If you can step back cognitively and see it’s your own pre-existing expectations, then yeah, I can absolutely see this. As an American, when I visited Paris, my preconceived notion of dogs in Paris sort of unavoidably meant, “my dogs, or dogs I know, in Paris.” My dogs are reasonably well socialized for a suburban American introvert’s dogs, but they would be an absolute menace in Paris.
They pull on the leash because they spend most of their outside time in the backyard or with their heads out the car window, so walkies is a special occasion, for good or for ill. They are obsessed with every new person until that person has moved on. Sitting calmly at a cafe has happened once or twice, but it takes a bit to get them used to it. One of them is a bit weird about new foot textures he hasn’t dealt with. Everything about Paris is different from their everyday life, and much of it is different from my everyday life. To a certain extent, it would be the same in any pedestrianized urban area, but Paris is also so aesthetically distinct.
So, to see dogs just doing their thing, confident and happy, barking at neighbors from a 130-year old wrought iron balcony railing instead of through a cedar fenceboard, accompanying their owner for daily outdoor market shopping instead of being told they can’t come this time because I’ll be getting out of the car, or walking through that crushed-limestone surface Paris seems to like for their parks (unlike any city I’ve been to in the US), all of that endows the dogs with a certain “Frenchness” that will seem weird until you parse it. It’s amplified if the owner’s sense of style or affect strikes an American’s eye, or even their subconscious, as distinctively French.
One of the greatest joys of my life is being able to take my dog out with me in public because he’s very well behaved. Not perfect, but 95% there. The last 5% is the golden excitement over people and comes out when someone excitedly fusses over him (think leaning over him squeeing excitedly and talking to him in baby voice) and he forgets his manners and jumps up trying to hug them. If people act normal, he’s completely normal, chill and well mannered. He goes with me to all sorts of places like the hardware store, craft store, the liquor store, and out to eat at various restaurants with patios. I WISH we had a culture around dogs closer to France, because I think dogs would benefit greatly from it. Instead of being left at home they could be out living lives with their humans. Unfortunately that would put greater responsibility on owners to train their pups. Instead, we just ban dogs from most places because it’s easier for the businesses to not have to put up with entitled assholes and their untrained dogs. It’s sad.
I think most dog guardians in the USA are just poorly prepared. Never been to basic obedience training, or further than that: urban canine training. Socializing the pup doesn’t happen, so they freak out at the sight of another living thing. Leash optional when no one is looking. Or, even worse, the dog basically lives inside the kennel when the human is out, so it’s more like a prisoner/warden relationship.
If you can step back cognitively and see it’s your own pre-existing expectations, then yeah, I can absolutely see this. As an American, when I visited Paris, my preconceived notion of dogs in Paris sort of unavoidably meant, “my dogs, or dogs I know, in Paris.” My dogs are reasonably well socialized for a suburban American introvert’s dogs, but they would be an absolute menace in Paris.
They pull on the leash because they spend most of their outside time in the backyard or with their heads out the car window, so walkies is a special occasion, for good or for ill. They are obsessed with every new person until that person has moved on. Sitting calmly at a cafe has happened once or twice, but it takes a bit to get them used to it. One of them is a bit weird about new foot textures he hasn’t dealt with. Everything about Paris is different from their everyday life, and much of it is different from my everyday life. To a certain extent, it would be the same in any pedestrianized urban area, but Paris is also so aesthetically distinct.
So, to see dogs just doing their thing, confident and happy, barking at neighbors from a 130-year old wrought iron balcony railing instead of through a cedar fenceboard, accompanying their owner for daily outdoor market shopping instead of being told they can’t come this time because I’ll be getting out of the car, or walking through that crushed-limestone surface Paris seems to like for their parks (unlike any city I’ve been to in the US), all of that endows the dogs with a certain “Frenchness” that will seem weird until you parse it. It’s amplified if the owner’s sense of style or affect strikes an American’s eye, or even their subconscious, as distinctively French.
One of the greatest joys of my life is being able to take my dog out with me in public because he’s very well behaved. Not perfect, but 95% there. The last 5% is the golden excitement over people and comes out when someone excitedly fusses over him (think leaning over him squeeing excitedly and talking to him in baby voice) and he forgets his manners and jumps up trying to hug them. If people act normal, he’s completely normal, chill and well mannered. He goes with me to all sorts of places like the hardware store, craft store, the liquor store, and out to eat at various restaurants with patios. I WISH we had a culture around dogs closer to France, because I think dogs would benefit greatly from it. Instead of being left at home they could be out living lives with their humans. Unfortunately that would put greater responsibility on owners to train their pups. Instead, we just ban dogs from most places because it’s easier for the businesses to not have to put up with entitled assholes and their untrained dogs. It’s sad.
Are you sure it isn’t like in the cartoons where the owners resemble the dogs and the dogs copy their owners’ mannerisms?
Actually, yeah, it’s probably just that.
I think most dog guardians in the USA are just poorly prepared. Never been to basic obedience training, or further than that: urban canine training. Socializing the pup doesn’t happen, so they freak out at the sight of another living thing. Leash optional when no one is looking. Or, even worse, the dog basically lives inside the kennel when the human is out, so it’s more like a prisoner/warden relationship.
What a great write up
The calluses, right?
Lemmy has great content, thanks to people like you, my friend