Man snaps at dog owners after dog sniffs his ankles, they say 'don't be so rude.'

The world is split into two types of people. People who want to stop and pet every dog, and people who get annoyed when a dog gets in their space. In order to live alongside each other, we must all communicate clearly and try to find compromises when needed.

Sadly, this is easier said than done.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he was wrong for saying he's 'not friendly' when a dog came up to him at a restaurant.

He wrote:

AITA for telling someone I'm not friendly when their dog came up to me?

Went to a brewery restaurant with my wife. Our name was called and to get to our table indoors we had to cut through the patio. We got stopped for a few moments behind a table leaving and saying goodbye. In those moments, a lab type dog gets up and starts sniffing my ankles. I look at the owners and say what the hell? and point at the dog.

They just say the classic line of 'oh don't worry, he's friendly.' I admit I was a touch rude, I just say, 'I'm not friendly.' They pull the dog back under the table. They start saying if you aren't friendly you shouldn't be coming to a dog friendly restaurant. I tell them just because the place is dog friendly doesn't mean that its okay for your dog to come up to me. I don't want it in my f#$king space.

They seem baffled that someone didn't like their dog. He called me an @$$hole and told me to find somewhere else to walk. I say f#$k off as we head to our table. My wife was like you're right, but could have been friendlier. Was i the @$$hole?

Edit FYI: Indoors is not dog friendly. Outdoors is dog friendly. My wife and I specifically chose indoor seating because it was not dog friendly.

People were very opinionated about this dog dynamic.

Budge1025 wrote:

ESH - they could've kept the dog closer to them, you didn't have to be such an AH about it.

coffeemom23 wrote:

YTA, you were hostile from beginning to end of this interaction. You could have asked them politely but chose to be rude for no reason.

ETA: to people commenting that some people have PTSD/trauma related to dogs that could justify such a strong reaction, do you seriously think OP wouldn't have included that in his post if it were true of him? He knows he was 'a touch' rude in his first reaction, and the whole interaction spiraled from there.

BodyBy711 wrote:

YTA, you were passing by their table and got held up by another party and a dog sniffed your ankles and you proceeded to be an @$$hole. If the dog charged at you, jumped on you, growled at you etc sure, tell them to control their dog. But you entered the dog's space, and were a dick about it. Sniffing at you is hardly out of control, get a grip.

aVerySpecialHunt wrote:

NTA - Dogs should not approach strangers without the strangers consent and it is on the dog owner to control their dog in public. ‘It’s ok, he’s friendly’ is the phrase of a bad dog owner who doesn’t control their pup. This one is on the owners. Having said that, you probably didn’t have to be so rude about it.

Remarkable_Inchworm wrote:

'It's OK, he's friendly' is an @$$hole thing that far too many dog owners say.

It doesn't matter if the restaurant is dog friendly. It's unreasonable to expect the entire world to want your fur baby in their collective lap. I may be extra sensitive to this because I get the 'it's OK, he's friendly' treatment all the time from people walking their own dogs and trying to approach mine.

Mine is blind and gets nervous around other dogs / unfamiliar people...she's always on a leash and wears a harness that says 'ask to pet' and still some knuckleheads want to get all up in her face with their dogs. I love dogs. Dog owners leave a lot to be desired. NTA.

People still cannot agree on a verdict, which means your opinion is needed in the comments below.