Man's Best Friend?

I know that many folk are very fond of dogs, but I'm afraid I'm not one of them. I can see that many dogs, like this one from hherbzilla, seem very affectionate, and are good companions on a long walk, but I've always found dogs to be rather smelly creatures that shed hair all over the place and damage your furniture.

Oddly enough, although I don't like dogs very much many of them seem to take a shine to me. One of the interesting aspects of General Practice is the fact that it gives you a reason to visit all sorts of different homes, literally from hovels to castles. Although a work colleague of mine has two Rottweilers and assures me that they are harmless, loving creatures, I tend to be more aware of their reputation for aggression. A home that I was visiting was about mid-way along the hovel-castle spectrum. It turned out to contain a Rottweiler, and this dog seemed to take a particular liking to me. It was very difficult to examine the child of the household because my canine "new best friend" was determined to have a good sniff at my genital area. Fond as I am of my testicles, I'm afraid my assessment of the child was far more perfunctory than usual. I did, however, emerge with my manhood intact!

Like all hobbies, however, some dog enthusiasts take dog ownership to obsessive levels. I suspect some of those individuals are represented in flickrDogs. What do you think?