People you meet..

As I approached the Park Cafe today there was a guy and a lady sitting with a fluffy GSD bitch who gobbed off at us. The guy grabbed her and yelled.
He came into the cafe as I was ordering my lunch and I tried to start a conversation (nice shepherd..) but he seemed quite angry.
I sat in the garden for a bit trying to work out a way to broach the subject of training.
Then finally decided to bite the bullet and wandered back round to where they were sitting. The dog had been put back in the car and we got talking, with Shamus leaning lovingly on the lady and Daisy flirting with the guy. (She`s a tart - what can I say).
It turned out the GSD was a rescue they`d had for a year and were working with. She`d been shut in a room and not socialised at all as a pup.
The man was upset because he`d just had a run in with some dog walkers - his dog had barked at someone who had threatened to kill it and the others got nasty as well. That was why he was so edgy.
We had a long chat about ignoring mouth-breathing self-abusers and I told them that Daisy used to be a lot worse than their dog. Daisy was by now batting her eyelashes at me and offering all her best tricks (paw, rollover, sit and look cute) because she wanted her Ballie.

So we both felt better for the meeting. I was relieved that the fluffy girl was work in progress and he was relieved that there were other mad beggars like him out there.
And it was sunny!

I hope you had a good walk today as well.

Oh Claire that's nice, so often one reads about the morons that seem to inhabit every part of our world (Liked your description and is probably better ) And well done Daisy for demonstrating that there is light at the end of the tunnel (Even if the Ballie was her main priority )

That's a lovely story and I'm sure he found Daisy's behaviour inspirational. I'm glad you went out of your way to help

well done you for getting chatting

yep, people for some reason seem to think if a dog mutters a sound they can be as rude as they like - hmm, people you meet while out with the dog, let me see, there was 'kiosk man' then butchy woman today; my dog let out a low, short, bark, then I realised the woman is walking round looking right at his face and muttering 'shut the **** up', if youd rather a dog take no notice of you I seriously wouldnt consider that method (really, how much sense do you need?) I then told her (yes, I know, I really should have learned to keep my mouth shut after 'kiosk man') 'well dont stare at him then!' to which I get 'I wasnt, you shut the **** up you ****ing cow you, blah blah'
best not to ask me about people I meet on walks for a while I have to say the woman that I was talking to did comment on how my dog was fine with her and everyone else that was passing....so they arent all bad!

It's great that you talked to the man and must have been so proud of your doggies. Nice also that he was receptive as you never know

What a lovely tale, Claire.....

Wish there were more "happy endings" like this

Poor fella, I can sympathise with how he feels. Sometimes the public can be so judgemental and turn a little incident into making you feel like the biggest pile of poo ever. Yet those walks where you meet someone who doesn't judge you and actually understands, well it gives you a much needed boost. Well done Claire, sounds like just what that man needed.