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

Enjoy prison x

In these situations I wish my handbag was large enough to hold a double-barrelled shotgun.

Yeah I get that and agree completely. I think the ultimate issue here is that if she had had her dog under control and was a sensible owner, this would not have happened. It was the fact she walked over and didn't run at the speed of light that got me. If my OH was here and this happened he would have probably done the same in the heat of the moment, again why I'm not surprised. Not everyone handles things well under stress and that's what happened here. Again, would just be more vigilant in future, even though it should be the dog owners responsibility to keep people safe from their dogs, but sadly, so many don't (as we've seen here).

Right 😂.

I really wish there was a law that all dogs had to be on a leash & muzzled in public at all times... perhaps their owners too.

I imagine she would have apologised if it weren't for the screaming and kicking; and she did apparently apologise just quietly/
quickly and dashed off- which is a normal reaction to a stranger screaming and kicking.

First post nails it. I’ve had dogs all my life but the behaviour of dogs and their owners since covid is so much worse!

Out of control collies rounding up children on a beach, labradors harassing horses out on walks, owners nowhere to be seen, letting dogs into children’s playgrounds where there is clear signage that dogs shouldn’t be there… and so on!

A whole new generation of dogs, not trained properly, not socialised, with owners who seem to believe that they are “fur babies.”

people deserve to eat a picnic in peace

Can someone tell the seagulls this, please.

Kindly, you can’t classify a dog with no recall who is food driven as dangerously out of control!
I agree the dog was not correctly under control, should have been on a lead, should not be jumping up for food. The owner should have been extremely apologetic and was totally out of order.
Dangerously out of control, would be attacking people or dogs and unable to be contained! The police are not going to intervene for an over excited dog and poor owner.

You didn't overreact but your DH did. Kicking a dog is not okay unless it's trying to attack. He should have taken it by the scruff to move it away until the owner arrived, and her callous behaviour was utterly disgusting. I'm not surprised he kicked the dog in the heat of the moment but still wasn't the appropriate response.

Though her reaction is what would bother me most. A dog of any size jumping up at a baby could be fatal in some circumstances. I hoenstly think dog ownership should require a licence. It's not the dogs fault the owner hasn't trained it and had it off the lead, much like it isn't a child's fault when they grow up behaving badly because they weren't raised well.

I think in future, given that you cannot control other people's behaviour, you need to keep yourself and your baby as safe as possible by sticking to child-only areas of parks and not places where dogs are free to roam off-lead. Sorry this happened to you though, it would leave me very unsettled, too.

How is a dog getting in a baby's face 'well behaved'?

This place is unreal 😮

And what do you think OP did to the bench that it needed cleaning?

Dogs aren’t saints despite what you want to think. My elderly dad was walking past a house in his village on the opposite side of the road and the dog jumped over a wall and attacked him unprovoked. Defend them all you want, sometimes they harm people, fact.

In what world do you imagine that "screaming" and kicking isn't escalating a situation?
Unless the dog was being aggressive, screaming and violence is absolutely an escalation.

If this was in an enclosed no dogs allowed picnic area I’d be a bit upset. But you sat on a public bench (I hope you cleaned it) in a park where you could visibly see well behaved dogs off the lead. Then you kicked a dog. You overreacted, you know you overreacted because this happened a week ago and you’re still thinking about it. Maybe next time you eat al fresco you’ll think about the location. A park bench is probably as dirty as a train seat given the amount of dogs that wee up them.

Yes, of course. But as I say, personally I prefer to be safe than right in some situations and this would be one of them.

but why wouldn't you want to help yourself to be able to handle these situations better? It would benefit you and reduce the risk.

But OP's approach worked, they got the dog away from baby. The advice on this thread is to have a stern word with the dog, which isn't going fly with parents seeing a dog in their baby's face.

Op, you’ve obviously had a scare and that is awful. But, nothing terrible happened to your child, you just had the misfortune to come across a shit dog owner. And unfortunately, that happens. And currently, there is no way to prevent it. So, the best thing you can do is learn how to deal with it in the future, which is to remain calm, stand up (sacrifice your picnic if you are that scared, food can be replaced) and walk away. Should you have to? Absolutely not. Would my dogs do this? Absolutely not. Is the owner in the wrong? Absolutely yes. But, people can be shit at times and the more prepared you are for that, the better you will be.