Dog attacking child - not stopping to help

Do you know how injured the child was?

The collie was IMO obviously reacting to your dogs has then redirected because the child grabbed it, how on earth would bringing your dogs closer help?

There’s nothing you could have done to help other than get your dogs further away...which us what you did.

Chances are the dog would have turned on you, you being the outsider. I would have kept well clear unless I had a big stick or something to defend myself if necessary. Your dogs would have got involved if you were attacked and then it would have been a real melee.

Probably won't make any difference, but for those whose comprehension skills are inhibited by it being Sunday morning;

The dog walkers with the Collie were the ones who had a go at OP. They and their child - who was the one who grabbed the dog and got attacked - were the only people on the beach apart from OP and her two off-lead dogs that were not involved in the incident at all.

There were no separate bystanders. There was no other child.

Is it possible that the abusive bystanders assumed that the collie was yours?

When it was on a long lead held by someone else?

Honestly, the knots some people tie themselves up in on here trying to find explanations is ridiculous at times.

And as for the person who suggested she tied her dogs up somewhere before going to help, I'm not sure angry and attacking dogs wait for people to walk up to a post, tree, fence, whatever, allow them time to tie their dogs up securely and return to the scene before continuing with their attack.

Some replies are ridiculous.

The first thing they teach you in first aid is to not her yourself in danger. Your partner wasn't there so it's easy for them to argue you should have helped

I personally think you did the right thing. Your dogs could have been attacked, or the situation could have escalated even worse.

I voted YANBU.

People ae full of what they would have done after the fact when it was someone else's judgement call to make.

If you'd gone over, firstly, there would have been little you could do when two adults were already involved and, secondly, you'd have been introducing more dogs to the situation with an already aggressive dog.

That would have only escalated the situation.

Ah OK, thanks. I was confused as other posters seemed to think it was a different child.

I misread and thought the child was theirs too. Yanbu to intervene- the owners were dealing with it.

IMO the dog had attack its owners child and if it’s going to do that then I am not going near it.

Pretty obvious

YANBU, there is nothing positive that you could have added by intervening in that situation, where the dog in question clearly had issues with you/your dogs.

What you could have done was maybe shout from a distance to see if everything was OK and did they need you to do anything.

No doubt the parents will be at home saying the attack came out of nowhere, there were no warning signs, never done anything like that, the dog just flipped - as they always do 🙄

I hope the child is OK though

Hang on, am I understanding this right? The border collie reacted to its owners' child grabbing it, and the owners abused you for not intervening? The whole scenario is bizarre.

I'm confused about the child too, is it the 8/9 year old mentioned in OP or a different child and parents? If so, what were the dog owners doing?

It's not clear what level of attack you're talking about here but you had dogs & the collie appears to have been triggered by them (not your fault), how could you have approached? It does come across as a little cold that you didn't, from afar, check if things were OK etc.

I'm curious about their situation though, reactive collies don't tend to attack their unit out of the blue so either it's done this before or it's a rescue & they are really crap owners. I have a reactive collie & NOTHING my kids could do would make him bite them, absolutely nothing. A wild kid? Wouldn't even risk it to find out.

So I think you might have been unnecessarily cold & they shouldn't have a dog. Hope the kid is alright :(

Just to be clear, you are talking about killing the dog but pushing a ball point pen into the brain, correct?

Lots of skirting around in your post.

Was the child who was bitten the dogs family or was it another child passing by?
I think you did nothing wrong - what were you expected to do with 2 dogs of your own? you could have made things worse

The dog was reacting to your dogs! How would you going over have helped!

I'd have rang 999 if it looked like the parents didn't have control.

Poor kid, poor dog.

YANBU to walk away.

For what it's worth I called the police in an almost identical situation. On the beach and another family had a dog which first attacked and bit my on lead dog and then in the melee bit it's owner. She had a five year old with her and she had bought the dog in a pub the week before.

The police could not have been less interested. They said it was nothing to do with them and said we could report it to the dog warden 'if we wanted' so we did but they only had a answer phone and they never got back to us.

She gaveus all her details so I ended up going on her Facebook and working out her son's school from her photos and I rang them and did a safeguarding report about the little boy.

Those abusing you for walking away clearly a) watched you walk away and therefore b) witnessed the attack?

If they were that bothered they could and should have stepped in themselves.

I would have kept back too. Introducing more dogs closer to an already very agitated dog would likely have exacerbated the situation.
You contacted authorities when you could practically do so. I would however have hovered at a safe distance in case an ambulance needed to be contacted or medical assistance was needed.

The parents were likely taking their upset and frustration out on you rather than examining their own shortcomings.

Is it possible that the abusive bystanders assumed that the collie was yours?

It is possible to permanently stop a dog by using an everyday object such as a ballpoint pen - if a dog has its jaws clamped round someone else's limb and you press the pen deep into a dog's eye socket you will end the attack immediately and forever; however it takes enormous attitude and emotional fitness to be able to do this; I'm not sure whether I'd be able to do it, especially if I didn't know the other parties involved