THE Question

Why do people ask "Is your dog friendly?" as opposed to "Can I pet your dog?"...? (Is ?"? gramatically kosher? I don't know.)

Look people, I know what you mean when you ask me if my dog is friendly? It means you want to pet him. So why don't you ask if you can pet my dog? Because then this gives me the chance to say no when I see him obviously enter into his caraaazzyy zone. Part of it is on me because I never know what to say. I could say no, but I feel like that's just selling Ender short. He's friendly, but also so so crazy. But when I try to respond, I usually get as far as "He's friendly, but....." before they go in for the the kill.

I was putting Ender in a down to wait for a small white poodle to pass when the poodle owner asked if Ender was friendly. And my suspicious self knew what was coming so I blurted out "Not righ tnow!!" Which I think scared her a little bit. But it did mean that she rolled in some of the slack on her leash and did not let her dog wander over so I suppose I accomplished my intent.

Also, I don't understand why people insist on petting Ender when he's all jumpy crazy. Are people not scared when an 80 pound dog is jumping at their face?