I’m with BobbyDog, I remove my dogs from the situation. I also won’t bring my dogs to situations where there are going to be non dog people (and yes, I totally understand the distinction and use it myself, often) with their dogs because im not interested in attempting to teach people who aren’t paying me to do so. I also have the opposite problem often with Dani, who does NOT like strange dogs up in her business, especially in the face. She will snap to show warning, which usually results in some <insert insult here> trying to tell me how their dog is just being friendly (read: poor mannered a$$) and my dog needs this or that. I just don’t bother anymore. I cross the street if a strange dog is going to cross my path and I can see them straining on the leash meaning they will try to greet my dog, and I skip dog parks because too many people think that’s “socialization”
Now in class, I get to tell people how it works, and the people running in to “save” their puppies from the others they think are bullying because they don’t understand behavior, get a nice lesson on watching dogs and what actions they are making truly do make their dogs uncomfortable. Without fail, almost every puppy class I do has at least one of these people, so it’s easy to work in.
When it comes to family-im lucky I guess because of how we grew up, everyone understands dog play, and we know who to keep away from who (My sister’s giant lug of a great dane/st Bernard mix and Dani) and generally things are fine. I recently got invited to a friend event however that everyone was bringing their dogs, and I opted Dani out of that one. Liesl too, just because I didn’t feel like dealing, but good thing, because a lot of them were untrained and playing rudely. I didn’t say anything, but had it been family, I probably would have. Maybe get some literature to give said uncle and aunt about dog signals so they can see what was actually going on, or opt to skip out on Bruno going with if the Yorkie would be there
