Of all the various groupings of people I encounter in public, of all the ways of labelling and sorting people into socio-economic or sporting or whatever groupings, dog owners seem to be one of the most unaware or wilfully obtuse.
It’s a stereotype, it’s a tarring with the same brush, it’s a generalisation, but it proves to be correct more times than not.
It’s got to the stage that I will stop and thank people who have well behaved dogs, because they are the exception rather than the rule.
I now ride near groups of people or single people who have dogs off leads with the clear and certain expectation that their dog will not respond to commands and will get in my way. I don’t blame the dogs.