Randomly insulted in village about my dog's 'behaviour'

[madbatarse]

I should preface this by saying we live in a fairly small village in South West - so this behaviour probably goes with the territory to a degree. We have 14 mth old dog who is still quite puppy like & boisterous: very sociable & wants to make friends with everyone. Twice now the same person/couple have shouted at me across the street that my dog is out of control, a disgrace & I should not be walking her through the village roads. My dog is always on a lead & has never gone anywhere near them.....it is totally unprovoked, random insults. First it was the husband on his own & then the couple together. I am a responsible dog owner & realise not everyone wants a dog coming up to them (or a lead or otherwise) so I always restrain & control her to not be nuisance - except for her 'regulars' (most everyone else) who make a point of coming over to talk to her. I walk her on my own during the day & now feel intimidated (& frankly a bit scared) about encountering these people again. Should I just change my routine &/or try to ignore them or AINBU having a go back next time he/they have a crack & tell them what I think of their unprovoked insulting rudeness? Thx ppl

Because people are arseholes about big dogs.

A big dog is always viewed with suspicion - often unfairly, when badly behaved little dogs are ignored.

I’ve had people yell abuse at me before for literally no reason - and I have Goldies (big enough they have been mistaken for Pyrs).

OP could be bloody Morher Theresa with a dog, and she’d still get abuse simply because she has a large breed.

Badly behaved small dogs are not much of a threat since it could be easily overpowered and disabled if necessary.
A badly behaved large dog is much more of a problem, can you really not see that?

Just speaking personally I think the opposite - I feel much more well-disposed towards a big dog (well-behaved and under control) as long as it's not an XLB, or similar. Where I go for my daily walks I'm absolutely tripping over yappy little while balls of fluff, all running amok and being 'friendly', making runners pull up short and generally preventing anyone from just having a relaxing walk.

Now a big soppy lab, collie, German shepherd etc - no problem for me.

You’re not doing anything wrong.

tell them that you’ve consulted widely and have had it confirmed that they’re nutters and they need to carry on with their lives and leave you alone.

Or simply, “oh don’t be so ridiculous”

Probably a size thing op, our dog used to get away with a lot by strangers because he’s a medium sized breed (cocker spaniel) when he was younger and I often thought if he was bigger he’d be getting abuse ( he used to drag me down the road and skip sideways from across the road at people)

Mmm thing is I often find people are a bit in denial about how friendly their (generally huge) dog is and how much they have them under control. I have 2 family members who are like that. They will maintain till they’re blue in the face they have full control and their dogs ‘just want to play’. Neither is true.

An aside to your OP, but why the sarky comment about people who live in villages in the south-west? You can't possibly have any reason to generalise, surely? I have lived in the south west most of my life, and people are usually absolutely lovely, more so than many other parts of the country tbh.

That's an absolute straw man argument – what you're pointing to is not what @LandSharksAnonymous said at all.

The point she made was that big dogs are viewed with suspicion no matter how they're behaving, while little ones don't receive the same level of prejudice.

Definitely a size thing! I've had a great Pyrenees mixed with timberwolf and Husky, I've also had a Russian Ovtcharka, and right now I have a Husky x GSD, and a Finnish Lapphund x Husky.

It's the size! People are jealous because they have tiny dogs. I've had people pick their dogs up and carry them off, like babies, across the road, eyeing up my dogs, afraid they will eat them as snacks! 🤣 It's quite entertaining, because now I'll play it up and pull on their lead, and pretend they're about to bolt.

I'm petty.

My big dogs love little dogs! The biggest one Mother's them!

They sound like a couple of dickheads. Who do they think they are, shouting at you across the street.
”Her manners are better than yours” might shut them up 😄

Oh I’d avoid your boisterous young dog when I was walking my older small dog but I’d say absolutely nothing .
They don’t need to be like that