The biggest red flag is judging people for superficial bullshit that might as well be residual childhood trauma. Most dog owners put barely any effort into training and that shows in the dog bite statistics. Fun fact, children don't really understand how to deal with animals by themselves and since parents are about as competent at supervising and educating as the average dog owner, the demographic that gets bitten the most are children.
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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Sorry, I'm a cat person. Can't stand dogs.
But can you sit dogs?
I'm not sure, but I've ended up in the doghouse on many occasions.
I never had anyone with a dog in my family and surroundings, when I was growing up, so I never learned how to communicate with them. This and that I got bitten, without warning or reason, three times already, once when I was like 8 or 9 y/o, makes me a bit uncomfortable and cautious around most dogs, especially if I don’t know them well.
I can deal very well with cats though. Family and friends had/have a few and I just get them. I know when I can scritch the belly and when not. Never got bitten or scratched (unless you count on accident by a kitten, that couldn’t control it’s claws yet).
This and that I got bitten, without warning or reason
oh there was a reason and most likely there was a warning, it is just that no one taught you to read the dog's body language and be aware of the warning.
When I was 8/9, I was walking to school on the sidewalk and a dog ran out of a front yard, barking and bit me in the leg from behind before I could even react.
Granted, most of the blame goes to the owner, who didn’t lock their gate properly, but still. I was just walking to school.
And the other two times, I also got attacked from behind without warning. In these cases, inside though. To be fair, the dog is a traumatised rescue who doesn’t like anyone besides a very select few with an asshole-to-humans owner who doesn’t care that their dog already bit me and multiple collegues. But then again, it still just bit me because I dared walking by the room it was in. Twice. Without warning.
Cannot read body language, if I can’t see the dog
i didn’t mean to move the responsibility of dog ownership onto the potential victim.
i was simply reacting to the “no reason” part of the statement. dogs, same as humans, are pretty simple creatures. we operate on a trigger > reaction basis.
we may not know what the trigger for the dog is (hell, we often don’t know what the trigger is for us), but that doesn’t mean there is none. and unfortunately, parents often don’t teach kids correct approach to stranger’s dog (probably because they themselves don’t know it), but that does not seem to be your case.
Cannot read body language, if I can’t see the dog
yeah, that’s fair, seems like the owner’s fault.
There are plenty of dog attacks that happen through no fault of the victim. It's also completely unreasonable to expect every single person that might interact with your dog, by choice or not, to have experience in how to not appear threatening to it. For some dogs it really doesn't take much and children are naturally adept at miscommunicating with animals. The solution is to train your dog and keep it on a leash in public. Be a responsible owner and accept that strangers don't have to like your dog, no matter how cute or well-behaved you think it is. It's not that hard.
The solution is to train your dog and keep it on a leash in public. Be a responsible owner and accept that strangers don’t have to like your dog, no matter how cute or well-behaved you think it is. It’s not that hard.
part of the solution is also to train your kids not to approach unfamiliar dog without a permission. not every stranger or their dog has to like your kid, no matter how cute you think it is, it is really not that hard 😂
A lotta people ITT defending not liking dogs. Okay fine. Don't like dogs all you want, but we won't get along and you can't get mad about that too.
Thank you! I came here to say this.
Also, this community is called "Dogs" 🙄
It's not that I don't think dogs are cute, but I don't have the energy for them. Living with people that had two dogs taught me that.
Exactly my views on it. I love other people's dogs, but I couldn't provide a good home for one
Cats. That's what's up.
Some of us loved a past dog so much that the pain of losing them is enough to never want one again.
How much I like dogs is inversely proportional to how much literal dog shit I've had to clean up recently. Every time it happens my opinion skews closer to never wanting to see a dog again.
On this same theme: the thought work needed for any pet is not feasible for me. The work going into cleaning child shit makes me resentful of having to clean animal shit, before I even have a pet.
Jaysus, this is why mods should be able to limit visibility to subscribers only.
I'm not a subscriber but no joke. Clearly this made it to everyone's All feed because why else would you go to a "community about dogs" to take a tweet personally and bash on dogs and their owners.
They are as smart as a small kid. That's quite dumb. Also, they can't talk.
I'd rather spend my time with critical thinking humans, thanks.
I'd rather spend my time with silly creatures that won't call me slurs and tell me to kill myself.
Sorry but one of the reasons why I prefer cats is because they don't just love you unconditionally like a dog does. You have to earn their trust, and I respect that a lot more. You have to work for a cat's love, while dogs just give it out to any old asshole for free.
I also appreciate that they're more hygienic, and generally lower maintenence than dogs.
