Put my foot out at dog running

[AlexForrestBunny]

I was out with my 3year old daughter this morning at the field/ children’s park which is a couple of minutes walk from my house, all normal and fairly quiet as the weather isn’t great.
It’s a large enclosed area so there is a mix of people walking their dogs and children playing, all fine - dogs are allowed off their leads and never seen or had issues before today.
My daughter was walking next to me and I had my baby in a carrier on my chest, I heard a man shouting ‘he’s fine, don’t panic’ so I turned to see and there was a large dog running towards us, I like dogs so not one to panic if they jump up or come over to say hello but this dog was pretty big ( husky sort) and was running straight towards my daughter. Now I wasn’t thinking ‘omg it’s a crazed dog going to bite’ it was more ‘shit, it’s going to knock her off her feet running into her to say hello’ , I had the baby on my chest so my reaction was to stand in front of her and as it got upto us I put my foot to the side to stop it jumping on my daughter.
I didn’t kick it, but the guy went crazy saying how dare I touch a friendly dog with my foot, he doesn’t bite and he loves children.
I told him he seems very friendly, he was trying to jump up on a small child so I was stopping my child from being hurt, maybe he should train him not to run at children.
He then started a rant about reporting me to the police for battering a dog and people like me should be on a poster?!
AIBU that my reaction was to put my foot out to a dog?

I had a dog run into my knee and push it back the wrong way, hurt and took me years to get over.

Conversely my first dog as a puppy, around 13 weeks old so very little, first off lead walk, no one about and we let him off the woods. Of course the second I did a mum, dad and toddler melted out of the trees and dog ran up and jumped on toddler. He'd never really seen a little-little kid before. I felt awful, was very apologetic and gave the dog a bollocking. We walked round for a few minutes together, dog never did it again and toddler was chill by the end. Didn't cover myself in glory but we did stop a situation from becoming a phobia, and dog never done it again.

OP I'd have done exactly the same as you.

Those people asking what the best thing to do if an out of control big dog approaches

Put yourself between the dog and your DC. Stand still, feet planted slightly apart and knees the tiniest bit bent.

Hold your arms slightly away from your sides but do not raise them towards the dog.

Stare at the dog.

If it continues to approach, as it gets closer, straighten your legs, deep breath and puff out your chest, making yourself as big as possible.

Give a stern, simple command in your loudest voice (stop, down, no, wait etc) without shouting or screaming, as these tones indicate fear (save that for the stupid owners afterwards).

Do not stop staring it down until it turns away.

Even if it is close enough, do not raise a hand or foot at it as that can make it attack when it would have backed down.

Unfortunately, a truly aggressive dog is not going to be deterred by anything we can normally do ourselves but an over friendly dog or a juvenile dog testing boundaries will normally back away from an aggressive but defensive response.

Absolutely hate it when a dog comes bowling towards us with young kids and the owner shouts "it's OK they're friendly!"
It doesn't matter if they are friendly, they have no right to come jumping up at people. The amount of times my little ones have ended up filthy because a dog has jumped up at them with muddy paws is ridiculous.
And we have a dog so I'm not anti dog at all!

I love dogs and own three myself but am nervous of dogs running at me, including my own, after someone’s golden retriever ran full tilt into my knee while playing. It bent the whole joint backwards and did a huge amount of damage. The knee will never be right again.
My labrador is the friendliest dog ever but vocalises when she is excited and playing and likes to body slam. My other dogs are used to it and will happily play with her but to most other dogs and their owners it looks and sounds quite scary so she has to go on the lead when other dogs are off lead and look like they might want to play.

I think it’s worth writing to the council about this. Things won’t change unless people inform them of these incidents. If they receive lots of reports of things like this happening, they might consider dog parks and dog-free parks, or at the very least put signs up reminding owners that if they cannot control their dog they need to be on a lead, etc. In any case, nothing will change unless they know about the problem.

Don't stare at a dog 🤦 staring is aggressive and means you want to one of the three effs- fight, fuck or feed.

The man is a complete idiot.

Aged 3 my DD was knocked over by a large puppy who jumped up at her (DD was with a grandparent at the time). She banged the back of her head as she fell, but luckily it was on the soft floor of the play area. I'm relieved DD didn't become scared of dogs and still asks for one on a daily basis

I would be absolutely furious with the man and keep a look out for him so I could tell him my opinion when I wasn't so taken aback.

As the mum of four medium-large dogs who need a good run each day, how do you think you teach recall without being able to do it in public? A dog can be 100% at home, take it somewhere that there’s sniffs and it can become a different dog.

Saying that, I do yell at mine if they even think of going up to someone. 99.9% of the time they come back, but there’s always that 0.1% where they show you up. Most people find it funny, especially when I apologise and say he/she is in dick mode today, but I think their breed has something to do with that. Most people want to talk to them.

It does drive me mad though that a child can cycle up to a dog and you can’t put your foot out (yes my late husband was arrested for this, the child kept going for our dog and it was obvious what the child was doing. The mum said he was just being a child but he would’ve seriously hurt our dog and she’s never been the same since), yet if you do it at a dog it’s deemed fair game.

My dogs are as much of my family as my DD, and I won’t let any of them annoy anyone on purpose, but I’d be just as happy for someone to tell my dog off as I would for them to tell my DD off.

He sounds like a bully to be honest. How dare he sound off at a young mother trying to protect her child from being knocked over.

There are lots of stupid dog owners like that. They will never listen to reason or see anyone else's point of view, so no point arguing. He was a dick.

As the mum of four medium-large dogs
You gave birth to 4 medium-large dogs?

And your husband was arrested for attacking a child?
Is your husband a dog 🤷🏼‍♀️

I mean was he the father of the dogs and therefore a dog himself?

[quote Whammyyammy]YANBU.Let him report you, he was actually breaking the law. From government site:

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

injures someone

makes someone worried that it might injure them

www.gov.uk/control-dog-public[/quote]
This. Absolutely this. How are you supposed to know that a dog is friendly? Absolutely hate people like this. If your dog won’t respond to your command, then it should be on a lead in public. If you see him again, have your phone at the ready and film the dog. You were absolutely in the right there.

@oil0W0lio
🤣🤣

YANBU My boy became terrified of dogs after one running up to him and jumping up when he was little. At 13 he is only just getting to the point of not panicking when a dog is near.

I have a small and very soppy dog but I still never allow him to approach children. I don't know if the child is afraid or likely to grab or poke him. I don't know how the parents feel about dogs so we call him back or pop him back on the lead if we see young children ahead. Doesn't matter if he's friendly. Yanbu to try and get between him and your child.

He was a dickhead op. So many dog owners give the good ones a bad name!

DS was chased by a puppy on a beach when he was 2. Puppy only playing but DS was terrified. Owners thought it was hilarious until I picked up their puppy and suddenly they were terrified I might hurt it (I wouldn't have done).

I think they got the point that in the same way they didn't know if I was the sort to hurt a dog, I didn't know for sure that their dog might hurt my DS. Hopefully they learned to keep it under control.

This happened to me when I was a kid, a big dog charged and knocked me over in the park and the (male) owner then shouted at my DM to keep her child under control She was not impressed. I agree that some dog owners give the others a bad name. For the record, we were just walking in the park, not going up the dog or anything. I've also had another incident where a dog bit me and the owner told me it was because I 'hadn't been around their house for a while so the dog had forgotten me' (it was a friend's family dog). It just charged out the front door and bit me on the thigh out of nowhere. It does seem like a lot of people don't want to train their dogs properly (or don't know how to maybe, I don't know).