To think if your granddaughter runs up to my puppy that he might try to jump on her?

[Taz1212]

We have a 16 week old puppy. He does the school run every morning and afternoon (carried much of the way still to his great disgust ). He's a lovely dog but he wants to meet everyone. Everyone is his best friend and he jumps up to greet them.

We are training him to not jump and after school we have about a dozen little girls eagerly helping. He's getting better but it's going to take a while. I keep him away from people who don't approach him and tell people to ignore him. However, he's little so lots of people think it's cute. Urgh. We'll get there.

Every morning and every afternoon we see a grandmother with her granddaughter. Every morning and every afternoon she tells her granddaughter, "Stay away from that dog." Fair enough- not everyone likes dogs. Yesterday morning her granddaughter ignored her and went running up to the puppy. He tried to jump on her but didn't touch her because I have him on a short lead and I pulled him back. She started screaming blue murder - "THAT DOG NEARLY GOT MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" The grandmother glared at me and said, "Yes, I saw that. That dog needs muzzled."

Seriously? She's seen the puppy every day. She sees how excited he gets. She tells her granddaughter to stay away- what did she think would happen?

I have come back because I am not sure I know the answer to how I would want this situation to play out!

I have mentioned that I struggle with dogs - I grew up on a farm so dogs were working animals but also had the misfortune to be related to utter nobbers who thought that handing me as a 7 year old the lead of their rough collie and running away was hilarious. Same collie used to flatten me on sight and hump me to ejaculation every bloody time I was in their house until I refused to go back.

However!! My parents are country types and took in a stray collie who was as loving as he was terrified.

This experience has taught me that dogs themselves can't be held responsible and that we as their 'owners' need to step up.

I have a not yet how year old who came into contact with an unleashed dog on the same public path. One was a totally untrained German shepherd who suddenly appeared and licked my unsuspecting dd from head to toe while I was trying to lift her up. Dog then went on to mouth her toys in the buggy before launching off. The owner told me it was fine as she as just a puppy and he had his own child.

Second was an older dog who trotted happily towards her while she trotted happily towards him. I was apologetic to he dog owner and dog owner was apologetic to me.

Adds little to the thread other than my own perspective as a person who would love to love dogs with a small person.

at the end of the day surely ALL the adults here have a responsibility. If the OP has a dog whih is kept leashed then I cannot see how It can be an issue

First line souls read "my not yet two-year old"

Actually waffling research suggests that dogs are capable of complex feelings. And your posts are OTT.

Oh for heavens sake!

Right

Not yet two year old

2 dogs

Both unleashed actually

One wild and living the high life

One elderly and enjoying some company.

That sort of explains my garbage above

i agree there will always be the two extremes, but as someone who's not comfortable around dogs i do find that dog owners, in general, assume everyone likes dogs and don't appreciate that to people like me they actually ARE a cause of "fear and danger"?

like, if i pick a restaurant for my family to go and eat in, i do so knowing that some people don't like children, so i pick one where children are welcome and i make sure my children behave. i feel the same respect is not always shown where dogs are concerned. i often go to places that should not have dogs in (eg the haridressers. wtf?) and find a dog there. i would not take my child to a hairdressers because i would assume that people don't want a small child annoying them when they are relaxing and having their hair cut. so why assume i want a dog near me?

I see where you are coming from waffling but maybe the issue is to do with expectation.

Outside the school gates I would expect dogs.

I have a colleague who brought her dog in to the staff room - not expected and not on at all.

i am sure my response is OTT, but that comes from watching my best friend spend a year of her life in agony as a result of a dog, and not wanting my children to go through a similar trauma.
so, sorry if that makes me a bad person.
i never suggested that dogs are not capable of complex feelings, i just pointed out that if a dog is untrained and jumps up at people then it is inappropriate to take them near a school, and this is the fault of the owner (given that the owner chooses where to take the dog...)

