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

Dog owner was wrong. But protective papa shouldn't be kicking dogs. Not confident with dogs? Get confident because the world is full of them. If it was snarling laying back it's ears growling and barking then protective papa could kick the dog. You sound pretty pathetic tbh, unless it was a great dane surely standing up holding the baby would work, unless your husband is unusually short.

I can’t believe you are still commenting 😂

Op your husband was perfectly 100% right to kick the dog. Some crazy Mumsnet responders who are incapable of reading what you’ve written and some who are so blinkered when it comes to their pesky mongrels.
People shouldn’t get dogs if they can’t train them properly.

I spent the first 37 years of my life not being a "dog person". It's not that I didnt like dogs, I just had no interest in them or learning anything about them, their behaviour, body language, breeds, care, anything. Totally not on my radar not even one little bit if you see what I mean.

And even then, I was able to tell the difference between a dog that is agressive and about to be vicious vs a dog that is badly trained and annoying.

This is not me saying the dog and the owner did nothing wrong.

TBH I dont think anyone covered themselves in glory here. The baby was the best behaved of all by the sounds of it!

If you’re not “dog” people I get you might be worried by a dog jumping at your baby but kicking the dog?! If the dog had aggressive tendencies you might have ended up
with a bite situation. Not the dog’s fault.

Hey OP, I love dogs but I know where you are coming from because we read if so many different attacks these days that I've lost trust! I was walking near my home the other day and two people were conversing in the middle of the pavement, both had dogs and both dogs lunged and snarled at me as I walked past, they gave it the "oh he wouldn't have done anything" but that's not the only time I've had dogs snarl at me. You and your DG didn't want to take chances with a dog you don't know in an era of lots of irresponsible people!

Your baby being injured isn’t the only drip feed you’ve given on this thread.

In fact, if your baby was injured, you would probably have mentioned somewhere in your first 100 replies, or so.

I bet that if the dog had been a pit bull, or similar breed, your husband wouldn’t dared have used “reasonable force” on it. The only reason he kicked that dog was because it was obviously friendly, and he knew he could frighten it.

Hahahaha.

Unless it’s a working dog, a “well trained dog” is still a dog that will do doggy things occasionally.

Dogs absolutely should not be in a childrens play area! What planet are you on! They did not overreact at all! I would have done the same thing. My 6 yr is terrified of dogs because of shitty dog owners like this who let their dogs chase him and jump on him. I fucking hate dog people with a passion. If they aren't letting them jump on us, they are leaving presents for us to walk in on the way to school. 🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡

Overreacting??!!!!! Just waiting for the headlines 'dog snatches baby in park'.

Some dog owners are supremely arrogant and thoughtless.

I would have called the police too. It doesn't matter what kind of dog it was - it was out of control. You had no idea whether this was a just a friendly dog that tried to eat your lunch (yuck) or a dangerous dog. You shouldn't have to know. That the dog owner didn't make an abject apology and immediately leash their dog is unforgiveable. I hope you and you family are ok - I can only imagine how scary that was with a little baby.

If you can't control your dog, KEEP IT ON A LEASH!

You will make your child unnecessarily scared of dogs my overreacting in this way.
That will be a future problem for you.
The owner sounds like they were in the wrong but creating a dog phobia isn't the answer.

As both a mum and a dog owner, I don’t think you were being unreasonable FWIW. However, to ask on a AIBU thread and then reply 241 times(!) 🤯 how you are not being unreasonable is insane behaviour 😂what a waste of time

Good luck when your baby gets to school and is knocked around in the playground. Kids are brutal. You’ll be wishing it was a waggy dog sniffing a sandwich by then.

The owner is in the wrong not having it on a lead as the dog was just being a dog and didn’t mean bad, sorry but if your husband kicked my dog I would of kicked him straight back! Animal cruelty is never ok because of an irresponsible owner.

Whether it is friendly or not doesn't matter. It was out of control according to the law.

Your language is very emotionally intense, naturally of course. You are a mother to a young infant and you were frightened. ETA - you used the force that you deemed necessary at the time which is entirely ok and fine according to our law.

You appear to be insisting that any contact between infant and dog will always result in scratches which is obviously emotionally overwrought and not entirely true.

It is possible a dog could touch a baby without leaving a scratch. In this instance however, it did leave a scratch, which could potentially constitiute aggravated offence?

In other words, moving from “the dog touched my baby” to “the dog scratched/injured my baby” is legally significant.

I notice you have also gone from "jumping up" to "lunging".

It must exhausting being in a courtroom all day debating nuances, subtly of language, reasonable force etc. No wonder they are paid so well.

As Aristotle once said (I'm not high brow, anyone who has watched legally blonde will know this one) - "The Law is reason free from passion" - which is how this debate of the legality of wording has ended up unfolding!

Of course you’re not unreasonable. And I say that as a dog owner and lover.

my dog is friendly and loves being petted and fussed. She’s very good with kids. However I will only let her interact with older children say 3 up (between 3 and 6 or so if VERY closely supervised by me and the parents with my dog on a very short lead) who understand ‘be gentle, don’t pull her tail’ etc. I’m very nervous of her near babies and toddlers. I’m sure they’ll be fine but at the end of the day both can be unpredictable and I don’t want to take the risk the baby might poke her eye or something and she’ll respond by snapping. Also she’s a border collie and medium sized, which is quite big next to a baby. It’s not worth the risk. The baby could be hurt and/or traumatised, my dog would be put down, and both myself and the parent could never get over it.

ok 😂