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

Please don't mistake those of us who want to prevent preventable incidents (by trying, however badly, to educate the people responding to this who have said they would kick too) for that being us having a go at the OP for her reaction.

Just to be clear. Many of us posting "what to do instead of kicking" are trying to prevent future accidents for the people reading this; NOT having a go at the OP (although I can see some people are).

We simply can see how the situation escalated, and are keen to prevent escalation in any similar situations anybody reading may be unfortunate enough find themselves in.

@imsticklady, it is a large dog that knocked over an unsteady child. No, not misbehaving. Also, KICKING an animal.is not the same as a parent smacking a child as part of general discipline. Tbh I should be flattered you pay that much attention to me to remember my post on a hundred and hundred odd page thread about smacking children. Or are you just that sad....

'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'

you make it sound like we are only allowed to object if the dog causes life threatening injuries

www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/dangerous-dog-offences
*A dog shall be regarded as dangerously out of control on any occasion on which there are grounds for reasonable apprehension that it will injure any person or assistance dog, whether or not it actually does so

Firstly if a large dog came bounding over and bumped my dd over which has actually happened. I would not be a total dick and kick out at the dog, OP has made it clear from the start she has no time or patience for the dogs.

Drama queens will always try and make more out of a situation than what there actually is.

As someone who is not afraid of animals and have raised her child in not being afraid and how to handle certain situations. I can assure you this situation was nothing more than an over excited dog, which retaliated when no doubt kicked quite hard and hurt by OP. I do hope that pet owners will take this further with the police and rspca.

BarbarianMum i fully understand your mindset! Just wanted to suggest an alternative as sadly I know someone who used pepper spray to defend herself against someone who attacked her - she got done for a firearms offence! Disgusting i know

OP, I hope you're okay and have managed to calm you DD down. This dog has had a poor upbringing based on your OP. It doesn't deserve to be put down, it deserves to be rehomed and trained how to behave (if possible at this stage).
What you did was follow your instincts. You protected your child the best way you knew how in the heat of the moment. Am I right in assuming you haven't had much experience of big dogs or dogs at all? It can be even more scary if you haven't as what others may see as "talking" (barking), you saw this as a threat. It's very possible that the dog meant no harm and wasn't trying to be aggressive. Regardless of the dogs intentions, it scared you and your daughter and worse, it physically bit you. You shouldn't have had to go through that. I believe you need to report this. I also think you need to ensure that this doesn't cause a life long fear of dogs for your DD. If nothing else, it must make the world a much scarier place if you see all dogs as a threat. Teach her that this was a case of bad owners, not a bad dog. Teach her that, just like people, some dogs are lovely and friendly, some are too enthusiastic, some can be quiet, some can be aggressive.

Beaverhausen the police are not going to give a shit that OP kicked the dog. The dog was out of control & thus legally a dangerous dog. That trumps kicking at a dog to defend your child every day of the week

@beaverhausen some with some sense!! OP clearly has a grudge against said dogs/owners. Good point re. owners taking ut further - it is animal abuse after all.

it is a large dog that knocked over an unsteady child. No, not misbehaving.

It is a large dog that broke its lead to bound over to a child and, regardless of how steady that child was (do you know unsteady? When mine was 2 he was rock solid without outside forces), knocked the child to the ground, which is inherently dangerous.

That is a dog misbehaving. Moreover, it is, by definition, a dog dangerously out of control.

If you think that is a dog behaving well, I fear you are one of those dog owners who give the rest a bad name.

It's glaringly obvious that many of you dog people expect the rest of us to bow down before the needs of your pets

@wordthe i suggest you head to the dogs in coffee shops thread. You would have a field day - though you would be in the minority as (shock horror!) most sane people love dogs.

I'm a dog person. No longer an owner sadly. I still am firmly in the 'report it to the police' camp. And yep, i agree that many defending this dog are probably the type of dog owners that give the rest of us bad rep

I don’t quite get people who think a dog is more precious than a child. I cannot tell you the number of aggressive dogs I’ve had to pull off my dc. We live in a very ‘second homes for Londoners’ part of the countryside. Every idiot with no knowledge of dogs seems to have a dog, mostly working breeds, than are probably never exercised and certainly never trained. It’s terrifying. Two large breed dogs got between my 5 year old and my dh with a pram and pinned my 5 year old screaming to a tree. You can teach a small child all you want about being ‘calm’ around dogs, but when separated from a parent and terrified by two large aggressive dogs, most adults would struggle not to panic. I literally don’t take my dc out to certain parks or walks anymore as they are so afraid after so many scary incidents of out of control dogs. So yes, absolutely report it.

Any sane person would do exactly that if a person knocked their child over and acted aggressively at attempts to defend them as a result. Dogs don’t get a free pass because they are precious little dogs. If another toddler came at mine holding a knife (as sharp as a dogs teeth) and pushed my 2 year old to the ground, I would certainly react defensively as any normal person would.

