Social Blunder: He Needs to Learn Some Manners First

When young children approach my dog, I tend to tense up. My dog isn't aggressive, but he does have a lot of energy and could easily knock over a child. I don't let him approach children, and a few times young kids have asked to pet my dog, I've told them no and held my dog back. While I love my dog, I don't let him near children because I don't want him to accidentally hurt a kid. This is all a bit funny since my dog loves young kids and always pulls towards them.

A few weeks ago I took Neeko for a walk in the park. Everything was going well until I saw a young boy, around 2 or so, petting a large calm dog. Oh, no, I thought. Please don't let them come this way. And of course, they came my way. I held Neeko back as best as I could, and I moved off the walking path. When the young boy approached, I tried to dissuade him from petting my dog, and a couple seconds later, his guardian encouraged him to walk away. You can't pet all dogs. Some dogs have too much energy, his guardian said. I was grateful for the guardian's intervention, but I also felt a bit sad. A tear rolled down the young boy's cheek as he walked away (I'm not making that up either). That boy really loved dogs.

As they walked away, I exclaimed, "He needs to learn some manners first!" with a smile. The guardian gave me a strange look, like I had just insulted him, and then I realized with horror, he thought I was talking about his kid! I was talking about my dog! My dog needed to learn how to calm himself and keep his paws on the ground while people pet him.

This incident keeps replaying over and over again in my head, and I find it difficult to shut off the shame. I didn't mean to insult the well-behaved toddler, who was much, much better behaved that my overexcited pooch. Every time my brain reminds me of the episode, I talk a deep breath and remind myself it was a silly miscommunication. It's not a big deal. Perhaps over time, the shame of yelling "learn some manners" will fade away.