Dogs are like Marmite....

...you either love them or you hate them.
Maybe it's going a bit too far to say that I hate dogs, but I never really trust them. Some of my friends have dogs and I cope with having them around, providing they don't jump up and lick my face, but I just don't enjoy them.
Man has had a long association with dogs and I know that many are perfectly well behaved and are like one of the family. However, there are far too many dog owners who do not take their responsibilities seriously.
The amount of dog fouling in public parks is unpleasant, but the number of reports of dogs attacking people is horrifying. Just in the last week, a new born baby was killed by a Jack Russell, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Just type "dog kills baby" into Google and you will see a huge tragic list of such cases.
You may wonder what brought on this blog post. Well it was the annoyance I felt when a visitor to my house, someone I had not met before, turned up for a meeting with me, with their greyhound type dog. As a non dog-lover, I felt that that was out of order. I politely said that the dog could go into our courtyard garden, but then had to resist the emotional pressure put on me by the visitor saying, "He doesn't seem very happy out there."

I guess the thrust of what I feel is that people lose all sense of proportion when they have dogs.
How else could you explain the behaviour of my visitor?
How else could you explain the insensitivity of someone saying to you, "It's alright, she won't bite!" when their dog has cornered you on a public footpath, barking furiously?
How else could you explain a family allowing a dog to roam around freely when they have toddlers in the home?

I don't want to alienate my doggie friends, so apologies if I have hurt your feelings. But please do remember that your dog is, in fact, a dog.