Dog owners are a**holes

I had a date last night. I went to a woman's house, where I got to meet the family for the first time. I also got to meet the family dog. It was being kept quietly in a back room.

"Do you want to meet my dog?" "No thanks, that isn't really necessary." "Ok great! Here he comes!"

They had a huge dog which immediately upon seeing me starts barking furiously. Not a friendly curious bark, an aggressive, "I'm going to attack you" bark. And the family didn't think anything of it.

I went into another room, and closed the door. They came, opened the door so that the dog could come and follow me there. It jumped on me and barked into my face and growled aggressively. I had to ask the family many times for them to get it off me while I tried to block my face and tried to gauge the danger of the situation.

Eventually, they tie it in the other room where it proceeds to bark murderously for the entire duration of my stay. They would attempt to make conversation with me and I wouldn't be able to even hear their questions because of the ear-piercingly loud sound of a large dog barking murderously in a tiny high rise apartment.

The woman's response was to tell me "What's the matter with you? It's fine, don't worry." As if there is something wrong with ME for what's happening in this situation.

This type of scenario has happened to me almost every time I've ever visited the house of a friend with a dog - especially one that they kept inside. Outside dogs don't usually usually seem to bother with you, they notice you then they go off with their own business. But inside dogs are fucking atrocious. The dog is locked up somewhere, then they unlock the damn thing to "meet" me, where it barks murderously at me and growls or snaps at me, and the idiot owners refuse to do anything about it, or if anything, think there's something strange about the fact that I'm uncomfortable in these situations. They look at me as though I've wronged them for the fact that they've set their dog loose to attack me.

Once, it was a poodle that kept really trying to get up in my crotch. This makes me uncomfortable. When the dog tried to jump into my crotch, I would attempt to keep it away with my knee. This translated to the owner accusing me of "KICKING MY DOG!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!"

I've also noticed that the majority of people who post pictures of their dog on facebook are women who refer to their dog as their child. This type of dog owner is usually the worst because they are the least likely to do anything to control their dog when it attacks you, and are most likely to be offended at the fact that you don't want to be attacked by their dog. As if your discomfort at being attacked is a form of animal abuse. I also think there's something fundamentally creepy about referring to an animal as your child. What happens if you have an actual child then? "Suzy, dear, this is Spike, my first son and only other child than you. He is your equal. Don't get too close, he bites and I could never properly discipline my own flesh and blood and [apparently] fur. That's not what mommys do! Isn't that right my shnookums (proceeds to let the dog lick her half-open mouth right after the dog licked its own anus)

I am not actually against dogs. I had one as a child growing up, but ours behaved itself and was disciplined if it didn't. But I'm generally not interested in being attacked by other peoples' dogs and I consistently have the assumption that dog owners will have the basic civility to control their animal if it is harassing you. Nearly every single time I am disappointed in this fact because they nearly never do.

TLDR Dog owners are assholes.