Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

That people shouldn't bring dogs to the school gates

122 replies

Stardust160 · 02/05/2016 19:04

I try to teach my children not to touch strange dogs and on the school run there seems to be a constant influx of parents with dogs in particular jumpy dogs around the school gates. These can sometimes be excitable and the owner often says they are ok. Abiu to think the school should stop dogs around the school gates. I always have a fear after witnessing my primary school friend get viciously attacked by a dog she stroked at the school gates.

OP posts:
KoalaDownUnder · 02/05/2016 19:37

But no, let's all add to the problem of traffic congestion/ childhood obesity/ under-exercised dogs that then piss everyone off by barking.

Fgs, people are bonkers on these threads.

SnoozeButtonAbuser · 02/05/2016 19:38

If the dogs are jumping up, knocking kids over or acting aggressively obviously they shouldn't be near the school, but I really don't think anyone is bringing those sorts of dogs on the school run. I think your experience as a child is colouring how you see the well behaved, calm, friendly dogs that people generally bring on a school run. My children love seeing the dogs at the school gate, and so do I I can pet them and avoid small talk with the other parents. YABU.

Knotnora · 02/05/2016 19:39

Totally outing myself but a child from our school was bit by a dog tied to the school gate last week.

The dog was known to be a little sod. Little lap dog owned by a grandparent of a child.

Bit a kids hand as they walked past

ToucheShay · 02/05/2016 19:40

I used to be more pissed off with the parents nattering to each other with their pushchairs and prams standing right outside the gate, meaning the children would backlog to leave the school and who then had to walk on the road to get around them.

Use parents with dogs would wait by the unused gate, away from the kids.

ScrotesOnFire · 02/05/2016 19:40

Fear of dogs is absolutely not healthy or rational.
In the UK, you have more chance statistically of being killed by a car or beaten to death by your own parents.
Would a fear of cars and parents be totally healthy and rational being that both of those things statistically seriously harm and often kill more children then dogs...?

KoalaDownUnder · 02/05/2016 19:41

You can't determine which dog is safe by looking at it.

They should never be left unattended by the owner, and should not be blocking entry and access points.

That's all.

You really can't put a blanket ban on people standing on a public footpath with a controlled dog.

babybythesea · 02/05/2016 19:44

Possibly depends on the school. We are very, very rural. Most of the kids have dogs, at least half live on farms. There's often several dogs at the school gate, but I've never seen it cause any issues. None of the kids take any notice, the dogs are well behaved, and we don't seem to have a problem with dog mess. We have more problems with cow poo - we have to dodge it almost daily on the way in to school (cows are moved from field to mailing parlour right past the school). We often have horses brought up on the school run so kids can ride them home. Dogs are small fry!!
People would look at you like you'd lost the plot totally if you suggested that school gates weren't the place for dogs.
But then, over the last few weeks, show and tell has consisted of chicks, a puppy and two lambs....
Maybe in a city school or more urban or suburban environment dogs would be less suitable.

bluespiral · 02/05/2016 19:46

Yanbu. Dogs shouldn't be anywhere near a school.

babybythesea · 02/05/2016 19:47

Mailing?? No one posts the cows. They go to a milking parlour.

Original poster
Stardust160 · 02/05/2016 19:47

Knot Nora said a child had been bitten just last week. So it does happen. It's not fear tactics but they are a bloody nuisance and unpredictable.

OP posts:
PinkBallerina · 02/05/2016 19:49

I occasionally walk my dog to school. She is little and friendly but sometimes gets swamped by kids wanting to pet her that i panic a bit incase she finds it overwhelming.

There isn't a school gate or perimeter around the school so no official divide between what is school ara and what is public area so i always hang back as far as possible. The problem is that draws the kids out away from the school because they come searching for us so that they can pet her. I was touched the other day, i was approached by some school kids with toy dogs and two of them had named them after my dog. They wanted my dog to meet her namesakes!

FastWindow · 02/05/2016 19:50

I tend to agree. There's one mum who brings a dog and fair enough ties it safely away from people. However, as soon as shes out of sight, it barks nonstop at all the other people walking in to the school.

