Being misunderstood is the norm

Three-year-old “pandemic baby” Phoebe is still trying to find acceptance in the community according to her owner Xiaoming Huang.

While she’s “the loveliest big little girl”, Ms Huang said she was often misunderstood by others as Phoebe’s breed brought its own challenges.

“She’s obviously a German Shepherd and she’s very intimidating to look at. We’ve got a lot of neighbours who get intimidated by her!” Ms Huang said, adding that larger dog breeds were often treated unfairly by other pet owners.

“One of the problems we have, along with other big dogs, is that the smaller dog owners don’t like it when we are interacting with them,” she said.

“But they’re just the nicest dogs; just like any little dog. But because of their size they can be intimidating. There are only limited areas in Docklands where dog owners can go and sometimes when the big dogs come around, the small owners don’t like it.”

“Some of the time it’s for the right reasons because some of the big dogs can be quite rough, but she [Phoebe] alone is very misunderstood.”

Phoebe has brought light to the community by being a gentle giant and is surprisingly low maintenance.

“She will never attack anyone, she’s very loving and very well socialised,” Ms Huang said.

“She’s very easy to deal with, even though she’s a big dog she doesn’t have as much energy as a lot of people think, so she sleeps for 50 per cent of the day.” •