Jan 12 2009
Pretty dog
Today was a rough day. It was my first day back from break, and although there wasn’t much to do for school (yet), I was running all over the place today. Our first walk today was at 6 in the morning. I had to leave the apartment at 7.30, so we went for our walk first thing after we got up.
Our evening walk was interesting. We went to the park, and in stark contrast to yesterday, there were a LOT of people and dogs out today. Lola met a couple of dogs that she wanted to say hi to. There was minimal lunging but, for the most part, she did fine. One of the dogs that we passed by twice and who Lola wanted to meet the second time around was a large goldendoodle. His owner passed us by and on the second time he said, “I think your dog wants to say hi.” This was, of course, because Lola started jumping up and down. So, I said “Sure” and started talking to the owner a bit. He asked if Lola was a terrier and I told him she indeed was a fox terrier. I was pretty sure his dog was a poodle mix, but I asked him just to make sure. He confirmed that he was a 13 month old golden doodle, and I told him he was a pretty dog. Well, I think this offended the owner somewhat as he quickly turned and left after mumbling something under his breath. I don’t think he appreciated someone calling his male dog “pretty.” I just thought about how humans impose their own social gendered values on their pets. Yet another reason I would pick a dog over a human any day.
