Dog attacking child - not stopping to help

Have you even read OP's updates?

The child screamed once. We don't even know if he got more than a nip. The parents started screaming abuse at OP, who wisely removed herself and her dogs from the scene, and called police.

None of your claims about her being "ice cold" have any relation to what happened.

You know you did the best thing by getting your dogs out of the way. But they were scared and shocked and I wouldn't blame them for just calling out to who ever was passing. Hope the child was OK and you can put it behind you.

So I wish you all a speedy recovery and hope you're never in need of help in public.

Yes, she mentioned the dog turning/jumping at the child in response to the hug, and the child briefly screaming - it could have been from fright as much as anything else.

I feel sorry for the collie in this situation, he or she is obviously scared and not being at all well cared for.

@WickedSerious thank you.
I will never understand how on mumsnet things get really nasty if you disagree with the majority.
I'm allowed my opinion and I maintain thus behaviour is wrong and it's bad that so many people think its not.
Knowing a child was being attacked and not even checking they're OK is ice cold behaviour and it's now the norm in society.

We don't even know if the child was hurt.

His own family dog jumped up at him, the OP did the right thing & carried on away from them. Taking her dogs away from the drama

all she saw was their dog jumping up on the child. Potentially a lot of fuss over nothing.

'Sick','sad' and 'shocked'?

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

@AnxiousRabbit

if you ever want to change your vote all you need to do is tap on the other option. It'll change it & you can see it change the %.

If you are not involved, then don’t get involved.

I have a large, dog-reactive dog. (She was attacked by two fighting Pittbulls when she was two. She was being walked by my son who was ten and didn’t know what to do but stood between him and these dogs -who were being egged on by their feral owners. It was all on video and they ended up being destroyed by police.) *I screamed at him to drop her lead and grabbed him and ran out of the melee and phoned the police.
Now she is ten and she feels the need to protect everyone except my husband, so only he can walk her. He tends to walk her late at night and early in the morning and avoids parks etc. of course there are still dickheads with off leash oodles where we live saying “Don’t worry it’s friendly” while their fluffy little floof is bouncing right up in my dog’s face until she loses her mind. Or the gits on bikes with the border collie that follows them around the suburbs - that I found in our kitchen. I had to lock our dog outside… Unfair!

I really hate that it’s become the norm for morons to have dogs. And why people with children by dogs that are not family friendly I’ll never know.

YANBU though as 9 times out of 10 I do stop when I see an injury in public and check the person is OK, sometimes it’s a case of “I’d just get in the way” or “I’d just put myself in danger”. Or both. In those cases it’s fine to walk on by. You did nothing wrong.

There was a thread not long ago by a poster who worked in a large open plan office and her colleagues had an asthma attack. There were 5 or so colleagues helping and speaking to emergency services on the phone so OP carried on working because it was either work or stare at what was happening, which isn’t useful. She got a load of grief from her colleagues and I felt so sorry for her. I think people expect everyone in the vicinity to panic and flap around when these things happen but it just isn’t helpful to behave that way

There were two adults there.
I would bet my house on there also being 2 mobiles.
So the adults present were capable of dealing with the situation they had created.

You are right, there is a significant overlap. And the subcategory 'people who don't bother to train their dogs' seems to get larger every year.

Exactly this.

If people know their dog is dodgy, they have a responsibility to keep it under control in a public place, not on one of those yards long leads, or else muzzled.
(I have a shepherd type who is as socialised as I can get her, but she is very wary and watchful, and she doesn’t like being approached by anyone or anything she doesn't know. She is muzzled in public.)

Having said that, the parents should have trained their child not to approach strange dogs, too.

I couldn’t believe that the owners just kept repeatedly watching their dogs come over and be a pain and just think that that was ok; for both me as someone relaxing and for my dog
In their minds their fur children are generously making friends with a fur child who has no playmate.
What's really happening is that their small pack of dogs is menacing you & your dog!
They wear the rose coloured specs and exist in a gold sparkly bubble when it comes to their pets🤬

If ONLY !!

Haven't read more you weren't being unreasonable

You did the right thing. Who knows what could have happened if you intervened; your dogs quite likely could have also intervened and there could have been carnage.

i think you could tell that, although the child’s dog went for him, that he wasn’t being ’seriously attacked’ and I think if the child was clearly being seriously mauled then your natural instincts would have kicked in and you would have gone to help. I think that’s what I would have done in this scenario anyway

I was at the beach yesterday with my dog and my friend and her dog, we had had a lovely two hour walk and then set up our wind breaker and towels and sat and ate our picnic. My dog is fine off lead but when we were eating, he was on the lead and I was holding on to it.

3 labs (mine also a lab) kept repeatedly coming up to where we were sitting and bothering my lab. After the 3rd time of them coming up (trampling all over our towels etc), he snapped at them. The 4th time he he really reacted to them (didn’t bite or anything but seriously seriously warned them off) and it was at that point I got up and shouted to the owners to call their dogs back cos they wouldn’t leave mine alone (I admit I swore cos it was 4 times they came up and they were being a pain; friendly but a pain). I couldn’t believe that the owners just kept repeatedly watching their dogs come over and be a pain and just think that that was ok; for both me as someone relaxing and for my dog

Laughing at the idea of a pug in a muzzle. You are frankly ridiculous.

OP did call the police, she posted that at 09:55 this morning.

"I rang the police when I got back to my car and reported the attack."

I’d throw in ‘if you are not confident to administer first aid.’ If an injured child was with their parents I’d hope a bystander with first aid training would off the child assistance regardless of any other factors.

I think you did the right thing, OP. The presence of your dogs could have kept the border collie is a heightened state; by removing the dogs and yourself from the scene you helped prevent it from escalating.

Your OH obviously has faith in your dogs' training, but you are right to hold that "dogs are still dogs". And alerting the police - would the parents have done so? I think not, so again you took the necessary action.

In your indiagenece you have forgot that dogs that attack people and other dogs are often cited by their owners as "lovely" dogs, that is until the attack in many cases not all but enough

HTH

A dog attacking a child is an emergency. At the very least you should have called the police. Better to call them and stand them down if not needed, than the dreadful alternative.

Yes I am being serious. In your indignance at my differing opinion, you skipped the bit where I said if your dog is aggressive it shouldn't be out in public. That covers your scenario. The most aggressive dogs (as in dragging owners to attack) I've ever encountered on walks are labs - really not a fan to be honest. Those particular dogs should not have been out in public.