there staring.

So I said "Are you ok?" and he said "I'M ok!" as though the dog was being unreasonable!

The dog hadn't barked for long...just a few but Loud and he'd been fast asleep moments before so I know it was another dog tourist.

This man then wanted to know WHY the dog was bloody barking!

He doesn't bark if people don't stand and stare at him!

Wtf? It happens at least twice a week...the other week there was a whole family standing there looking at him whilst he barked his nuts off.

Have people no sense?

He's a big, white dog...good looking and all that yes...but he's not THAT remarkable!

Meet my 6 stone ridgeback, he's soft as, but guards our house.

Walk past ours, taking the piss Changebags I'll throw a carrier of hot shit at you... And open the gate

s'alright Bastard you don't live on my street

Ah but your dog is just gorgeous and unusual, YABU. People used to stare at my dog when he was a pup but he's not as cute now he's an old man. I miss it. :(

I just act the eejit around them. FFS

No, you act the eejit to them, deliberately to distress them.

We had a Scottish Terrier, and Scottie people in particular used to stop us to admire her.

They were particularly pleased if she completely ignored them, because Scotties are known to be independent and not keen on fuss. People who have or who used to have a Scottie themselves are often delighted to be ignored by someone else's Scottie.

People who've never had one tend to say things like "Look, a Monopoly dog" or "My friend had one of those but it was the white one" (meaning a Westie usually.

Now we have a very small terrier with white curls, who people often make a fuss of because he's so small. I've been walking with him on the lead and actually felt him be lifted up by people who've run after us! And toddlers in particular tend to like him as they call him a "baa baa" or a "baa lamb".

We've actually just seen a "polar bear dog" on our afternoon out, and he was very lovely. I can understand why people might stop to stare at him, but perhaps not if he's upset enough to bark at them for it.

Maybe people are just admiring him and getting carried away. I love a nice big dog but would generally try to restrain myself from standing and staring at your gate.

Alright, will walk sensibly past yappy dog house in future . They will still bark like mad things though.

I would stare as love love dogs and he's beautiful.

I would screen to as be paranoid someone might try and steal him.

Your dog is so pretty I'm not surprised that people stop. I love checking out peoples dogs as they walk by, and I don't try to hide it because usually the dogs and the owners both love the attention.

Little dogs can't help yapping rather than barking, they have shorter vocal cords and so higher pitched voices. I don't see why it's funny to tease a small dog when presumably a big one doing the same thing would be intimidating. Deliberately making any dog bark to see off a perceived threat is mean to the dog and also to innocent neighbours, who probably have enough of the noise without passers - by making it worse. As a responsible dog owner, I try not to leave my dogs to bark, but - like OP - that's a lot easier if they don't have undue provocation to bark (or in my case, yap).

Alright, will creep past the yappy dogs in future and resist the temptation to jump out and say "ta-da". Gawd, walking to the bus stop is going to be so dull...

We have chows and they sometimes sit on the sofa backwards to look out the front window... people actively stop and stare into my house even when the dogs aren't in the window, and all they can see is me looking back at them. It does my head in! I think my dogs are cool but not that cool