to tell this dogowner to keep her dog away?

[familyfun]

my dds (5 and 2) are quite nervous of dogs, have no experience of being around dogs and are scared when they bark/jump up.
dd1 got jumped up by a massive dog on holiday which left filthy muddy paw prints all over her cardigan and made her cry which didnt help.

anyway, a few times a week we go for a walk/bike ride round the block. 1 house the elderly lady opens her door and lets the dog out and it jumps the wall and wonders the street till she calls it in.

we were just passing the house and dd2 was in her pushchair eating a biscuit and dd1 was walking ahead, whehn the lady opened the door and the dog jumped the wall right infront of us and dd1 froze on the spot by a gateway, the dog ran to the pushchair and shoved its nose at dd2, so i pushed my hand in the way and told it to get off, dd2 was saying go away doggy, then the dog started licking her hand and trying to lick her face, so i shoved it out the way and stood between the dog and the pushchair. old lady finally gets to the wall and says dont worry hes friendly. dd2 is now crying, i said they dont like dogs and he is licking her and can you get your dog in. she said its weird they dont like friendly dogs and what am i going to do about it. i said im doing nothing, but i dont want my children licked especially whilst eating and to get her dog in now, which she did but tutted at me and told me id got my hands full.

wibu to think its her dog, her problem. i now feel i cant walk past there incase the bloody dog is out again.

YANBU
I am glad to see that most people agree, since I come accross so many awful dog owners I start to think they are all like that.
I was walking in the woods with ds when 5 massive dogs came hurtling down the path right at us.
I am nervous of big dogs running at me, and so is ds. It's a pretty normal human reaction imo.

I shouted to the dog owner/walker, who was sitting her rather considerable bulk on a bench up the path to call her dogs back, which she just ignored.
When we got closer to her I was pretty pissed off and told her she should have called her dogs off, to which she replied "You're in the middle of the woods!" as if that made it ok.
The next time some smug twat smirks at me when I am shrinking from their slavering beast who is trying to put it's paws on my chest and says "don't worry, he wont bite" I am going to get out my pet tarantula and wave it in their face. "Don't worry-he won't bite" I will say.

There seems to be a consensus in the UK that if you are scared of dogs, it's your problem which you have to get over, whereas if you are scared of, say, spiders, no-one in their right mind would shove a massive spider in your face and tell you not to be so silly.
Trying to avoid scaring small children for no reason other than your own belief in your dog's loveliness is pretty basic politeness.

"Don't wory, he doesn't bite."

How do I know that? The small % of dogs that snap one day and do bite - they came with a label did they? Am I just supposed to trust some random person's animal?

Responsible dog owners can recall their dogs, or make sure they are leashed. Simple as that.

yanbu

what if your child was allergic? even without being scared or the possibility of being bitten, what right does she have to have her dog all up in anyones face, let alone someone small enough to be in a buggy/on reins? disgraceful. I would be furious.

sorry if this sounds harsh, but if she's too old/frail to look after her dog properly she should re-home it!

YANBU regarding the dog being off the lead being free to run about in a public place. You do have issues regarding dcs which will probably rub ff on your dds

i think my only issues with dogs are, i dont want to be jumped up or licked. if dds pick up on that, then thats fine, as it seems sensible to me.
im going to tell this lady to keep her dog in next time. never thought about the dog poo, she doesnt follow the dog so if it poos she wouldnt know or clean it up, yuk!

You are allowed to be as scared of dogs as you wish. Dog owners SHOULD NOT let their dogs go bounding up to people especially licking them or snapping at the heels of people on bikes like the mad twat who used to live in our street.

The onus is on owners to be responsible and train them to make sure their dogs dont bother others... not for people to have train themselves 'not to be scared'

Its ignorant and disrespectful of her to allow her dog to run up to people like that - no oneis obligated to like your dog or want it pawing and licking you friendly or not. Of course YANBU - totally agree with oldraver.

familyfun - I'm ambivilant when it comes to dogs. I don't love them nor do I dislike them.
My 13 DS is a magnet he attracts dogs (must be some invisible signal) and he loves nothing more than being wrapped by greyhounds.
My DD (10yo) is inexplicably scared of dogs. Not a fear of being bitten though, she's scared of them breathing on her. .
And especially if one catches her unaware.

So I don't blame my parenting (well not for this anyway) .But we have had a long journey with her. She will be walking herself to school in September (I will bribe her brother to take her).
She thinks any loose dog will run across the park or across the road to cover her in breath.