It very much depends on the dog. I've seen some nasty dogs in my time, where the dog wasn't cleaning itself and the owner never gave them a proper bath, and then there's dogs like mine, never smells of defecate or urine, gets cleaned professionally once a month and grooms himself thoroughly. His fur is soft and non greasy, he's properly de-shedded, and his coat type means mud turns to dust and simply shakes off.
Same goes for cats, I've seen dirty cats who spread shit everywhere with their dirty bums and I've seen hygienic cats that never skip a groom day.
I will admit that cats are lower maintenance. A dog is like a child you can't drop off at kindergarten, and they require hours of exercise and attention every day, but that's exactly what I signed up for: something to occupy my mind and keep me exercised. I can't cani-cross a cat, unfortunately!
Exactly.
What we did to dogs was monstrous.
Take a wolf and give it the brain of a neurotic brain damaged human toddler, biologically enslaved to us to the point of needing constant work and praise to avoid being a bad dog.
(And we didn't stop there; no, we had to keep meddling and turn them into misshapen shrunken parodies of themselves, living in constant pain and horror.)
I suppose it was somewhat fine back when we spent all day working together, but keeping that locked up all day in a small house or flat with nothing to do but bark at the occasional passerby is downright animal torture.
I don't need another reminder of humanity's hubris every time I get home. I have more than enough guilt as it is.
At least cats did it by themselves¹, on their own terms, and won't tolerate the kind of abuse most dogs routinely endure, if given an option.
1.– Except for designer breeds, of course. If cruel and unusual punishment had a place in society it'd be being applied to child abusers, people who talk or use their phone in theatres, and pet breeders.
I grew up with dogs. I swept several cubic metres of dog hair every spring and autumn for years. I've been on many several hour long trips in a car with a dog and no air conditioning, in the summer. (And I mean dogs, not those pocket abominations bred by people who obviously enjoy causing lifetime suffering to innocent animals.)
Yeah, if I meet a dog that hasn't been too badly trained and I have somewhere nearby to wash my hands and I don't need to keep my clothes clean and not covered in hair and drool I'll pet it, and tell it it's a good dog, and if I've got time and space I'll probably toss them a ball or a stick for them to catch for a bit.
But otherwise? Yeah, I can do without dogs. Too much work, too much brainless need for attention, too much stink, too much hair, and drool, and grease, and noise. And pain, when they go and die on you (I had the misfortune of living with a boxer for a few years; lovely animals, drool aside, but the way they suddenly explode into a ball of tumours at around five to six years old is just not right).
Cats are cleaner, smarter (sure, some dogs are smarter, but they're work dogs, and have no place in a house unless you can dedicate 150% of your time to them), much less needy (though they still do need attention, which is why I can't have one either, poor critter would spend most of its time alone, which is no life for a pet), live significantly longer, and you actually need to earn their love instead of them biologically having no choice but to love you.
Dog people who treat their dogs like people are insufferable.
I like hanging out with a well trained dog but most are in your face with their favorite ass cleaning tool and can't chill out for the first half hour. And that's mostly on the shitty dog owners.
Never trust someone that doesn’t like dogs and never trust someone your dog doesn’t like.
This is such a dumb take. I have two family members who were both attacked by dogs as children (yes, due to crappy owners, but still). Let people have their well earned anxiety. I love a good boy or girl as much as the next guy, but my cousin deserves to never want to be near a dog again. She was attacked at 5 and kids were still calling her scar face in highschool. Let people hate dogs.
Sure, but as someone with dogs in my life I'm going to want to socialise with people I can introduce my dogs to. Your cousin won't want to be around me and I get that, it's not about me.
Not everybody is for everybody, and that's okay.
Edit: re-reading this, it sounded callous. I'm sorry your cousin got attacked, it must have been awful for her.
Nah, you're all good! It's just the parent comment calling her untrustworthy I don't like!
Bullshit..some dogs are assholes. If you live by this rules then I don't trust you. Don't care if my dog likes you or not.
so, dogs like me, but i never like them back. what happenes now?
you progress to the cat test.
My dog doesn't like most people.. so I guess that checks out
@lettruthout @LadyButterfly
I cannot believe that. I have a dog that does not trust anyone, and another that likes everyone, leading me to believe there is a flaw in your logic.
I also have a sibling and a parent that don't like dogs. I just try to keep the dogs out of their way when they visit. In general, they are very pleasant people
Dogs slobber on everything, have no sense of self-respect, shit everywhere, bark at everything, and always have a weird film on their fur that you feel on your hands after you pet them
and they stink too