Neighbours dog has just attacked me and DD.

[katkat90]

Have had issues with them in the past

They are elderly, with two large breed dogs (think Great Danes?). They cannot control them. Honestly the amount of times I have seen them nearly pull them over in the street/simply pull out of their grasp and go bouncing off and jumping all over people is untrue.

Was walking back from the shop and saw them coming from a distance so I stepped to the side into another neighbours driveway and next thing I know- one of them had pulled out of its owners grasp and came bounding over and knocked DD (who is just about getting confident with her toddling) over.

It was over in seconds- by the time I put the break on the pram (was stood on a slopes drive so it would of ran off into the road) and went to grab DD she was already on the floor the dog barking at her- so I kicked it to get it away, and it bit my leg.

I was furious. Owner very embarrassed an apologetic but I’ve said enough is enough and I would be contacting the police and the RSPCA.

Heaven forbid it bounded on the pram and just decided to bite my 2 week old. It would of taken her head off no doubt.

V shaken and waiting for DH to get home to call the police and RSPCA.

I’ve also messaged his daughter on Facebook

If the dog immediately retaliated with a bite I doubt it was seriously injured. A panicked kick to a large dog is not likely to cause serious harm.

Coach that sounds awful, thank god your DH managed to save your DS. He did absolutely the right thing here. It was clearly a bad dog attack. If a dog attacked my child like that I wouldn’t hesitate to try and kill it. In the process I would expect to be bitten.

But that is if a dog was attacking my child. In this case there was not an attack by the dog. People asking why they should learn to interact with dogs this surely proves why. Yes in an ideal world all dogs should be under control but they are not always surely it’s in your best interests to learn what to do. No one on here has said anything but the owners should have had control of the dogs, but they hadn’t . The OP was faced with a situation, had she had more knowledge of what to do this would probably have ended with the child being accidentally knocked over and a barking dog. What people are saying is the OPs actions made the situation worse and could have made it a lot worse. If the dog was vicious it could have easily been triggered by the kick to attack the Toddler (see above as to what could have happened) the op got away lightly and so than god did her DD All anyone has said is to educate herself to make herself and child safer in the future.

Wordthe - i'm gobsmaked. I can't find the words.

It was an unfortunate accident. I understand that OP was protective, and she acted on instinct, bit it only escalated the situation.

You are right Dottie that’s exactly what a dog attack is like.
Huge chunks of flesh missing, repeated strikes and if you are lucky, being stitched up on A&E instead of bleeding out. Massive scarring.
And you want us to not be proactive about preventing that from happening? You want us to wait and see, read the signs and hope?
No.

Actually Dottie I like dogs.

Dog owners , who defend badly owned dogs over terrified toddlers, not do much.

Mostly dog owners do not display as much outrageous victim-blaming as they are doing on this thread.

@PinkGin24 I thought you approve of violence towards others? You did recently on a thread about hitting children.

It wasn't an unfortunate accident. It was a terrifying incident caused by bad dog ownership.

At the very least the dogs should be taken away from those bloody stupid owners.

we dont care if the dog is killed any more than we care about rats
it is just vermin to non dog owners

Says a lot, and im not a dog owner

@imsticklady, i said i agree with parents smacking naughty children, so yes I must agree with violence to all humans utter hysteria....

What I meant with a them being a dopey bugger is that big dogs often make people scared and uncomfortable just because of their size.

But their actions add to that. Doesn't matter the size of the dog, this dog's actions put OP on edge. Dopey or not that is enough to make someone react

If a dog attacked my child like that I wouldn’t hesitate to try and kill it. In the process I would expect to be bitten
we should not have predators capable of causing serious harm in urban settings, we shouldnt have to educate ourselves about fending off dangerous dogs any more than we should wolves, bears or other predators

Benefit of hindsight Chardonnay

No, actually, DeadBudgie several
Posters are actually havjng a go at the OP for her reaction.

Fucking dog owners who think the world revolves around their bloody dogs.

^^
This.

If a member of the public knocked my toddler down then stood over him shouting I might well lash out physically.

As a side note it is actually very difficult to get between a fallen child and a large dog that is standing over it barking - where would you stand exactly, on said child? And if you bend over to scoop up said child you're putting your head at jaw level - not wise if the bloody thing does then attack. Shouting might work - or might escalate the situation.

Personally I carry pepper spray- which I started carrying following a really vicious dog attack many years ago.

If you're in the UK pepper spray is illegal. Deodorant works a treat tho as a legal alternative

I can't believe some people are actually blaming the OP for this!

I'm a horse person, I do not expect everyone to know how to react around my horse and I account for that by taking into consideration where and when I ride, and don't ride alone away from private land to minimise the risk to others should something happen like I come off and lose control.
And I bet if I started saying that everyone should go and educate themselves on how to deal with a horse in case they ever come across an out of control horse, I'd be told - rightly - that horses should be under control in public places.
I'm a dog person too, and I am upset sometimes about how dogs are treated and how some people want them banned from everywhere, but I'm also upset by the sheer arrogance of some dog owners blaming people unwittingly put in situations like this and demanding people with no interest in dogs to tolerate out of control and poorly trained dogs, not just tolerate but actively learn how to deal with it and how they 'should' react instead of placing the blame where it belongs - with the owners!

Not really, Tut, I cannot think of a single situation that would not benefit from the participants staying calm and rational.

Again, I understand OP was scared and protective,

Chakira

No PhD in dog psychology needed. Have to READ your previous paragraph? Seems like you’ve had to carry out a fair bit of analysis, TBH.

The dog DID attack someone: it bounded up and knocked over the OP’s wee one, then started barking at it. Just put yourself in the wee one’s shoes: how terrifying must that ordeal have been?

Dog owners: we DO. NOT. CARE. why your dog is displaying overt signs of aggression. Quit making excuses for owners’ poor control of their animals, or claim nonsense like “It’s not being aggressive, just playful”. We don’t know that, and loud barking, particularly from a huge dog, is terrifying for most.

My 74 year old mother recently received a very nasty bite on her firearm from a wee shit of a terrier. Stitches needed, tetanus, antibiotics. Pain, discomfort, inconvenience. When she told the owner “That dog’s dangerous”, the woman claimed “Not dangerous, just nervous”. Jesus Christ, it beggars belief.

For those dog owners too busy making pathetic excuses for their violent, aggressive animals to bother to inform themselves, here’s a link to the law on out of control dugs. It’s completely unambiguous.

www.gov.uk/control-dog-public

It’s against the law to let a dog be dangerously out of control anywhere, such as:

in a public place
in a private place, for example a neighbour’s house or garden
in the owner’s home
The law applies to all dogs.

Out of control
Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it:

injures someone
makes someone worried that it might injure them

It doesn’t say “...if it makes someone worried that it might injure them but only if that someone doesn’t know the nuances of the dog’s breed/personality/characteristics and so doesn’t realise it’s just being friendly”.

FFS.

Whether the OP was right or wrong to kick the dog the responsibility must lie with the dog owners. It is their fault for having badly trained and poorly restrained dogs.

@PinkGin24 right so the dog wasn't misbehaving then?

Can't you see how flawed your argument is? It's quite comical really

Yes I know its illegal but I had 17 stiches after the first attack so I dont care. Thanks for the tip about deoderant though.

*forearm. If she’d been packing, I imagine the whole incident might have turned out differently.