To be upset at peoples reaction to the muzzle?

[Doggydoggydoggy]

Just that really.

Dog wears one because she has nipped a few people.

She is not people aggressive.

I had a woman today clearly frightened because she ran near her buggy.
Near as in running past it.
Not barking/lunging/acting aggressive/approaching the child etc.

The woman got really scared at the sight of my dog, recoiled pulling the buggy so my dog did what most dogs will do in response and looked at her and went to approach.

So I called her back to me immediately and put her lead on.
That didn’t stop the woman constantly looking back angrily at me as she was walking ahead.

I really don’t think my dog had done anything that would reasonably make anyone feel frightened.

I can only assume it is the muzzle making the mum think she must be some child mauling demon.

And I find it really upsetting.

I wanted to talk to her and explain that she has the muzzle for nipping dogs and that I was sorry she frightened her but she honestly poses no risk to her child and has no interest in her child.
But her constant looking back and glaring at me made me feel really uncomfortable so I didn’t.

in fact dogs cause very few injuries to people (I'd love to see some stats on the safety of dogs - i cant believe they've gotten less safe)
and e admissions due to dog atttacks up 76% in 10 years, HTH

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/28/hospital-admissions-for-injuries-caused-by-dogs-up-76-over-past-10-years

Yes Yambabe, but the dog can pounce or jump on the person. A dog with a muzzle indicates to me that they have issues with biting, and maybe other behaviours, and should always be on a lead in public.

The owner knows the dog can be a bit snappy, so has sensibly taken the precaution to muzzle it. If the dog was prone to jumping up at people don't you think she'd have the good sense to keep the dog on a lead? God, give the op some credit and stop searching for problems that aren't there!

I was in a changing room - undressed - so probably would have been unreasonable to move away! no doubt the appalled shoppers would have thought so anyway.

The point I'm making is that we have to be accepting of everyone that we share the space with.

I agree and like to think that most people are tolerant of dogs and I am happy to be from a nation of animal lovers. However, I think most people have an instinctive reaction around large or aggressive-looking animals which is to move away. They probably have nothing against dogs but just feel scared.

YABU.

I like dogs but I would be cautious of a dog with a muzzle on. If a dog already has a history of nipping people or other animals then I also think it should be on a lead as well.

I love dogs. I love just about every dog I ever see.

But of course some people would be a bit more cautious seeing an off lead dog with a muzzle.

I'm sure you are a lovely responsible dog owner OP, and i'm sure your dog is lovely.

But sadly a lot of people most certainly are not good owners, and unfortunately that can be reflected in the behaviour of the dog.

If it ran passed, how do you know she even saw the muzzle if she didn't comment? She nay have just reacted to a dog running close to her child.

My neighbour jogs with her dog, I never noticed the muzzle for months because they were on the move and i wasn't focused on them.

She has not ‘attacked’ any dogs either. She has nipped some.

That's what dog owners say to minimise the attack. Non dog owners would call it a bite. And if your dog bites other dogs then he is clearly capable of attacking people.

You might love your dog but keep it on a lease, its not rocket science uncontrolled animals are scary and dangerous. Stop making excuses and take responsibility.

So other ddogs have been mentally and physically anguished by your ddog and you accept no responsibility /duty to ensure, this never happens again?
My snowflake of a ddog would prob never cross our door if she had been nipped by another ddog!

those stats though, it's not enough - the serious cases outlined, none of those were dog attacks by members of the public walking down the street. Children being attacked by dogs, I'd put money on that being their dog, and the dogs not being looked after by their family properly.

If you've got stats on how likely you are to be attacked by a random dog and seriously injured, that's what I'd like to know.

I don't know how you can pick up idiots that aren't looking after their own dogs properly, maybe there should be better community policing and reporting of poorly trained dogs as a start.

I find it strange that people are more frightened of a dog with a muzzle (that can’t physically bite) than an unmuzzled dog

No, if she had god forbid delivered a bad bite or multiple bad bites I would be saying ‘she has attacked and severely bitten other dogs’ but she hasn’t.
She has nipped other dogs, so that is what I put in my post.
The truth.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that dog aggressive dogs will also be aggressive to people.

She has never in her life given someone a hard look, let alone a growl or nip!
I have three kids and have many photographs of her with them as babies.
When my DD was younger she would often sneak out of her own bed in the night and me and DH would wake up to find her in the dog bed sleeping with her.
She is absolutely categorically not human aggressive.

those stats though, it's not enough - the serious cases outlined, none of those were dog attacks by members of the public walking down the street
the deaths, i agree. the vast majority are in the family home but you really can't argue against that massive rise in dog attacks?
Over 7000 attacks causing serious enough injury for an a and e vist.
7000 people possibly scarred for life.
Most likely victims to be under 10 years old.
I bet a fair few chunk were attacked at home, but I also bet a fair few were attacked in public places.
Personally I know of 2 people who have been bitten by dogs when they've been in public

again I want to see howmany people are being bitten in the street - and I am agreeing that we should have better community policing to pick up on badly trained dogs to prevent children being hurt in their own homes.

