What if the small dog has a gun?
FTR, I thought I was making the point that just as you would be wary of a gun owner who started waving a pistol around, assuring you that it was unloaded, you should be wary of the dog owner that assures you their dog never bites, as said dog is eyeing you with hackles raised.
Any dog is capable of biting. There is a continuum from completely unprovoked attacks to only under extreme provocation, but they are all capable of it. The thing is, unless you have an extremely well trained animal, you can’t predict whether your dog will be unperturbed or scared and defensive if you put them is a noisy, vibrating metal tube with all sorts of random people, smells, and movement around them.
I’m not afraid of dogs. I get along fine with dogs and had dogs as a child. However, I do remember being bitten by my grandparents spaniel when I was a toddler. I also remember, just before being bitten, playing with him and pulling on his ears as hard as I could. So that dog was probably on the “never bites” end of the spectrum until he encountered me. Yet, he ended up biting.
Every cyclist will tell you stories of dogs that “would never bite” chasing them and trying to do SOMETHING to your feet or pedals. And that’s a dangerous situation.
SOME dog people seem to live in fantasy land where everyone who doesn’t give their dogs the latitude that no one would give a toddler is a “hater”.
My childless/“childfree” brother and sister in law would be pissed at my parents because they wouldn’t include their dogs in their list of grandchildren in their Christmas card newsletter thingy!
Unfortunately there’s going to be a correlation between over-indulgent pet owners and those insisting on taking them on planes.