Aw bless him! Our dogs would attack the curry delivery man (but only because they want to eat the curry!!!!)

Just wondering YS, what culture are they? I take it they're Indian but do you know if they are Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist?

Our friends are Nepali Hindus and are Brahmin. There are quite a lot of things which are seen as 'unclean' to Brahmin. Including our feet (because we are not Brahmin). So if our bare feet touch them we have to kneel down and touch our forehead to their feet. Doesn't bother me though. Richard had to do it to their daughter last year (she's only 3) it was soooooo funny!

Also, if we cross our legs our feet can't be pointing towards them because it's seen as very rude.

My Iranian Muslim friend likes dogs and even wanted us to take Bryan with us when we went to stay with him. His mum has spaniels (in Iran) and his wife's family in Nepal have several dogs.

So I guess what I'm saying is it may just be that family have a thing about dogs and it gets passed from generation to generation. In my experience of Muslim and Hindu people they seem to like dogs just fine (that's our friends though and they are all a bit mad lol).

Definately not true for Muslim countries where I have lived & worked on several occasions.

My Indian friend and colleague is Catholic! Thats why I think it is cultural and not religious

when we lived in london i had some ppl step into the road to avoid ben. and also spit at him, which i found offensive.
but where we live now there is one turning i have to walk down when i go to the shops. and 4 little boys threatened to squirt ben with those water cannons. well ben hates water, so i just said if u do and he bites u it will be your fault, the big sister shot out.and had a go at the boys.
when im in another country i try and act according to their laws and beliefs. think it should be a 2 way system.

Some cultures see them as dirty :S
ATD x

oh my goodness, people have spat at your dog?! that is disgraceful.

and when i said i didnt want to offend anyone i just didnt want people to think i go around willy nilly telling Indian people they smell,

I would be well annoyed if they were spat at, that annoys me as they do this action naturally, without doing it at my dogs

I just wrote a response and decided I better not post it...

Lets just say it's a subject that really bugs me!

Well it's not really the same thing but we had a bit of a moment last weekend.

Had my Mother in law's dog staying as well and she gets on fab with our other dogs but typical terriers - they egg each other on. Anyway, incredibly clumsy as i am, i managed to fall down our stairs with my arms full of glasses that i was bringing downstairs. So, coffee, juice, wine everywhere! A very bruised me at the bottom of the stairs. PLus i smashed several glasses and got a load in my arms so now there is blood EVERYWHERE!
The dogs go mental because of the huge crash and mess and soon are also covered in my blood whilst OH frantically tries to clean up the mess with the vaccuum whilst i try to calm the dogs and stop the prodigious flow of blood. In the middle of this absolutely CHAOS the door bell rings which sets the dogs off all over again - it's Jehovah's Witnesses. My OH explained now wasn't a good time and they looked relieved and virtually ran back down the path! Pity - could have done with some divine intervention!!!

[QUOTE=Hali;1478499You know how the government is going on about a 'test of British-ness' - we should make sure that 'dog lover' is included in the criteria [/QUOTE]

Sorry but do we know these people were not British?

Again we don’t actually know are they in another country this could actually be the country of their birth, its not against the law to dislike dogs and not every British person has the same beliefs.

It is a religious thing Islam does say that if you come into contact with a dogs saliva you should wash – some followers of the religion take this to an extreme. But please people lets not start the – when in Rome thing just because people are Muslim does not make them any less British than someone of the Christian religions