Dog nipped child

I think this is a big problem because so many owners want to take dogs everywhere they go. The dog gets put in a situation unsafe for him, and reacts. The dog pays the price for having an owner that didn't keep him safe. Yes the parents should teach a child not to run at a dog sure. But if the child was harmed badly the law is fully on the side of the child. All because he was put in a position he never should have been in.

if you aren’t in control of the dog it shouldn’t be out from now on. You have absolutely no excuse now that your dog has been aggressive (I don’t care why it was aggressive)

if you need to go to a shop leave the dog at home

Think you misread her reply, the op said "My dog has. O issues with people walking past", as in "my dog has zero issues". She said in another post as well that walking around the dog has always been fine. It was just how it was typed that I think made it easy to misread.

“Nip”? What does that mean. It’s not clear from your post. Is that a euphemism for “bite”?

Why the fuck does everyone need to take their dog everywhere wit them?!

As a dog owner I would never leave my dog unattended outside a shop
As a parent I would never let my child run up to an unattended dog

Both parties are to blame for what happened
Dog doesn’t need to be muzzled , child needs to be told it’s not ok to run up to any animal the way they did

Im sure both parties will learn a lesson from today

This or handing yourself to the police is overkill.

Your dog had a normal for-a-dog reaction to a surprise at speed invasion of their space by a stranger. It didn't sound as if they did bite, just bumped the kid's lip. You spoke to kid's mum. That's the end of the event.

I would now use a muzzle (a cage one so he can still pant, that's really important) when you're out of the home with him, and never leave him in a position where a stranger can approach him unattended again.

FWIW I think the muzzle is overkill but it's protecting yourself, him and strangers against what-if future events that probably won't happen.

The parents job is to keep their child under supervision and not allow them to approach potential dangers - including strange dogs, busy roads, sharp objects etc.

Batshit the amount of parents who would be ‘raging’ or ‘go apeshit’ due to their own parenting shortcomings.

Equally I would never leave my dog tied up outside a shop, not fair on the dog.

So both op and the child’s parents were at fault. Hopefully all adults will have learned from this and neither child nor dog will be put in similar situation again.

🙄

I would just not leave your dog unattended. Quite often they get their confidence from their owner and will make poor choices if feeling anxious. I learned this the hard way way when I let my mum walk my dog. He had previously been dog reactive but had stopped after years of work and training by me.
I learnt that he only felt relaxed and confident enough to not react when he's with me. He went for a dog when with my mum - no damage done but scary. Now he never leaves the house without me, and is absolutely fine. We live and learn x

The OP said in a subsequent post that the dog ‘has issues with people walking past’. I agree that in general the dog reacted normally.

But the dog doesn’t have issues with people walking past it, it has an issue with a child running directly at it with a hand outstretched towards it. Those are not the same things.

My husband left our dog tied up outside a shop once thinking it was a good idea. He won’t be doing that again. Honestly OP, it was an unfortunate incident which you have learnt from and hopefully the parents of the child will learn something too.

This.

I'm going against the grain slightly, maybe not the best plan to leave the dog outside but the child shouldn't have run up to him.

So the parents are also at fault here.

Thank God the DC wasn’t severely injured.

The parents should have been supervising the child better AND you should have been supervising the dog. So you were both wrong, fortunately it sounds like the child was okay so now you've both learnt for next time. They should have the child in arms reach, and you shouldn't leave the dog unattended.

I have a K9 sports sack and often put my dog in it when I go into a shop, even places that say no dogs say fine when I ask as he can't do anything. Unless you have a Rodesian Ridgeback or similar it may be worth a look.

I think you got off very lightly from the mother there - I would have gone apeshit! Keep your dog under constant supervision and control. "Just a scrape on the mouth" - bloody hell!

Your dog is dangerous. It shouldn't be left tied up outside a shop. And should wear a muzzle.

Obviously it is sensible for a child’s safety to teach it not to approach dogs without permission (indeed I don’t let my children approach dogs even when the owners actively encourage it). But it is absolutely legally the owner’s responsibility to make sure that a dog is under control at all times. People
are idiots. Don’t put your dog in a position where they are left alone to deal with an idiot.

Yep, it was really upsetting. Owner was absolutely bereft.

And what about your child, my kids all have been taught never go up and pet a dog without permission from owner, would you not take responsibility for your child??

I think honestly the dog did a good job. My advice is you take classes to have a better sense of how to read your dog and better understanding of how dogs in general behave. Almost no dogs who have not had extensive training to do so would be safe to be left tied up outside a shop with owner out of their sight, even for a moment or two. The Facebook group ‘dog training advice and support’ is really great. It has a series of free resources and guides that outline how dogs learn and how we can work kindly with them to train them to cope in the variety of everyday human situations we want them to cope in- which again almost no dogs are able to do without training. There is also something to be said for learning your own dog’s triggers. For example I will never be able to take my dog into a pub or cafe without a whole range of management strategies in place because she gets unbearably stressed in that kind of enclosed environment where she has to stay still on the floor and cannot approach people and animals coming in and out, or bark at loud noise. You know your dog has issues with people walking past so you have to work to reduce this fear by reconditioning the dog to experience passersby as neutral or pleasant (see Facebook group I mentioned for guidance on how to do this) and in the meantime you should manage the environment so the dog does not have to get stressed about this again, as the more times it happens the worse it will get and the more likely your dog will be to leave out the warning and go straight to self protection by biting.

I wasn't meaning it personally! Just if someone's dog had nipped my child I wouldn't be wanting a card from the dog's owner