To not understand what this parent was thinking?

If you have a dog who you know can be unsure around kids it's your job to muzzle them. Stop skirting the issue.

Odd parent.

When I was out with young children and I saw someone walking towards me with a Rottweiler or similar looking dog… I would cross the road to extend the distance between my children and the dog (and very often the owner too!)

A child was recently killed by a bus in my town. He fell into its path while walking unsupervised in the road. Dead because his mother didn’t watch out for him. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault, if you have a child your job is to protect them.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me, and it doesn't matter in law - YOU will be held responsible if your dog attacks someone, especially a child. Especially if you knew he was nervous wary, and especially if you don't have a complete history for how he's been treated. That's just fact, not my 'dog-hating' opinion or anything you'll be able to argue against with 'oh you just don't like dogs' at the police station.

'Watching out' isn't good enough - and 'I didn't think I needed to' certainly isn't. You want to talk about common sense?? - If your 'brakes' aren't good enough, muzzle your dog.

And yes, I read that you're just thinking about other dog owners, not you, and how the child should be taught not to do it in case there's a problem another time. Sure, in an ideal world all children would behave perfectly and all parents would too. But your utter lack of accountability for your own actions here is astounding.

He’s lovely. Ignore the idiots, there is a massive section of mumsnet who seem to take delight in being anti-dog. I presume they are sad, miserable individuals.

The women is clearly a neglectful idiot, but unfortunately it seems to be fairly common these days. People don’t want to actually parent their own kids.

My dog seems to like kids and is good with them. Even so, I'm wary of her around babies and toddlers who don't understand they can't pull her tail or ears. I'm happy for a child to say hello but I'd keep her on a very short lead and expect the parent to be similar with their child so the interaction is closely supervised. At the end of the day, although she's very chilled, she's a dog and who knows how they'd react if her tail was pulled or something?

Your comment is more aggressive than most Rottweilers. People ignorantly find themselves intimidated by all sorts of things, should everyone just pander to prejudice?

It is primarily the dog owner's responsibility to protect children from their dog, not the parents

Why do people adopt animals from abroad when there are so many shelters here? We have a dog from Romania next to us and it's forever barking. I just don't understand. Surely there is much higher likelihood of a traumatised or diseased animal from abroad? It uses resources to get it here and there are dogs dying unwanted much closer to home.

I do think it's a dog owners absolute responsibility to keep everyone else safe from it. I don't think that there should be an absolute right to a pet and that everyone else should move over for it. I do like dogs myself and had one as a child but animals in captivity are a choice I think and perhaps not even a great one.

Yep, my dd was bitten by a small yappie breed when she was 3 and we were camping. It was near her eye. It was running around uncontrolled. She's now terrified of dogs, despite our best efforts to help her get over her fear.

Rotties are usually just lazy rather than aggressive!

That toddler could just as easily have run into the road, the mother was clearly in the wrong.

But op, if your dog is wary of small children, please muzzle him in public. There are some idiots around and, regardless of who was at fault, your dog is a lethal weapon in the wrong situation.

From someone who has a litter ankle biter... so true 😂

Whilst the mother should have been watching the child, nobody is perfect and everyone at some point has made a parenting mistake.
Dogs need to expect unpredictable children though. If you are sure your dog wouldn’t bite then there is no issue.

Yep - adore bull breeds. Only dog that's bitten me, in many years of being around dogs, was a Yorkshire Terrier!

But that's the whole point - the parent was not maintaining ANY level of vigilance!

He’s a lovely dog. My 5 yo DS has SEN and is a runner, the only time we feel just about comfortable to let him go free is in an open space like a park provided there’s no pond. We still have to be cautious of dogs though, sadly because he absolutely adores them and wants to stroke them. He has no sense of danger whatsoever and doesn’t recognise that some dogs could hurt him.

This mother obviously should have chased after him and been more cautious generally. I can’t believe she’d let a toddler run off anyway, when presumably they were beside a road.

it makes my blood run cold that if something had happened to the child, there are so many who would blame the child and the mother.

He is gorgeous! (My cat - who lives happily with my horribly vicious staffie - does the same thing, and is particularly obsessed with the inner soles from my shoes!)

Depends what you call ‘intimidating’. Friends had 2 big black Flatcoat Retrievers - and a little white Westie. It was the ‘cute’ Westie that children always wanted to stroke - but he was a little bugger and had to be kept apart from any strangers.

The 2 Flatties, OTOH, were as soppy as you like, wonderful with children.

Perfect response

One would hope not!

YANBU. We have a Labrador, so renowned for being "friendly". While to be fair most parents don't let their children come up to it, there's always the odd one who does.

My lab loves children/humans generally and I have no worries about any kind of aggression or biting. But he CAN get very over-excited when being given pats and cuddles by someone new, and he often wants to jump up to them to say hello. Given that he weighs 35kg he could easily knock over a child (or adult TBH) so I always have to say no even if a parent or child asks politely if they can pat him.

Always better safe than sorry, and all parents should be instilling in their children never to approach an unknown dog. You and your DD were being responsible and appropriate in the situation you describe.

Some common sense at last . I have Bullmastiffs and they are the most gentle souls . The only dog I’ve ever been bitten by in 55yrs of ownership is a chichihua . I hate the automatic oh he’s large he must be dangerous old trope .

I’m sorry this happened op. You did nothing wrong, some parents are completely slack and lazy with their children. On a couple of occasions, some of my little dogs have been randomly grabbed and picked up by strange kids. My dogs don’t bite but equally they don’t like to just be snatched up by strangers. When I have said, very firmly to “put him/her down. Now” the parents have been most offended because little Ophelia just “thinks they are cute and wants a cuddle” FUCK OFF and control your child, you dimwit.

Oh for heaven’s sake it’s completely normal for dogs to be wary of small children. They are unpredictable, move in a very different way to adults, make sudden loud noises and give off a chaotic energy. All of this puts dogs on edge. It doesn’t mean they will react. In fact most people may not see they are on edge but owners know their dogs and the subtle change in posture and body language which say ‘I don’t really like this’. As a dog lover and a dog owner I keep my child away from all dogs we meet in public out of respect to the dogs.