I came here looking for this comment. I hate people who pet before asking. My dog is friendly, but he jumps and loves to aggressively lick anyone close enough. That's the disclaimer I give anyone who asks to pet him.

I was also coming to post this. My pug really does not like children, and while she won't bite - she will jump and bark at them. It's rather annoying when parents yell at me for not "controlling my dog" when their child ran up and attempted to pet her without permission.

my german shepherd is a total sweet heart to me, my family and friends and epically my 2 year old son. but if he doesn't know you, don't pet him, he will get between me and who ever you are and stsrt growling and showing teeth unless I give him the okay, once I had a kid he got very protective. always ask! I'll tell him it's okay and he will be your best pal and give you lots of kisses.

Next time that happens, yell back. "Control your kid!"

When the parents yell tell them to do their damn job and ask what if the dog would've been more aggressive. I love animals but my mom made sure I knew to always ask permission. When their kid gets bit, it's the parents fault if they never tried to teach them that.

Couldn't agree more, specially with my dog. Who is half Rottweiler and half Pyrenees, so his Pyrenees side makes him look cute and cuddly. But he doesn't let strangers to come close unless i whistle to him. Thus, i hate it when people don't teach there kid a simple manner: 'Ask'. But rather they would let them approach my dog and then get mad at me, for my dog's banking and scaring their kids. Makes me laugh at their ignorance.

Exactly, when I was a baby we had a Australian Shepherd named Ginger who would not only get her own happy meal with fries and a toy, but growl and even snap at ANYONE who was not my mother or my father and tried approaching me. Other than that, she was super friendly.

I have a yorkipoo who looks like a permanent puppy and people always want to pet him, but unfortunately he is not a friendly dog and doesn't trust people he doesn't know. Thankfully people always ask to pet him and I politely tell them why they can't. It sucks because he looks so cute and friendly and people just assume he's friendly, but he just has issues with people he doesn't know. That's why he's never without a leash. It sucks you got scratched (that is not a "maul" in anyway by the way) and as an owner of an unfriendly dog I would've never let you get that close to him, but you definitely deserve it for not asking first. I'm surprised that all the comments are ydi and yet the votes are still in favour of fyl for some reason!

I'm assuming that with 'it' you mean the human petting someone else's dog unasked?

not. nesserly in this case

Yup! =]

So true. I have a pit bull that I fostered and later adopted. He was used as a bait dog in a fighting ring, so he was initially terrified of people and dogs. Poor guy spent most of his first week with me hiding in my basement. It took several months of working with him and gaining his trust before I felt like he was ready to start taking very short walks (my backyard is big enough to throw a frisbee or ball with him, so he was getting all of the exercise he needed) and work towards longer ones. At that point, he loved to be around people he knew, but he was still working through the last bit of fear he had of strangers. Nothing pissed me off more than strangers getting in his face and petting him without asking. When I picked him up from the shelter, they pretty much said, "We aren't sure this is a good idea. He gets one chance. If he ever acts in an aggressive manner towards people or other dogs, he will be put down." Even though he had never shown any signs of aggression, I was afraid someone would end up scaring him so badly that he lashed out. I lost count of the number of times I got called a bitch/****/etc for firmly telling them to stop. Now he trusts me emphatically. He knows I would never hurt him or let anyone else hurt him. He loves attention and affection from any and everyone, even though he has every reason to hate people. He loves playing with other dogs at the dog park. Despite all of that, it still pisses me off when people pet him (or my other dog I now have) and let their kid that is too little to understand or has never been taught how to act around dogs without asking. Asking if it's okay first instead of assuming it's okay seems to be a concept that is too hard for some people to understand.

Quite frankly, any adult who decides to stroke a pitbull they don't know without asking for permission should consider themselves lucky if they only get bitten rather than savagely mauled. I know that they can be raised to be lovely dogs but there is a reason they have such a bad reputation. There is a point where it's not the owner's fault if a dog bites you.

The only reason they have a bad reputation is because of the way the ignorance among people. They are actually in fact one of the most loving dogs around. In face in the late 19th century they were referred as "The Nanny Dog". These dogs are quite misunderstood.

my grandparents have a pit that is a huge sweetheart to everyone, but I agree they have a bad reputation for a reason, I wouldn't go near one without asking! I'm not anti pit bill, I always believed it's how they are rsised, but I have a family friend with 2 kids and a few pits that where always thought of as "friendly". until one day the father came home just in time to see one of their "friendly" pits finishing up ripping his wife's throat out. I remember seeing it on the news, and 2 days later finding out I knew them! that was the day I found out the stereotype where they just snap and attack their family... is true..

You can say the same with any breed, that they can snap. Their reputation isn't because of that, it's because many are trained to fight and be aggressive. It's ignorant to act like they are the only dogs that "suddenly snap".

It doesn't piss me off because I'm afraid he'll suddenly snap. In the years I've had him, he has never shown any signs of aggression, even when he was in situations where aggression would have been warranted. Like the time my asshole neighbor climbed over my fence into my backyard and started shooting him with a BB gun for no other reason than his breed. It pisses me off because he now loves people, including strangers, and gets excited. All it would take is one person overreacting to being knocked down while he's excited and jumping around to report him as a vicious dog and have him euthanized.

Bullshit on the pit bull hate. I used to take my dog to the dog park every day (I have a big yard now and he prefers chasing a ball over playing with other dogs) and only ever encountered one aggressive pit over the hundreds I saw in a year in a half. Most of the fights I saw were started by labrador/mixes, ironically a "family" breed. You cannot judge a dog by its breed.

93- Exactly. The only reason people think certain breeds are somehow more aggressive is because those are the breeds that get reported on in the news most often, making it seem like a higher percentage of dogs that breed attack compared to other breeds. Just a few months ago a golden retriever in my neighborhood got loose and attacked a toddler and his mom playing in their front yard. The toddler died from his injuries the next day. Despite the fact this dog just ran to the neighbors front yard and attacked two people unprovoked, it wasn't reported on in the news like it would have been if the dog had been one of the stereotypical "vicious" breeds instead of a golden retriever. I know that because one of my dogs' a pit bull and the other is a german shepherd, many people will just assume that they're more likely to attack and therefore overreact to their behavior. They're both friendly dogs that love people, so I'm perfectly fine and comfortable with letting people who ask pet them. They just get overly excited at any prospect of attention and affection, so I need a chance to make them sit and wait for them to settle down a little bit before people pet them.

Probably shouldn't play with strange animals either

I wanna know where that is accepted currency.

Korea

Wait, that means you won't accept my goat?

Now what am I going to do with my zebraunicorn?