So if you can bit by bit get your DC used to dogs it will be much easier, believe me. Parks, beaches, forests have all been 'no-go'. I've seen my DD step onto a road rather than face a dog . You can't convince her that a car will be more harm than a dog.

And yes, the number of times I've heard "Oh my dog won't bite you" from well meaning owners.
I usually joke with them "I know that but you won't convince my daughter"

"sorry if this sounds harsh, but if she's too old/frail to look after her dog properly she should re-home it!"

Or possibly have it put down?

Better than have it licking children surely?

(yes, old woman is wrong to not control her dog. But OP - you're being a bit precious about your dc)

It sounds like you're germ-phobic rather than dog-phobic, OP, and that doesn't sound healthy.

It amazes me how APALLING a minority of dog owners are - off the lead, in a nature reserve, owner with NO control over dog, my toddler DD hugely joyous to roll about in the mud after having been knocked over by them.... of course her joy makes me a Good Parent (in the eyes of dog owner) whereas the normal, sane reaction of "get that enormous fanged beast off me, Mummy" would make me a Bad Parent.

I do think dogs are so commonplace that a crippling phobia will be a cloud over someone, hence helping children to be more confident around dogs is a Good Thing.

i dont want my dds to be scared of dogs, but dogs jumping over a wall bounding straight up to the pushchair and shoving their nose in dds face while she is strapped in, are only going to make it worse.
germ-phobic? im not sure if i am, but if dd2 is eating i dont want dog slobber on her hands and face, thats disgusting. i wouldnt eat after stroking a dog or being licked by a dog. i probably did as a child growing up with 2 dogs in the house but i know better now.

I'm not dog phobic or germ phobic and nor are my two children.
I grew up all my life with dogs and my parents have always had dogs so my two children are both more than used to them.

However I would be extremely annoyed about this dog as when a dog just bounds up to my child it scares me. I don't know if it's aggressive or not and nor do they.

Plus I'm teacghing my children to not just pet strange dogs for safety reasons and that experience would throw everything I've taught them out of the window.

Also the fact that your daughter was eating and ended up covered in dog slobber is just gross.

Yanbu but I think you should definitely try and teach your kids that the dog isn't dangerous, it didn't do any harm but I can see how it wouldn't be very nice if you're not used to dogs

The dog owner should make sure her dog can't get out of her garden otherwise it might not live. This happened to us this week. Two large dogs escaped from a house in front of me and the owners had no idea until I banged on their door. One dog was captured and I got it back down to their house. The other dog was not so lucky. She got clipped by one car who didn't stop (60mph limit road) and then shot off. DH then saw it killed by a truck on a busy dual carriageway as he was looking to join it about a mile away.

Yanbu at all.

Call the dog warden on her, for being so lazy as to not walk he dog!

Can't think of anything worse than a dog coming up to me, and licking me, seen as its tongue was previously cleaning its arse I wouldn't be too impressed either. A dog shouldn't be jumping up on people as its badly trained

Talk to the police. A friend had a community officer come round because someone complained about her dog being loose in the woods, when she was walking him. (Very large but not aggressive, and doesn't go far from friend-and I don't like dogs). Turned out this lady has complained about a good proportion of dogs on the estate for this reason. Apparently her dog can't cope with black dogs and she wants all black dogs to be kept on a lead anywhere she goes

However the community officers came round to my friend's house to talk to her simply because they'd been a complaint, even though they knew exactly the circumstances.

In your situation I think the police would be very interested.

It's all very saying 'ahh, don't be scared of dog, don't allow your kids to be scared of dogs, you need to educate them'... some dogs are fucking scary especially if it's got big teeth and its a head taller than your bloody child.

I am not scared of dogs, I grew up with a lovely family dog but she was a small, friendly dog - half corgi/half jack russell. I'd hate to be a dog owner now though as there's so many bad owners that let their dogs run amoc without consideration for others.

Yanbu. What you are going to do about your kids not liking dogs is no one elses business but yours, and frankly being slobbered on by someone else's unrestrained pooch is hardly going to solve their dislike.
What may help is an understanding and patient non judgmental owner of a smaller friendly well controlled dog allowing your kids regular contact to build their confidence at their own pace. But that's for you to decide and arrange, not some random person unconnected with you in any way.
Many people are afraid of horses, but this doesn't mean it's ok for me to ride my enormous beast up so his nose is in their face and tell them it's ok, he won't hurt them. I know he won't hurt them, but they don't!

Oh, and I'm not scared of dogs, I have one, but even I don't like being jumped up at and slobbered on by an animal that I know has been eating slugs and licking her arse all morning.

thank you, dont feel quite so unreasonable now