“River Would Not Go Over” — Woman Has Gut Feeling About Weird Guy at Park Confirmed by Her Dog

A woman said that her initial instincts about a strange man she found herself alone with at a dog park were all but confirmed by her own pet, River.

Amanda Jeanne (@.amandajeanne) posted a viral TikTok as a means of demonstrating how scary it can be for women to be out alone, but also to indicate that maybe pets can truly tell if someone is good or bad.

"This is literally the epitome of being a woman. I just took River to the dog park and it was just her and I. There were no other dogs there, no other people."

Initially, Amanda thought that she was just going to have the park to herself along with her pup. However, this turned out to not be the case.

"And this man and their dog come in and usually people at the dog park are like, we're all like, everbody's friendly, you're chit chatting. You're talking about your dog, you know, whatever."

However, this individual who arrived at the park shortly after Amanda wasn't following this typical dog park behavioral protocol the TikToker was used to.

"This man comes in, and he doesn't say like, 'Hi, how are you?' Like, just immediately is like, 'Oh how old is your dog?' And I said, six months. You know, whatever ... It's fine."

Although she couldn't put her finger on it, she said that she started getting a strange feeling from the fellow park visitor from the get-go.

"I was just getting a weird vibe, I don't know how to explain it. My gut was saying like, just pay attention. Not screaming at me."

Furthermore, the social media user says that her dog's attitude towards the man was different from the type of immediate affection she displays with others that she meets.

"And River is usually so friendly with other people, like always wants to go up to people. Actually, just prior to that, two people were there for like two minutes before they left. We had gotten there just as they were leaving. And River had gone over to say hi to both of these people."

As Amanda continued with her story, however, she stated that River treated this man entirely different than the previous folks at the park. This speaks to the old bit of wisdom, that's actually backed up by science, that animals can often detect whether or not someone has bad intentions.

The dog blog Wag Walking cited research that indicates dogs can often pick up on facial expressions and physical mannerisms fairly well, which betray folks with potentially bad intentions. This means that if you have a generally loving and happy-go-lucky dog, and they all of sudden don't like someone, there could be a good reason why.

Amanda went on: "But this man like got down and was like, 'Will you come say hi to me?' And River would not go over, like she came and sat right by my legs. Sat right there and was looking at him. And I was just like, that's weird. Then he like walks away, comes back again, and does the same thing again."

According to the TikToker, the man's repeated attempts at him trying to put himself in the dog's good graces also failed. "And he's like, 'Oh this reminds me of when I was single.' I was like, that was weird, like there's a weird comment but then I was like, you know what I'm freezing cold, it's so cold and like she was like running to the gate to go anyway."

Although she thought the comment was strange, Amanda explains it wasn't what prompted her to leave the dog park. Instead, she decided to make moves due to it being so cold outside. "So I was like we're just gonna leave. But then in my brain I thought to myself, oh no, this man is gonna think that we're leaving because of him."

After worrying about potentially hurting the dude's feelings, Amanda says she quickly caught herself realizing that yes, he is partially the reason why she's exiting the park and she shouldn't feel badly about that.

"You are kind of leaving because of him. I'm sure he's not anything crazy. He's probably just a little bit weird and like socially awkward maybe."

Ultimately, Amanda thought there was a good chance there was nothing wrong with the dude. She even chalked up his behavior to a simple matter of him being inept at social interactions. However, the TikToker still erred on the side of caution and left the dog park.

"But in off chance he was gonna do something, I'm feeling bad? I'm feeling bad because I don't want him to feel bad about himself that we're leaving because of him. And I'm like, that's ridiculous," she says at the end of the clip.

Additionally, in a caption for the post she further examined her reaction to being alone with the awkward stranger at the dog park. "Even editing this video I noticed how much I justified and tried to talk myself out of my gut feeling because I don’t want to make an assumption on someone’s character but I’ve been to the dog park countless other times in my life and have never had this feeling so? But ultimately glad we left. Being a woman is so fun!"

Numerous commenters who responded to Amanda urged her and others to "always trust your gut."

Someone else said that in potentially dangerous situations, one should never feel bad about offending another person. "Who cares what he feels! Take care of yourself. Period."

After all, if someone is sensitive to understanding why a woman alone with her dog can't understand why she may be on edge, is that really her problem?