To feel very weirded out by this encounter

[Barefootfreak]

I go out walking every day to try to keep fit. I walk along quite a quiet road where there's very few people. Some days I don't see anyone.

Anyway, this morning on my way back home along this road, I saw a man walking towards me, a bit off in the distance.

I had my noise cancelling headphones on, baseball cap on and head down just focused on my podcast and my walk. When the guy got up close to me I realised he had a dog and had it on a non retractable lead.

He then let his dog walk right up to me and bury it's head right into my groin. Didn't pull it away. I had to push the dog away with my thigh. I looked at the guy with a 'what the actual fuck' look on my face and he just had this big grin on his face like he thought it was funny or cute.

Now I'm thinking that it was a bit weird that he just let his dog come up to me like that and did absolutely nothing to stop it. He didn't pull the dog away at any point, even when I looked at him. Honestly, I felt a bit violated by it. Did he know his dog would do this and maybe gets some sort of kick out of it?!

Am I right to feel a bit weird about this encounter or am I making a big deal about nothing?

I’d report to the police. Just in case. The barefoot thing suggests he’s a bit odd. They would probably appreciate being made aware of his antics.

I think your instincts are correct.

How do you know he didn't apologise, if you had noise cancelling headphones in?

You could be right. He could have trained his dog to approach women and sniff their crotches.

Or, he's just another dog owner who can't fathom that no one else wants his dog near them.

No, that is not what's being said, and you know it so stop the manipulation.

Nobody "trains" their dog to sniff crotches, dogs do sniff crotches because they produce pheromones which a dog can read to glean information. Dogs do not do this for kicks.

Responsible owners pull the dog away if it is on the lead, or they apologise, because regardless of how "charming" they find their dogs, they KNOW that crotch sniffing is inappropriate.

The issue here is not the dog.
It is the grinning man that failed to move the dog while it was being inappropriate under his control, so, address your bile towards the gurning man who used an extension of himself to sniff a womans crotch.

It wouldn't have happened with a female owner, or a decent male owner.

That’s really not nice, and not okay.
When I got out walking especially rural spots I always take a walking stick with me, I find it puts dogs off coming towards you they are much wearier, it sends out a subconscious message also to other people. These days you have to be so careful, and I hate to say it because you should be able to wear noise cancelling earphones but out alone they aren’t a great idea.

@namechangetheworld I don't know whether he apologised but that's not the point. He still allowed his dog to approach me like that and did nothing to stop it

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I agree about the headphones, although that really wouldn't have made a difference in this instance. I might switch the NC part off in future or just not bother with them at all.
I've contacted a local councillor through a neighbourhood fb page to see if they have heard of any similar incidents locally. Not sure what else to do. Don't think police will be interested tbh