Co-presence without communication: tactics for avoiding verbal interaction with dog owners while walking your dog

Abstract

The article examines strategies for avoiding unwanted verbal interactions with dog owners while walking dogs. The study is based on the author’s autoethnographic experience and interviews with “introverted” dog owners. The discussion focuses on five tactics aimed at reducing the level of social discomfort of the “introverted dog owner”: actively commenting on your dog’s actions, physically distancing yourself from the dog’s play area, using a mobile phone, wearing headphones, and phatic communication. Particular attention is paid to the paradoxical effectiveness of the first of these tactics — verbal interaction with the dog as a way of “avoiding” conversations with people. The article also analyzes practices of legitimizing the termination of dog play, reflecting the perception of dogs as creatures with moral status and autonomous desires. It is concluded that none of the described tactics is universal, and their success depends on situational factors.  

For citation: Kotelnikov, M. (2026) Co-presence without communication: tactics for avoiding verbal interaction with dog owners while walking your dog. Russia’s Directions. Vol. 4. No. 3. P. 80–95.

Additional Info

Submitted: June 2, 2026

Reviewed: July 8, 2026

Copyright: © Auhtors, 2026

Distribution: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)