Who's a clever boy, then? You are! Yes you are!

The average Englishman will assiduously avoid social interaction with his fellow humans and will generally become awkward and aggressive when obliged to communicate with them, unless certain props and facilitators are available to help the process along. He will have no difficulty, however, in engaging in lively, amicable conversation with a dog. Even a strange dog to whom he has not been introduced. ... You see, the English really are quite capable of Latin-Mediterranean warmth, enthusiasm and hospitality; we can be just as direct, approachable and emotive and tactile as any of the so-called 'contact cultures.' It is just that these qualities are only consistently expressed in our interactions with animals... the superior quality of our communication and bonding with animals can sometimes also have beneficial side effects on our relations with other humans. We can even manage to strike up a conversation with a stranger if one of us is accompanied by a dog, although it must be said that both parties are sometimes inclined to talk to the canine chaperone rather than address each other directly.

Kate Fox, Watching The English.

Kate has, once again, hit the nail on the head. Although I'm not a dog owner (but hope to be a cat keeper in the not-so-distant future), my first instinct on seeing a dog out for walkies is to smile at him/her -- and by extension at his owner. In England, this automatically elicits a smile in return. It would be rude not to, to such an extent that I rather believed that returning a smile was a human instinct -- perhaps part of the conditioning that we receive as children. However, this must be conditioning that Dutch children miss out on. People on the street simply do not respond to a friendly smile. Even if they have a dog. In fact, you're far more likely to get a scowl and a hint of aggression, as if you'd somehow indicated with your cheery greeting that you intend to kidnap their precious pup, molest it horribly, and then dump it in the nearest canal. Or maybe they think that I'm thinking that, yeah, that dog is cute, but clear up the not-so-cute crap it's leaving on my front door step. Who knows? All I do know is that I find this lack of civility, this removal of the essential oil of social interaction, depressing; I want to smile at puppies, maybe exchange a greeting with its owner, and then carry on about my business feeling a little better for having established some human/canine contact. Is that so much to ask?

Of course, that doesn't apply to the wild-haired loon with the poppety Jack Russell terrier who leered alarmingly at me after I smiled at his dog. Freak.