6 kinds of people you meet when you walk your dog:

I adopted my dog 6 months ago while I was in a soul-searching job-hunting phase. And although it’s been a rocky road that’s full of surprises, but it’s been enriching on so many levels especially that I’m now trained and ready to clean pee, poop and vomit faster than light. It also taught me about how weird people can be around pets and below is a selection of some of the ones I met while walking him:

1. Everyone is curious not just the cat: If you’ve ever walked your dog anywhere on the streets, you’d know that a 30 minute walk turns more just because you are stopped by random strangers who ask you all sort of questions about your pet. Some of them start with your dog’s breed and its “purity”, some with more inappropriate topics such as castration and finally some others make mating proposals for their own pets.
   
   
2. Your pet can be your worse and best wingman: Anyone who has ever walked a dog should be familiar with the flirtation that one can encounter on a “walk”-ly basis. While women are more subtle about it, some men actually would go as far as catcalling you with the worse pick-up lines one can think of while using your dog as an excuse. However, in rare cases, you are happy with the flirtation that you’re lucky you don’t have a tail to wiggle.
   
   
3. Dogs get their bad reputation from parents: I cannot stress enough on this one, as I heard it over and over again while walking my pet. Parents would instantly tell their children not to come near my dog or else he will bite them; which is not just completely wrong but would ultimately turn their children into dog hating adults.
   
   
4. Children are not your enemies: If you’re like me, and grew up with bullies, you’d be surprised with how fun they can be sometimes, given that their parents aren’t completely off track with the dog biting menace. I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun as I do when children gather around my pet and play with him. Certainly, my pet gets a bit irritated because of all the shouting and the laughter but yet he is always happy with all the attention that he’s getting.
   
   
5. My new walk friends: I’m not the friendliest and you can judge me if you want to but I have to confess that I used my dog to make friends. Other dog owners who I regularly see walking my pet now became friends or “Priends” as my boyfriend likes to call them. Now we might not meet up for any other purpose since we do not have anything else in common, but we do go on play dates and walks.
   
   
6. The scared & scarred: I have to admit, it’s always entertaining to see a grown man scared of a 5 months old pet. I cannot say that the reactions have always been funny, since some people would start shouting and cursing but the walks are always more amusing if you come across people who flip at the sight of your dog. The most annoying are people who want you and your dog at least 100 meters away for no apparent reason.