I haven't taken it to be confrontational, but after doing dog evaluations for rescue and seeing this situation over and over again, and then working at my local shelter and seeing it there over and over again it is definitely the exception that if someone is truly against the idea that they will have a radical change of opinion.
On the other hand, if the person is really more on the fence but with a leaning to one side, often they can change their mind. Or if the person is gradually exposed to the opposing view.
As an example, when I was in high school, I very much wanted a purebred dog. I wanted to do junior handling, 4-H and all of that. I had researched breeds and dragged my mom to dog shows and we went to breeder's houses. At that time my mom just couldn't understand the whole thing about the price, the care, etc. As much as I wanted that, there was no amount of information, bargaining, convincing that I could do to get my mom to understand.
When I moved out on my own I got my purebred dog and he would go with us on vacation and my mom would come and watch me show him and over time she came to understand and appreciate that different point of view. So much so that when she moved to Southern California and was missing having family around and didn't have enough to keep her busy that she decided to give dog showing a try. By then even my dad's view of dogs had changed since he was one who said, never will a dog be in my bed and yet the first night Cole was there he was in the bed because "the poor puppy was cold". It was because their attitude had changed gradually as they interacted with my dogs and saw the difference in quality of life my dogs had that they came around even though all the ways I tried when I was in high school didn't work.
It involves a mother and son pulling the phone cable out from the siding, and chewing it in various places. Hard to blame that on the phone company!</the>
