More On Big Dogs in the 'Hood

Owning big dogs in the 'hood
Just moved to the 'hood and starved for conversation? Feeling lonely? Get a big dog or two. My wife and I can't take our dogs for a walk a block away without getting some sort of interesting comment from folks in the neighborhood.Here are some gems:
Are they spaded?
Got any puppies?
Can I buy your dogs?
Them Rockwilers? (They are in fact Rottweilers)
Them is some big-ass dogs!
You must be pretty important, to have protection like that!
Them Pit Bulls?
Are they mean?
Do they bite?
Pretty much people either are deathly afraid of them, or want to buy them, or often both. Hard to convince them that we treat our dogs like people, and have carefully socialized them to be good neighbors and ambassadors for the breed.
We have "halties" or no-pull trainers for them, which people immediately think are muzzles. To which I say "No, they could still bite you if they wanted to..."
It's a shame that so many people here have only been exposed to big dogs that aren't socialized. Even though our dogs wouldn't bite anything but a pork chop, people immediately assume they're voracious man-eaters. Not that I complain about our house being known by the bad guys as the one with the two big dogs. Or that the occasional person that makes us feel a bit uncomfortable will cross the street rather than pass our dogs on the same sidewalk.
We actually finally got a security system for our home a few months ago. The next day a couple police officers were on foot patrol on the block and stopped by to say hello--They saw the security system yard sign and said "You guys don't need a security system with dogs like this!"
It is refreshing, however, that the neighborhood kids love our dogs. A walk doesn't go by without a crowd of kids (Cole has the sweetest kids, at least until they grow up and get polluted by the pervasive negativity here) gathering around the dogs, petting them, and asking all kinds of questions. They often can't believe that our dogs are like family, and even sleep with us in bed. Guess they're again used to dogs used only for protection, and left chained to a pole in the back yard.
I hope that at least in some miniscule way we're helping these children come to know that many big dogs are sweethearts.