A gigantic German Shepherd with teeth the size of a lion’s (as seen by a 4 year old) charged out from his yard to knock me over and stand on me growling and barking. My shrieks brought the adults running.
What was I doing wrong? Radiating too much innocent happiness?
I’ve mostly stayed out of these conversations, but every so often I do wonder. That breed was popular when I was a kid in the early 1950s, and my walks to elementary school were punctuated by “family dogs” charging their chain link fences, which caused me to radiate visceral fear.
In my late teens I gutted it out to get over the worst. Over time, as an adult, I met mannerly protective dogs integrated into families. That helped quite a bit.
Personally I have owned a succession of smallish dogs plus one “accidental Dobie” passed off to us as a “Black Lab mix“ puppy by the animal shelter. My only failure was the Schnauzer my ex-husband insisted on when I had an active toddling baby, and I finally sent that one on to my sister, who was single and had no kids. They needed each other and it worked well. The accidental Dobie loved me a lot, but led a very restricted life when with me because despite training she had a screw loose, yet she always had a home with me because my then-adolescent son needed that dog. But for me and my lifestyle I choose friendly little guys 20 pounds and under whose instinct is to like people.
Our latest, a Lhasa Apso-Poodle mix, died a few weeks ago at 13. She never met a person she didn’t like, and only one of our friends ever shied away because of not liking dogs. My husband walked her 3 times a day, and the whole neighborhood misses her.
I understand that people have their favorite breeds — one couple we knew adored Airedales, another couple won’t have anything but Cocker Spaniels. I get that POTUS loves Shepherds, but the White House is a very busy place full of offices and tourists and public affairs in general, and clearly too stressful for that breed. The Biden family’s beloved pets need to retire to Delaware and stay there.
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