...and then i went on a massive tangent

i agree Passmethecrisps, but i don't expect dogs outside school gates! think i'm fighting a loosing battle though, as everyone else does.

No waffling you didn't suggest it - you said it outright!

But they are not capable of complex thought or feelings.

umm, i didn't say that?

Your poor dog would be very disappointed in you if they had read such a statement.

No you didn't! I cannot read. You have my apologies!

Best go to bed with my tail down.

On the bed fizzy?

no hard feelings

Yabu, an over excitable untrained dog shouldn't be taken on a school run

Reading's not really your thing, is it, WD41?

I wouldn't be happy with a dig jumping up to my children. If it's not trained enough it needs to stay away from places like schools.

I don't want dogs jumping up at my children Art, so I dont let my children run over to them

No waffling you didn't suggest it - you said it outright!

But they are not capable of complex thought or feelings.

That was me. :)

And it was in the context of they can only be as good as being a dog will allow them to be. Dogs will never have the same range of abstract thought, empathy, or emotion as humans. At the end of the day they are animals. Lovable animals, but animals nonetheless.

Only two types do it - the stupid ignorant and the look at my dog/look at me ones.

Or my brother - the dog trainer. So neither of those.

Havana - in the last week alone my Children have had x3 dogs jump up and slobber on them. At all of those times they were standing still holding my hand! What more can I do? Yesterday we were standing at traffic lights when one did it and guy replied ' ah he's only a puppy'! Yeah and he's still slobbery and germy and shouldn't be licking my 3 year old

Sorry. I don't mind dogs, really. But they need to be trained enough to be near people without jumping/ sniffing/ licking/ slobbering

Eggsareround?

My reading skills are just fine thank you

OP, is Noodle a doodle? We have a labradoodle who looks very similar.

The OP has said repeatedly that she was not blocking the school gates, she was to the side on a public verge. Some posters seem to be suggesting that puppies should not be on short leashes oniblic verges/pavements just in case errant children run up to them and are, gasp and pearl clutch, licked or jumped on.

What about loose cats then? They shouldn't be allowed out in case errant children run up to them and get, oh my god, scratched.

Some posters seem to be suggesting that puppies should not be on short leashes oniblic verges/pavements just in case errant children run up to them and are, gasp and pearl clutch, licked or jumped on.

That is exactly what we're saying.

Kids are impulsive. Puppies are very enticing and tempting to run up to. She is at a school gate where there will be -shock and awe- lots of children.

Puppies/dogs are also impulsive. A bunch of children running up to them is very stimulating almost to the point of over stimulating them. An untrained dog will get wound up, excited, and unable to calm down on command as the OP has likely noticed.

Right now the dog is small. When it is big, it can hurt the children.

Train the puppy, take it to obedience school, bring treats on the run to reinforce good, calm behavior. But don't bring an untrained one down. It could get over excited and bite or snap if kids are getting in it's face. With a crowd of children it's hard to control that.

Even good dogs will snap under stress. They are animals, they are not even particularly intelligent animals. A child in their face may seem playful to a human, but it can be threatening or aggressive to a dog. They aren't intelligent enough to understand the difference between a child innocently poking their face in theirs and another dog doing it aggressively (and if you're letting your dog get up in your small child's face, you're playing with fire). Even the most laid back dog will act on instinct and forget training if they are over stimulated or stressed unless they are specifically trained to handle stress (work dogs), and even then the trainers will only pick out certain puppies to train. Not every animal can be taught to be calm next to stimuli.

I'm not saying OP's dog will get aggressive, in fact, I doubt he will. Most excited dogs don't if they're socialized correctly. However, all that stimulation is stressful to a dog, he could forget they are children and not other puppies and play bite. You don't want that.

This is a terrible environment to teach a dog in. She is reacting by pulling the dog away, which will cause them to get more excited and want to jump more. The dog needs to learn in a calm environment before being taken into what will become adhd doggy crack land with all the loud boisterous children.