That people shouldn't bring dogs to the school gates

[Stardust160]

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.

These threads are interesting because they highlight how relaxed and stress free some peoples' lives must be - I would never tie up our dog anywhere, because of fear of dog theft, and of her ending up producing little cocker spaniel puppies in someone's grotty backyard to sell on the internet....

On one family outing to Discover Dogs (the annual dogfest in earls court - an amazing day out if your children love dogs, especially if you don't have one of your own - fabulously child friendly, with tonnes of stroking opportunities, meet the police dog puppies etc), in the trade stands they were actually selling chain metal leads with a combination lock. I was tempted for two seconds but then horrified at what might happen if I forgot the combination .. Eek. Anyway, just offering a different perspective - I love the idea of walking 20 minutes to school with your child and your dog in a rural setting, or tying up the dog while you have a chat. V envious.

As a dog owner I agree, dogs and children don't mix well in my view. It's rude and ignorant as some kids could be scared of dogs.

I take my dog to dds school and stand outside the gate but the path is very wide, more like narrow road width so any frightened children can freely walk past. There is an even wider section to the side of the gates, where most of the dogs congregate. I agree, if the path is narrow this can stress children or dogs and the children must take priority. Were this the case, I would tie my dog up securely. The head has written a couple of times asking people not to tie their dogs to the school railings. It's really unnecessary when there are so many safe places to tie dogs up securely. They can't escape if in a correctly fitted harness. I live I a village so plenty of open space.
The problem generally isn't the dogs. It's the owners, who don't understand that dogs aren't humans. They're dogs. And owners, who don't have a clue how to train their dog. I'm on dog no 3 do I'm a seasoned owner.

There used to be a selection of dogs outside school when my dds were at primary school. I loved it, it was one of the highlights of the day to see them and have a stroke. As far as I could see there were no problems. They were not allowed on school grounds but the entrance was such that the gate was only about 5 m from the door the children came out of. Sometimes dogs were tied to the railings.
To me dogs are a normal part of life, although I have not owned one as an adult. It makes me sad that being frightened of dogs seems to accepted be the norm, on Mumsnet at least. We all need to be wary of dogs we don't know but if a child (or an adult) is frightened of something that is a common part of life so that it affects them on a day to day basis surely it would be better to help them conquer that fear than to remove dogs. Many people, me included, get a lot of pleasure from seeing and meeting dogs and for dog owners they are effectively a family member.

I think being cautious around dogs that you don't know is as much of a life skill as swimming. However, being terrified of them (to the extent of one child at my ds's school who screams and screams and has to be picked up by her mum if a dog is even in her line of sight) is a concern and needs to be addressed, probably not by banning all dogs.

Some of the children that are scared of dogs have sn which makes it much harder to address and those parents will have priorities that come much higher up the to do list.

YANBU
I was terrified of dogs as a child and getting out of the school gates where people had tied up excitable jumpy dogs was awful

My kids always loved any dogs who came on the school run. But they knew that they must always ask the owner before approaching or patting. But then they always loved dogs from babies, probably because they had a mother ditto.

Personally I think it's a shame if parents' attitudes make children nervous of dogs in general, although of course it's always necessary to be prudent.

Some of the children that are scared of dogs have sn

yes of course. but I would hazard a guess that the minority have parents who are scared of dogs who have passed the fear on. The (admittedly not many) children I know who are scared of dogs are NT but also have mums who are scared of dogs.

YABU.

It would be a shame to spoil what is a harmless bit of fun for 3/4 of the population just because of a minority of irresponsible child or dog owners.

And I say this as someone who was bitten on the face as a child in what would have been an entirely preventable incident had anybody been bothering themselves to pay attention.

My dd was bitten by a dog - he was just walking past didn't even look at the dog and for whatever reason the dog (a bulldog type so not small) just latched onto his thigh.m and wouldn't let go.

I don't think a school with lots of noise and children is a good place for dogs YANBU

I've seen more aggression in the playground from parents than from dogs, tbh.

This is why a love dd2s school. She has sn as do a lot of the other girls there. There are three resident dogs and five cats, it's brilliant.

One of the teachers has an allergy, not sure how they manage but they do.
The children are happy and the pets are great stress relievers.

I wish that mumsnet would create a dog haters topic so that it could all stay in one place.

Who are all these people who suddenly dislike,fear and hate dogs in the UK?
The loveliness of people walking their quaintly named dogs has always enchanted we 'forriners'
Dog poo problems are as nothing here compared to Parisian streets!

The UK is changing gotthemoononastick

More people are sedentary, spend more time indoors, their leisure activities are mainly shopping in huge out of town malls. They don't see dogs and don't like them. Too messy, need walking etc etc

Ds's special school has a resident dog and other animals but the dog is a well trained dog who is used to unpredictable behaviour. You don't know what you are getting at a school gate.
I was scared of dogs as a child. My mum was bitten on the leg by a dog that ran out of a gate as she walked past. I wasn't there at the time but I can remember the aftermath. I'm OK with them now but I get anxious when unknown dogs are around ds because his general behaviour is unpredictable. I've seen his vocal noises and flapping set dogs off when he is just in the same area as them.

YABU. I take our very large but obedient dog to take and pick up my child from school every day. He's always on the lead and never tied up, always supervised. I don't take him into the school grounds or block the gate. The school is fine with this and even if they weren't, how would they be able to enforce banning people from walking their dogs?

The walk to and from school is a great way of adding in a couple of extra walks and I wouldn't dream of paying a dog walker just because some people may be offended by the sight of an animal.

I don't like random dogs running around off lead. But on leads surely all dogs are fine of you don't approach them?

I don't see how it could be policed though?

Our school gates are in the woods. At what point are dogs allowed in there. 100m away?

What about service dogs?

And what about the dicks that take their dog into the playground because they're holding it so that makes them a non-dog.

Snoozebutton - I agree totally. It was very frustrating. The poor dog was put in a no win situation.

I don't have a problem with it. Every time we pass a dog it's a good opportunity to teach dcs how to be sensible around animals. I don't want them to be scared of dogs, I want them to be safe around dogs, we talk about the dogs body language, whether it wants the attention or not, how to be kind etc etc.

There are too many rules already. If a dog is a biter, it should be muzzled, or left at home. Otherwise, children should be expected to cope with the everyday hazards presented by dog-walkers, and everything else.