I do think though the question is - 7000 as a fraction of how many dogs?It's not a good idea to teach children to be afraid of low incident events, a lot of life requires proceeding in good faith and punishing people that do not follow the rules.

and the last 10 years dog attacks have risen, what about over a longer horizon? I'd still need to see more data as my gut feeling is that bad dog owners mostly end up hurting their own kids/people they know and that is the issue that needs tackling and talking about first.

aprilshower my dog would never have nipped other dogs had she not been violently attacked more than once by other dogs and suffered quite a few smaller unprovoked aggressive incidents with no contact by other dogs.

When she acted aggressively the first time she was still friendly with 99.9% of other dogs.
Every time she has growled or lip curled at another dog I have been mortified and full of apology for the other owner.

I have spent a lot of time and money trying to understand why she is behaving the way she does and trying to ensure it never happens again.

So I absolutely do accept responsibility and do what I can to try and fix the situation.

For me a muzzle on a dog means the owner is being sensible and taking steps to avoid it biting (and it can't lick or slobber over people too).

I can't really see why anyone would think it was a bad thing.

However, I kind of agree that if it needs a muzzle it also needs a lead.

OP

IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW YOUR DOG IS.
It doesn't matter how many injuries are caused by dogs, or how safe dogs are.

You asked if you were unreasonable to be upset by how this woman with a child reacted to your dog and yes YOU WERE (ARE) BEING UNREASONABLE TO BE UPSET.

Why are you still going on about how nice and safe your dog is?

I absolutely love dogs and would have one if I could.

But since having a baby I have come to detest a certain type of dig owner.

I don't want your dog to run around my legs and clearly sleeping child in her pram. I don't want to spend a hour cleaning shit off my pram wheels. And I definitely don't want your massive (admittedly gorgeous) alsatian leaping at her while she's in my arms.

I have a loud and adventurous toddler. I don't let her approach people in public, I take her away if she's being noisy or otherwise disruptive, and I clean up any mess she makes. If I can do it with my human child, you can do it with your dog children.

Because I was responding to posters saying how dangerous my dog is and that she will bite a person one day because she has nipped a dog and how I take no responsibility for my dogs actions..?

I already said earlier that I knew I was being a bit over sensitive so, is that it then?
Do mumsnet now need to close the thread?

stopwoofing I posted the link in response to you saying you don't believe doga have got any more dangerous over the years.
The link shows that dog attacks have risen massively over the last 10 years at the same time as dog ownership has declined.
So we do have fewer dogs, and more attacks;

Some people can be scared of dogs full stop.
At least your dog had a muzle. I was walking on my own in the Wye valley forest a couple of years ago and this nasty vicious snapping mongrel thing came charging along the path behind me and trying to bite at my ankles.
Then in the far distance the owner blows a whistle and the dog ran straight back.
Then a couple of minutes later it's back again....owner recalls.
Happened about 10 times but however slowly I went, the owner never came into view!
I shouted down the path, 'Get your dog on a lead or I'll wack it!'
They then went down another path.
Total nutty owners, too scared to face others when their dog is being nasty.

Your ddog reactions now can damage other ddogs!! My husky was jumped by a terrier last year, for a good while she approached other ddogs not in her usual friendly self, more on guard for another attach coming. Some ddogs attack as a prevention of an attack!! Your ddog has likely altered the nature /behaviour of all dogs it has nipped!! Can you not accept that and agree it's wrong? You saying sorry to an owner isn't getting through to their ddog I am afraid!! A muzzle +lead will go a long way to showing and taking responsibility for an unpredictable ddog - which is what you now have.

I do think though the question is - 7000 as a fraction of how many dogs?It's not a good idea to teach children to be afraid of low incident events
taken against population of dogs gives you roughly a 0.1% chance of being bitten.
Given that each person will encounter literally hundreds of random dogs each year when out and about, I find that a worryingly high number,

stopwoofing - according to the pdsa there are around 8.9 million pet dogs (with 24% of the adult population owning a dog) - so even if the 7,000 bites were all by separate dogs its a tiny tiny proportion. as most attacks are in homes by family pets the numbers relating to public attacks by random dogs must be virtually unrecordable, obviously awful for those involved but it is a possibility so remote it doesn't really warrant the hysteria often seen on here.

I am well aware of this *

As I said earlier, my dog does not generally approach other dogs.
The muzzle ensures that she cannot nip any that approach her.

I have spent considerable time and money trying to fix this, because I absolutely do appreciate that it is damaging for other dogs!

I would also say aswell that before she started reacting to most dogs, I was regularly told by doggy people not to worry about her growling and lip curling because it was normal, that she was just ‘correcting’ rude behaviour of setting boundaries!

When it became clear that actually that was not the case I stopped letting her meet many dogs.
But I can’t do anything about ones that approach her.