Gosh there are some charmers on here - as always on a dog thread

But pps are correct - the dog did not ‘attack’ it knocked over the child and barked. Obviously not an acceptable situation but not an aggressive one either. Kicking a dog is only going to escalate any situation and is best avoided FOR YOUR OWN SAKE

By all means report the owners for not having the dog under control

OP gone.
This sooo happened.
I do not expect others to bow down to my dog. I expect my well behaved dog to leave members of the public the fuck alone unless they are known to her or ask to say hi. I have spent many many many hours training her to behave in public. She won’t run up to strangers, jump up or generally be a PITA.
No dog owner should allow a dog to get out of control in public. But then they also ought to pick up dog shit and we all know that doesn’t always happen.
It’s not the fault of the dog.
Blame the owners.
Kicking a dog will only escalate the situation.

Jesus that sounds really scary! I would've kicked it too and I am a dog owner. Hope you've managed to report it by now OP.

Benefit of hindsight Chardonnay

As someone who is not afraid of animals and have raised her child in not being afraid and how to handle certain situations.

I was that smug parent until some dick let their dog run up to my eldest, bark in his face and knock him sideways because it was ‘over excited’ when he was tiny. Took me five years to undo that fucker’s idiocy to the point where DS1 is only mildly nervous, rather than terrified, around dogs.

But sure. A woman whose two year old has just been knocked over and is being barked at by a huge dog, while the baby she gave birth to two weeks ago is in the pram beside her should absolutely not panic and should be a model of rationality, restraint and expertise in dog behaviour.

(Disclaimer: Love dogs. Grew up with many lovely dogs. Do not have dogs now as my lifestyle would be unfair to them. Have low tolerance for fuckwittage, whether dog-related or on other subjects.)

Respect to the helpful dog owners spreading awareness and those blaming the owners.

Beavethausen, PinkGin and your pack: it doesn’t matter what the dog’s intent is: imagine being that child lying in the ground with an animal the size of a Shetland Pony, twice as big as you, standing over you barking loudly and in doing so showing it’s teeth.

You are not helping people understand dogs, be empathetic to dogs or listen to dog owners. You are giving dog owners a bad name.

Are half of you lot mental? Making excuses for an out of control dog? Ffs 🙄 and telling someone to turn their back on what they assume to be an aggressive dog? Good luck with that.
Report to police, the law states that dogs must be under control and those dogs are not. Clearly the owners can't handle them and maybe they should be removed. Hope your DD isn't shaken. And those saying "oh it didn't break the skin, obviously not meaning to bite you", sounds more like it missed it's target to me. Dogs do not come before humans, get over it.

The dog should not have been loose, out of control and knocking children over BUT you can have the moral high ground and get bitten, or you can have the moral high ground and not get bitten. Please read ChakiraChakra’s post to understand all the things that went wrong and what one can do to have the moral high ground and not get bitten.

The Dog Warden is the most appropriate person to call. He will probably give the owners some advice on managing the dogs, as the dog didn’t bite anyone, it tore trousers.

I used to wonder why people hated dog owners so much. This thread has confirmed exactly why

Wordthe is clearly in the all dogs should be kept in their back gardens because I don’t like them and will become violently hysterical is they come within 200 feet brigade. She is not actually reading what anyone is writing, there are no dog apologists on this thread people who understand more about dogs are just trying to strip away the hysteria which the usual anti dog mn mob are trying to whip up. In summary

1. The owners are rubbish at not being able to control their dogs. This needs addressing no one has argued with this it sounds like the dog breed is not suitable for the owners
2. The dog seems to have accidentally knocked over a child unsteady on their feet, we don’t know how, with a newly toddling child the dog could simply have brushed past, the op doesn’t say the dog jumped u or anything.
3. The dog was barking. We don’t what this means was it barking in excitement joining in with lots of noise? Was it snarling bearing its teeth? So we can’t really know what this means

4 the op kicked the dog which the dog would have viewed as an attack. How a dog reacts to a kick is completely unpredictable

1. The op was lucky and the dog stopped the perceived attack on itself by using its mouth with insufficient force to break the skin which people with experience of dogs have said would have been a lot worse and sustained if the dog was actually attacking. The dog was basically dog the equivant of putting up its arms and pushing off the attacker.
2. People can be hysterical
3. People refuse to take steps which would protect themselves and their kids as it would get in the way of their mantra a dog shouldn’t have any impact on them. Well no it shouldn’t. But you know what lots of things shouldn’t impact me but I educate myself what to do if I’m in that situation. Life doesn’t always run by your rules. You have a responsibility to both yourself and family to educate yourself as to what you should do if things do go wrong! Or do you apply this rights without responsibility to all aspects of your life, I don’t learn to cross the road because I don’t have a car and they should just stop, I don’t learn what to do if my child falls in a pool because someone should have fenced it off, I don’t know what to do in a terrorist attack because they’re acting illegally!