Why are most dog owners fine with people petting their dogs?

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Dog trainers will confess that mostly what they do is to reassure the dog that some humans are sane, and train the owners.

With the understanding that different people are different about their preferences, from my experience with blind friends in a previous city of residence, it would be okay to say beautiful about their dog. The blind person will be aware that you the sighted person and they have different experiences of beauty.
I remember Chris and Tony telling me outright to stop being self conscious about saying things like that.



Good point.

Petting someone's cat - while some ways quite different from dogs there are some similarities in the situations which can come up.

While having had two family dogs during my childhood, a beagle then a collie, I've only had cats after being out on my own.
I don't take my 2 orange tabby fellows out on walks but people do come to my apartment although that is a different ballgame from being out on a leash on a walk in public.

After strokes and Alzheimers entered the picture around 2018-19 my parents no longer come to visit.
And Liz and Allen from creative writers group can't climb the steps.

But 'strangers' from the home care services company do come to my apartment.
And quite a large percentage of them have turned out to be 'animal people', for various and sundry sizes of animal, after all, this is out in midwestern farmland. So, they already 'get the concept'.

A lot of what is done depends on the cats' moods and how close they come on their own.
They have been allowed the power to make their own preferences apparent.

If for instance the homecare gal and I are standing beside the big chair nearest the apartment door in the living room and one of the G-men jumps on the back of the chair and leans out to sniff her sleeve, that is pretty close to being permission from the cat to pet the cat.

Likewise, if the cat gets near and the homecare gal holds out her hand and one or both of my cats approach and sniff or touch her hand, that too is pretty much permission from the cat to pet the cat, who seems to have recognized the gesture as a request.

And if the cat bunts her arm that is an outright invitation to be pet.

I don't recall any of them verbally asking if they can pet either of the G-men. It seems the ones where the cat has come within petting range have been by the cat's initiative, and the cat has made their desire and permission known.

If for instance the cat sits at hallway end looking across room at homecare gal (so far everyone has been a gal, there are guys who work for the company but they've not been assigned to me yet) that is a pretty clear indicator that the cat is not interested in pets at the moment.

Dog trainers and breeders are loopy