to have kicked off at another mother for confirming her child's fear of dogs!

[MrJugsMummy]

Just taken my DS and our 1 year old springer spaniel for a walk in our local park. He was running off his lead as he always does and a toddler walked around the corner without her mother. Our spaniel is quite a caring dog and loves children and often tends to mother them somewhat (he worried himself senseless when my DS was ill last week slept on the sofa next to him and woke every time he so much as sniffed!) so he went up to the child the child screamed I called Brian away and said to the little girl "it's fine he won't hurt you he just wants to say hi", the kids mother then decided to make an appearance and pick up the child and had a go at me saying that I shouldn't let my dog off of his lead! She then turned to the child and said "Did he bite you?" to watch the child now upping the screaming and crying actually said "No" she then turned to me and said my dog was a menace and shouldn't be allowed near children!

I snapped at this point and said "My dog was concerned about the fact your child was seemingly by itself in a park, he simply went up to her to check she was ok, he didn't even jump up at her let alone bite her" she then started saying again that he shouldn't be off his lead!
I really got riled up then and shouted "My 5 year old son is here right next to me, I would have no qualms about leaving him alone in a room with my dog as he is well trained and good tempered and adores him, if I had any doubts about his behaviour I would not have him as a family pet and if I had any concerns about his behaviour around children do you seriously I would let him off his lead in a park after school with loads of children around!" I then stormed off and muttered that she was a stupid bitch!

I get so annoyed at parents who do this if your child doesn't like dogs don't take them to places where dogs are, I get that all children are scared of things but why confirm the fear?! If my DS ever shows fear about something I either reassure him that nothing will hurt him or tell him how to avoid being hurt.

Grr rant over

The same Brian who was promoting Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes on here the other day?

Yes, but retro this one was a concerned Springer.

Yeh well I'm sure she was capable of biting as well.

Libertine.

We were on a beach in Brittany a few years ago. No dogs allowed.

A large fluffy dog (German Shepard size) bounded quickly up to my then 4 yo. He knocked her to the ground and chased his tail excitedly around her as she lay on the ground. I tried to get the dog off whilst the owner stood 50 yards away, whistling ineffectually.

My daughter now has an overpowering fear of all dogs.

If your Brian had come up to my DD today, I would love to know how you would like her to react given her previous fright?

And by the wat, not everyone likes dogs.

As a parent of 2 children that are scared of dogs I have encountered two types of dog owners.

The first kind berate me for allowing my children to be scared of dogs and insist their dogs are friendly.

The second kind notice my children look nervous, they put their dogs on a lead and then make them sit or lie down and then tell my children what the dog is called and how it likes biscuits and chasing its tail and barking at squirrels. Then they say that the dog is friendly and if I agree they can pet the dog. I usually pet the dog first (despite being scared myself) and encourage my children to do so if they wish.

I know which kind of dog owner I prefer.........

why can you not train your dog to not go up to strangers and for it to ignore its concerns

i thought dogs could be trained so they should be able to be trained to not go up to people they do not know no matter how concerned they are

Yabu my dd was 18 months old and had just started to walk, we were in a park when a terrier came from no where and jumped and knocked her over and the stood on her growling, owner said its ok she wont bite! My dd didnt sleep through the night for weeks, she was even frightened of pictures of dogs and she was fine before, it took years before she was ok and that was because we got her a lab pup, who is walked on a lead where there might be children, thanks to our choc lab she loves dogs now

I would never trust any dog with a small child. I think it's good for children to be wary of dogs.

Secondly, if it were a park with swings/ slides rather then just a field, the dog should have been in a lead

Brian the Wonder dog

Sorry yabu - my daughter (aged 10)is terrified of dogs - does that mean we should never go to a park? Your attitude actually makes me angry - and incident like that would probably result in her being very distressed. We already struggle to get her to agree to go to the park in the summer (as there might be dogs not on leads)....

Anyone who uses the phrase "he just wants to say hi" should be immediately banned from pet ownership.

I think many young children who have not had opportunity to be around dogs would be scared if a strange dog approached them. I'm sure your dog is lovely, but how can anyone know that in an instant?

I am a dog lover and own a lovely and very docile brown Labrador, I always keep in mind that not everyone will love my dog as much as I do!

I do agree though, that it is very sad to hear parents project their fears on to their child.

Well people might say that our fears are projected on to 3 year old ds. When a random dog comes bounding up to him he screams the place down and is absolutely terrified. Probably because the mutt seems out of control, is bigger than ds and its right in his face. However we have two big dogs at home that ds loves. Because they are well trained and we don't allow them to run up to ds or anyone else for that matter. Maybe if other dog owners had a little respect for other people around them, and a little more control over their dogs, then just maybe children would be less afraid of them.

Toddler is the word that jumped out at me from this.

Toddlers are frightened of anything that they dont know, they are even shy/frightened of people they do know but havent seen for a week. My toddler is fine with animals at a distance, she finds them interesting but gets very frightened if they come close. She was in a right state when my DSis got the guinea pig out of its cage. She wont go anywhere near a cat FFS, so a jumpy spaniel would have her in absolute hysterics.

My 9 year old DD got in a terrible state during the summer hols. We were at a friends who had guests staying and they have a springer too, she is still technically a puppy but still not a small dog. She ran after DD to play, who got frightened and screamed, but what DD and I didnt know is that their DD screams a lot when she is playing with the dog so the dog got more excited and ended up flooring DD who wet herself with fear because she thought she was being attacked.

YWBVVVVVU. Keep it by your side or on a lead.

But I rather suspect you have hidden this thread.

Your one year old dog was concerned about the child? Really? and no you shouldn't have had another go at the Mother. Many children are frightened of dogs because to a child they're ten times bigger than them! Yes its annoying inconvenient but its a very real fear to that child and people need to realise that. Fair enough your dog might not harm another child but would you think the same about a dog you didn't know from Adam? Same principle applies here IMO the person didn't know your dog.

neverputasockinthetoaster I do the same with my DCs too. I always pet them first to show them there is nothing to be frightened of...whilst they've belted 50yards to the other side of the Park!

Precisely GoofyMum it is really infuriating isn't it? We KNOW your Dog is most probably friendly but as a PP said the OP clearly made a point of saying that the DC was a TODDLER for goodness sake.The TODDLER DON'T know and nor should they be expected to do! I seriously cannot get the mentality of some people who seem to believe the onus is on the Parents to not allow their child to be scared of something!

Also how on earth are fears taught?! No one told/taught me to be scared of Spiders but I am absolutely petrified! It wasn't something I was Taught!! Jesus wept!

If you want to blame anything, blame evolution.

We evolved to know that anything that is bigger than us with big teeth is something to be shit scared of . I have never met a bear but I wouldnt play with one if it came charging up to me, no matter what its owner said.

OP, if anyone has engendered a fear of dogs into that child, it is you and your poor control of your pet.