‘My corgi is not a tourist attraction – stop blowing kisses and waving at her’

A corgi owner has vented her frustrations at strangers coming up to her to pet her dog without her permission – she ended up being ‘verbally abused’ on the streets after asking somebody to stop

While Queen Elizabeth II made corgis one of the UK’s most popular breeds, not everybody has been enjoying their boost in popularity following her death. A corgi owner has been left feeling frustrated at the ‘flocks of people’ who have been stopping her in the street to stroke her dog or who have been distracting her pet when she is trying to take her on a walk.

Speaking to Reddit, the woman explained how she has ended up in arguments with strangers who have reached out to pet her corgi without her permission – including somebody who tried to stroke her dog while the pooch was doing her business.

The 22-year-old said: “I have a corgi and, as you might imagine, everyday I walk my dog I get strangers blowing kisses, whistling, yelling ‘oh my god look – a corgi’, to the point where my dog hears ‘corgi’ and she knows it’s her.

“At first this was cute and all, but when you walk your dog everyday it starts to get a little bit annoying since they want to pet her.”

Claiming it didn’t bother her at first, the woman reached her wits’ end when people started stretching their hand out to pet her dog to the point where she “had no other choice but to hit their hand away”.

“My dog is super friendly and will give you cute eyes and the bum wiggles if you are showing interest in her so it makes it extra hard for me to get them to understand that I do not want to be approached,” she added.

“I will loudly say, ‘let’s go’ or ‘no’, my dog gets the cue but it seems people do not.

“I was out with family, figuring out where to go. My dog, is right in front of me in a tight leash laying down taking a break, and I can hear the classic ‘corgi’ several times behind me.

“I ignored it since it was so busy that I believed they would keep walking. Regardless, as I am still discussing directions, a random girl ran to us, from behind, through the crowd and just went right in to pet her.”

Fed up with people doing what they like to her dog, the woman snapped at the girl, shouting: “My dog isn’t a tourist attraction”.

Admitting she felt like a “dog Grinch” when having this reaction, she added: “It truly seems like my dog is just a little toy to them, that they can come to and do as they please. Not a hello or an attempt to look at my face.

“She repeated what I had said with a question ‘your dog came to me’ which was a lie, my dog only stood up and looked (as anyone would do if you were yelling at them).

“I said, ‘you could have come and asked me first if you could pet her or not’.

“That’s when the verbal abuse began. She called me a b**** which I will admit it is a bit fair. I said OK. It didn’t end there. Ugly c***, b****. It lasted about two minutes.

“I just kept saying ok, and telling her to walk off. I genuinely don’t understand how she could not even contemplate ‘hey, the person I approached uninvited is allowed to be displeased’ up until she gave up and walked away.”

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