I do about 90% of my yoyoing in public mostly on my way back and forth from work . I have to ride a ferry that takes 30 min each way . This is a great time for me for the most part . I really like to listen to my music and practice . I love it when people stop to watch , until they make that motion asking me to take out my ear-buds to talk about yoyo . I don’t mind answering questions and talking yoyos . But I’d much rather not loose out on the time I have to practice .
And then like clockwork every time comes up the dreaded walk the dog . I usually just say I don’t want to scratch up my yoyo . But most wont leave it at that , some are very insensitive that I must walk the dog for them, just once . Maybe I’ll start telling them the yoyo I use can’t do walk the dog and it’s only possible with a Duncan imperial . Or may be It’s the 1 trick I can’t seem to learn .
Yuggles don’t know from different tricks. Tell them you don’t own a dog but that you can walk your pigeon. Then walk the pigeon on your arm.
I’m sure you’ve met more persistent people than me, but I’ve found “I can, but it doesn’t work with this yoyo” works out well for me. Then I do an arm grind and they’re satisfied. 
Just say, “would you drag you $100 phone across pavement by a string?”
Not without a bearing i won’t
Nah, involving them in understanding why we don’t walk our $100 yoyos just creates a longer conversation than you need and opens them up to judging you for having such an expensive yoyo.
“It doesn’t work with (or ‘I can’t do it with’) this yoyo” doesn’t seem to invite much probing. I had one conversation about friction and hard surfaces with a guy… he quickly lost interest in that line of questioning and enjoyed my arm grind and gondola.
Just say “Sure… ON MY ARM!” Then do an arm grind climb, that’s what I do 
““Nah, involving them in understanding why we don’t walk our $100 yoyos just creates a longer conversation than you need and opens them up to judging you for having such an expensive yoyo.””
It’s very funny that we get such crazy reactions about yoyo prices from people waring $150 NIKE s , $30 t-shirt $90 jeans and are paying over $120 a month because the have to have the latest cellphone . The us dollar just isn’t worth what it used to be .
Got arrogant on them J/K. But at work one time they asked me to walk the dog and my reply I thought was epic. Asking me to walk the dog would be like asking Michael Jordan on the court to do a granny shot for you. Humor its above use. But I have been falling in love with my delrin severe so that been going in public with me the most. I dont mind it hiting the ground. Also on stairs I like to grind hand rails with it. So I don’t mind to walk the dog with it.
Just do it and leave them in awe.
Just do an arm grind, say it has evolved or something…
When I’m using my classic, I throw it down and walk the frikin dog and I just walk it away with it still on the ground and if it stops I give it a little tug so they don’t notice from so far away. Then I just turn a corner and wind it back up and I yoyo over there. If someone asks to walk the dog, I pull out my classic and walk the dog back to my original spot.
“This Dog Don’t walk.”
Also: Delrin Severe ftw.
Just carry a cheap plastic or a MagicYo, they play very well and are less than $20.
Walking the dog doesn’t do nearly as much damage as we tend to think, unless the rims are completely horizontal, only the very tip of one side of the yoyo will get some marks with each dog walking.
I carry my first metal the Zen 4 with me every where and ding the crap out of it so I don’t care if people ask me to walk the dog I do it no matter what surface
then when they say “why would you pay $100 for a yoyo???” You can say “why do people pay $500 for a cell phone when they can get a different one for $10???”
[quote=“Logi,post:15,topic:56621”]
Sure. The conversation could continue in a friendly way… but my experience is that usually a game of one-upsmanship ensues and it becomes a thinly-veiled and uncomfortable debate.
I’d rather be showing yoyo tricks!
[quote=“GregP,post:16,topic:56621”]
I just walk the dog.
Just tell them you’re a cat person.
[quote=“nardcopter,post:17,topic:56621”]
Well, that’s begging the question, though. The premise revolves around the OP not wanting to walk the dog.
If I have the right yoyo, I’ll walk the dog no problem. Not very afraid of dings, me. But I don’t go out of my way to walk the dog on pavement or tiles, either. There’s a hazy line.
But since the premise is, “what if I don’t want to?”, to me the simplest and most direct polite decline is the safest bet. No point having a whole conversation about the merits of $100 yoyos when all you’re really saying is, “I don’t want to or can’t walk the dog.”
[quote=“GregP,post:19,topic:56621”]
In that case, I think the arm grind will be your safest bet. I used to say that walking the dog is a hard trick I haven’t mastered yet 
it’s amazing how oblivious some yuggles are.