AIBU to be upset after a dog jumped at our baby?

*Dogs are not humans and always come second. Always.
I have dogs and would have used my foot to push away the dog in that circumstance too. The safety of my child always comes before a dog. *

Thank goodness for owners like you.

The dickhead owner letting the dog run up at randoms is the cruel one abusing the animal she probably claims to love.

That dog should not have run over and jumped up at the baby. That’s it.

If owners trained their dogs better there would be no need for threads like this.

I controlled my toddlers when they were little rather than suggesting that others should sign up for parenting classes!

The OP does not need to shell out for dog education classes because some idiots on Mumsnet have untrained dogs off-lead.

You can spot the shit owners (and the many good ones) on the thread. The decent ones understand why you reacted to protect your baby.

As for morals, beyond reporting an obviously abused or neglected pet to appropriate authorities I don't have any duty of care towards a strangers dog. If you have a dog and firm ideas about how it should be treated then you keep it from bothering strangers. That stranger could be afraid and lash out or be friendly and want to offer it unsuitable food, you have no idea really.

My uncle lost an eye as a child because a dog leapt up and caught his face (and eyeball) with a claw. A dog that isn’t under control is a threat, full stop. Hope that helps your arrogance.

You know, not kicking a friendly animal when there are better options..those kind of morals.

I wasn't judging how she reacted. I just wondered what the purpose of the thread was as all it seems to be achieving is winding her up more.

Or, we don’t have dogs but know that reacting like that if the dog actually was aggressive could have been catastrophic.

If this had actually been an aggressive dog your husband and baby could have been in serious trouble if he just sat there and kicked them.

Aggressive dogs don’t respond well to being hurt.

You aren’t taking the advice people are giving you that could save your baby if something like that did happen which leads me to believe this is just a windup to talk about animal cruelty. You know someone who deliberately kicked a dog to death?

That’s fucked up.

I'm also convinced her reactions were correct. As are many people on here. I'm assuming the people who disagree with OP also have untrained dogs they allow off-lead at all times.

Better morals??? wtaf are you talking about?

What did you want from this thread OP? You are convinced your reactions were right and reasonable so what do you want people to say?

Dogs are far too over-indulged. They need the owner to be pack leader. They were originally working animals not babies.

in real life little spaniel dog comes running up, ears flopping trying to get to food. Parent stands up, holds baby out the way, says shoo, laughs, pets dog.

Obviously this (imaginary) scenario isn't frightening to anyone other than those with fears, but it's still a poorly-controlled dog with a poorly-behaved owner.

The correct situation is any dog stays under control (using a lead or not depending on dog/owner) and strangers never get approached by it.

OP, I mean this with all due respect, I have read through this entire thread and I feel that your responses are very combative and argumentative which is a real shame. You came here asking if you're being unreasonable and you can quite clearly see that the general consensus is that you are not, but equally, you asked for opinions and you are getting them. If you're going to disagree or have an answer for every single reply then you perhaps should remove your post, IMO.
I think we, as rational adults, can absolutely all agree that a dog with poor recall skills should have been on the lead. This incident should not have happened to you and you are absolutely entitled to feel however you wish to feel about that, but kicking a dog is wrong and just not proportionate to the event 😕

OP I think you have actually lost the plot.
Anyway, put down the dangerous dog act book and try looking up baby led weaning … might save you having to rush home to blend up food in case this ever happens again.

Absolutely not unreasonable from you. I’m glad someone else has noticed how weird a lot of dog owners are about their dogs these days - whether it’s ignoring signs about them needing to be on a lead, being unable to recall them, or showing no sign of urgency if their dog is jumping up or otherwise in someone else’s space, including a child’s.

If I had a pound for every time I heard “Oh don’t worry, he/she is very friendly.” Gah. I don’t care - it’s an animal with claws and teeth that could seriously injure / permanently disfigure my child even if it didn’t intend to do any harm. Get it away. I’ve had dogs jump up at my baby’s feet hanging down from a carrier on my chest while I was walking along, and dogs come over to sniff at my baby lying on a mat outside in the park. Owners looked like they couldn’t care less. I even had one run in my front door as I opened it in the morning for the school run, who then jumped up at my husband sitting at the bottom of the stairs holding our 6 month old, while I was crouched down helping our oldest with his shoes. It was so quick, and really quite scary. I’d have had no hesitation kicking it if I’d managed to stand and react in time!

“Dog friendly” has gone too far. I don’t blame the dogs, who are just acting in accordance with their instincts as animals. You are absolutely entitled to act in accordance with your own as parents. You absolutely cannot give a strange dog the benefit of the doubt in that situation. Imagine the lifetime of regret if you did and you had judged it wrong.

Hope you have a better day tomorrow OP!

That’s why I voted YANBU, the owner should have had her dog under control obviously. But I do think your DH kicking the dog was an overreaction.

I don't own a dog btw and am definitely not overly sentimental about them.

The point is that if the dog wasn't harmless, kicking it and shouting is much more likely to cause a bite incident than a more measured approach. If the dog had retaliated somebody could have been seriously injured. It was a silly risk to take with a medium-large dog that would definitely be capable of doing some serious damage if it so chose. Luckily it was just a badly trained but good natured animal, but that might not have been the case.

And yes, then the dog would be put down but that wouldn't lessen the impact of any trauma or injuries.