in light of some recent shelter returns i had a really good talk w/ some ppl about how cute dogs don’t get to have boundaries- if a dog is pretty and nice, people think they can do anything, and get doubly angry when the dog doesn’t tolerate being pinned to the back of it’s crate by a small child or kicked around or attacked by disgruntled resident pets or whatever, because they feel cheated. they got a pretty dog so everything else should follow.
it’s why i have to be especially careful when handling really striking or polite dogs at events, and why those are often dogs that get in trouble at events with less experienced handlers- their expressions of discomfort are subtle, or not alarming, so they can be dismissed. a dog that chooses to remove itself from a stressful situation and go chill is much more likely to be crowded or dragged back into the fray than one what growls or shows teeth. a dog with long hair or that’s especially small or not a bully or labby looking or has some other interesting characteristic will get hugged and tackled and hit in the face by children because parents assume that the dogs will be fine with it. they will be rushed by peoples’ pet dogs.
paradoxically, an ugly, touchy dog can be a safer bet for not getting into trouble because people are more likely to remember that it’s an animal with teeth and respect the boundaries it lays down, while a yellow dog with drop ears and good leash manners is allowed to whale eye until it loses it and air snaps, and then suddenly it’s a federal fucking issue that came out of nowhere. an ugly, boring, pushy dog is more likely* to get slow intros with other pets, it will not immediately be let loose in the dog park, the children will not try to ride it like a horsey. a cute, polite dog will be let loose to sort itself out and then get punished for failing in a situation where it couldn’t possibly win.
and you see this shit everywhere, with everything. people feel entitled to the unquestioning, unwavering saintly behavior of a pretty, polite, friendly animal no matter what stressors they’re placing it under. and it will never be their fault when their pretty, polite, friendly animal fails to sit through every painful, terrifying, dangerous, stressful trial they can possibly put it through.
(*people are still hideously stupid and pigheaded about this shit. ‘more likely’ is not ‘will all the time’ or even ‘most of the time’)
I swear to god this is also why pretty, fine-built, girlie-faced mares so frequently wind up with behavioral issues
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