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Dogs in Italy-Bow Bow
Italians love their dogs. Everyone has one--probably 1/10 people walking has a dog with them. They go everywhere with them: to the electronics store, the main piazza as they stroll, the artisan deli, the hair salon, the grocery store (where they’re tied up on a rail in the front of a store). I’ve seen one place where you couldn’t bring a dog, Vodafone internet, and even they had a sign saying “We’re sorry, your dog friend can’t come with you” (I’ll snap a picture if I remember). No one gives people crap for having a dog with them, or bringing them inside (including this one dog that was sitting in the grocery and yodeling as he waited for his mom to finish shopping).

These dogs are incredibly well trained--occasionally Natalie and I will hear a dog bark, and it’s a big event. They walk at their master’s feet, not ahead of them. They quietly wait for their master at the front of the store, extremely docile. While their master is in the store, they walk around unleashed, often leaving the store to go sniff things, and never minding any human they see on the street (which terrifies me, as I see all these stray dogs with collars and run up, trying to see if they‘re lost, and they don‘t even look at me and eventually wander back to their mom). When they see people, they don’t rush up to them or pull on their leash, or have to sniff every tree, or freak out when they see another dog. And no one pets the dogs. This is extremely disconcerting to a certain girl who squeals at the site of every dog. A very young puppy, still being trained, ran up to us in the Milan train station, and suddenly 6 of us converged on it, petting it, cooing, being happy to act normal with a dog. This only occurred because it was so young.

The people aren’t quite as well trained as their dogs. The dogs can pee anywhere (including, say, an important statue of the founder of a city), and you have to keep your head down when you walk to watch out for packages. They dress their dogs in the most ridiculous clothes (I love Italy shirt? Sure! Windbreaker with an ironic fur collar? WHY NOT!). Claudio’s dog is a Chihuahua that generally has TWO LAYERS of clothes on, like a person would. Here, people really do treat their pets like children.