What is wrong with people? Anyone bringing a dog to a party had better have (a) one of those so-well-trained-it's-almost-human dogs and (b) a severe visual impairment.
Having a dog destroys people's social sense and common sense in exactly the same blind-spot way having a lover does.
"Turn his back on his best friend, if he put her down..."
I have had people with dogs invite us to bring our dog along, but otherwise I wouldn't dream pf doing it. Would anyone really object to anyone bringing a very well-trained guide dog? Not everyone with one of those is blind.
Well, what do we think about people bringing their dogs to sit alongside them during outdoor dining? I say annoying.
The problem is, people will always go "oooh, pretty dog! Let me play with it!" wherever dog-people go, and so this positive reinforcement allows dog-people to think that their dog is wanted everywhere. Not so.
3: (ii) If you do bring your dogchild, don't tie up the dogchild in a manner that transforms the dogchild's perfectly natural desires to hang out with you and to eat hamburgers into shrubbery-destroying mayhem.
Well, what do we think about people bringing their dogs to sit alongside them during outdoor dining? I say annoying.
Well trained? Outdoors? Lying quietly under the table? Fine with me, but also fine with me if the management doesn't want to allow it. (And I certainly wouldn't bring DogBreath to a sidewalk cafe -- she's not a placid dog.)
Not all guide dogs are well trained. This blind girl at my college had this guide dog that was the laughing stock of the campus, because she was always dragging it along as it tried to get away from her to chase squirrels or smell poop or whatever it is dogs think is so important. It was very difficult to see that it was actually providing her any guidance, since she was leading it most of the time, so the upshot was she was blind and got a pet that she could take around with her everywhere.
3: Oh man, when I was a kid I was so offended when people didn't want children around. I still remember being angry about being forced to stay home from a wedding reception.
I tended to prefer the conversation of grown-ups to that of kids. To be fair, there were adults who liked me a lot who didn't like kidsmuch at all. I remember that my uncle's mother-in-law had a beautiful tapestry collection. She didn't like most children, but she let me see them as a 4 or 5 year-old, because she knew that I would appreciate them wouldn't try to touch them.
And kids-only parties (not birthday parties, but separate kids' parties or kids' tables) generally sucked, because people fed you grilled cheese sandwiches made with American cheese and wonderbread or peanut buteer and grape jelly sandwiches. Meanwhile the grown-ups were getting steak r mytwo favorite foods as a 4 year-old: brie cheese and shrimp cocktail.
What about my Illyrian poodle? Choicest beast a man can latch onto. It'll raise the tone of your party.
2 gets is exactly right. When I was in college I had a part-time job with a valet company that provided stadd to work private parties, and you would be amazed how many people would show up with dogs and be shocked when that turned out not to be cool. These same people would then return and ask if they could have their car parked up front and leave their crazy barking dog in the car and would we mind watching it for them, maybe let it out to pee? Because apparently we were also dog sitters. There are some dogs I really like, but very few "dog people."
stabb s/b staff. apparently i can't type today.
Agreed that no slobbering beast should be brought to a party uninvited, but, once there, it strikes me that the situation ought to be one generally resolvable with neither unbearable inconvenience nor "shubbery-destroying mayhem". (So long as the party is outdoors, which the shrubbery-destruction suggests was true in the case at hand.)
Had you nothing less destructible to which the pooch could be secured? Something further away from your delicate bushes?
It just seems that, unless there were unusual circumstances, a careful handling of the situation could have reduced it from a later-blogged-about-major-irritant to a simple case of minor-inconvenience-dealt-with, your magnaminity thereby outshining the inconsiderate actions of your acquaintance.
I think I am in the minority here, because I think the presence of dogs makes for more enjoyable barbecues. (Setting aside the not-invited characteristic of the dog's owner -- that would be annoying whether or not he brought a dog.) Tying the dog to the hedge is however a mistake.
Would have been worse if they tied the dog to your new shades, though.
If I knew it was going to be that kind of party, I wouldn't have let my dog near the mashed potatoes.
Dogs are fine at parties where you've asked the host and the host agrees. Otherwise, no one's prepared for the dog and everyone's cranky.
Urple, take it up with the dog owner. The rest of us were all sort of mystified about
(a) who is that?
(b) why's that dog here?
(c) why is he tying up the dog next to a rose bush?
If it had been my party, I think I would've called him out, but I didn't want to make a scene. Just another way in which rudeness is a free-rider problem.
My bad, FL -- I thought for some reason it was your party, at your place. I further assumed that it was your decision to tie the dog next to the bush.
My broader point is that although the appearance of an uninvited dog is very rude (especially accompanying an uninvited guest), it shouldn't be a party-wrecker, given a few reasonable accomodations.
Typical liberal hostility toward dogs. You'll wish you had a buddy around when the crabs attack.
I don't pass up opportunities to show off Wreck. I know it's intolerable and I don't care. (But I don't bring him to parties, except in Austin, where such behavior is smiled upon.)
'Smasher, your dog looks like you kinda.
Broader point taken, urple. It wasn't a party-wrecker so much as another illustration of the extent to which some people are weird.
That's your dog? That's a cute dog. And one with a firm way of dealing with invertebrates.
Silvana thinks I'm mangy. Or by extension, LB thinks I'm cute.
I've met you, and you're certainly cute. Not nearly as cute as Wreck, of course, but passable.
Re 13
Once met a blind guy who went skydiving. When asked how he knew he was nearing the ground he said 'When the dog's leash goes slack'.
We are so not comparing children to dogs, are we? Okay, good.
Uninvited guests = bad. Period. If the dog was not invited, then it is an univited guest.
That said, I have travelled in social circles where it was simply a fait accompli that so-and-so brought their dog with them. With the hippies, it was a woman who had a weimereiner (sp?). With the grad students, it was my friend Mme. X, who toted a toy poodle in classic "dahlink" fashion. You simply accept it as part of the person, and deal.
Also well-behaved dogs tucked under tables while people eat = no problem. If it's not bothering you, there's no reason to get huffy about it.
We are so not comparing children to dogs, are we?
If they aren't yours, they're roughly the same. Unless the kids are over eighteen and attractive.
My aunt and uncle once invited my family for dinner and then made us go back home to get our dog.
As a non-dog-owning adult, though, I tend towards FL's presumptions about social etiquette.
"weimereiner" s/b "Matt Weiner"
Should you have your barely-legal daughters hit on untenured faculty, or is that more of a "don't"?
Especially don't bring your unneutered dog to a party.