Unfair on the dog as its clearly v stressed.

Super unfair on the people living in the flats opposite who may have all sorts of reasons not to want to hear a dog barking for ten minutes straight, twice a day.

DancingHippo · 02/05/2016 19:50

YANBU. We have to leave the DCs at the school gates so it is very crowded in the front of the school, you know, with 500+ DC being dropped off and going in. Together with pre school children waiting to go in straight afterwards.

There is an absolute arsehole of a woman who insists on bringing her two large dobermans with her right to the school gate. DS is terrified of them. They are straining at their leashes and panting away. The crowd has to part for her and I have seen DC fall over to get out of her way before. She lives close to the school and I know she does not go straight to work. There is absolutely no reason for her to bring them right to the gate.

DS has also stood in dog crap right in front of the school gate as well. It was half heartedly picked up but there was still a thick layer there and it was on the bottom of DS's shoe. They take their shoes off inside and change into pumps and I did not want him touching the bottom of his shoe and transferring shit to his hand so had to spend 10 mins scrubbing it off the grooves in his soles in the medical room.

Honestly I think a lot of dog owners are completely selfish bastards with no common sense or decency.

HarrietSchulenberg · 02/05/2016 19:51

I don't mind well behaved dogs at school gates, in fact I think it's nice to see.
Mine, on the other hand, would be stressed if it was busy so I don't take him.

witsender · 02/05/2016 19:52

Depends on the dog and the school. A small village school like our local one, with staggered collection times is rarely all that busy, and provided you have a well behaved dog I can't see the problem.

charlestonchaplin · 02/05/2016 19:52

I repeat: Many dogs are poorly trained and not under the full control of their owners. If you want to put your child's safety and wellbeing in danger when you can fairly easily avoid it, then more fool you.

Ameliablue · 02/05/2016 19:57

I think it is OK if they are stood back from the school gates but not right at the gates or in the playground.

lemanitoba · 02/05/2016 20:00

I love the dogs at the school gate, and so do the dcs. In fact at my dd's old school the dogs used to go inside the school yard. The head had a dog, and it went all over the school. Really nice.

hedwig2001 · 02/05/2016 20:00

This sadly can have consequences for the dog.
My sister had a lovely, slightly batty dog. As a single working mother of 3, time was always short. She took the dog on the school run every day. She always asked children to leave the dog alone, but one day he jumped up and bit a child who upset him. Only a nip, but she felt she had no choice but to have him destroyed. It was heartbreaking.

RufusTheReindeer · 02/05/2016 20:00

i dont have a problem with dogs on the school run

I have a problem with them at the school gate

Booboostwo · 02/05/2016 20:04

A well behaved dog, on a lead, with its owner, sitting out of the way so that others can go past, which does not get stressed by noisy and active children is fine, anything else is a problem.

Dungandbother · 02/05/2016 20:07

I'm appalled people leave their dog tied to railings. That's horrific.

I walk dog to school with DC. I would never tie her up outside. If a teacher really needed me, I would either get a friend to hold her or make an appointment and return sans dog.

We recently had comment from the Head to not have dogs by the gate.
Sensible approach if you ask me. We have a small in out gate entrance and like a PP, it's the mum's with prams that do my head in.
So child trying to get into school and the mums all standing in front of the gate gassing with their prams.

Prams/dogs - either can be owned by stupid people.

When I go to school without the dog, hordes of children ask me where she is. And I don't let them stroke her unless I know they asked their parent and they said yes. And then they asked me.

KoalaDownUnder · 02/05/2016 20:07

DancingHippo

I think a lot of...

-dog owners
-cyclists
-parents
-drivers
-teenagers

  • people

...are completely selfish bastards with no common sense or decency.

Because they are. However, a lot are not.

Dog owners can be decent or twats. Y'know, just like the rest of the population. Confused

Collaborate · 02/05/2016 20:22

People can walk their dogs whenever they want, without others dictating to them when they can and cannot walk them.

YABU.

HTH.

AppleSetsSail · 02/05/2016 20:23

I'm appalled people leave their dog tied to railings. That's horrific.

Horrific in what way? Confused