Dog barked at my child

[Kitchendrama1]

We were at the park and two year old was having a moment so sat down on the pavement. Dog came over and barked at him. Dog went away. It felt ok and I was looking out.

We started to do a lap of the oval and big again started to stare and bark from us at a distance and wasn’t looking at the other dog he was playing with, or his owner. Dog was getting closer (but also stopped). I grabbed kid and went.

Was the kid in danger?

My dog barks at my kids when they are crying as if to ask them if they are OK, he'll bark then run around them to get them to come and play.

when my daughter was a baby and a right screamer, she did get a reaction from passing dogs. Some would pop out of their houses or come over almost as if concerned whether she was OK - others would bark as if they were telling her to shut the fuck up. I'm not a huge dog person myself but I didn't get the sense that any intended to maul her, just that they were responding to something unpleasant/distressing in their environment.

It would be good if you can educate yourself a little on dog behaviour, I don't mean that patronisingly at all, but if you are ever in a situation like that again it would probably help you deal with it. If you get stressed and anxious, you may not respond in the best way and it may escalate things with the dog, even if it meant no harm.

@CandidaAlbicans2

YANBU I love dogs, have owned a few large guarding breed ones, yet I find it intimidating when approached by a strange, not obviously friendly, dog, especially if it's barking at me/staring/following. It's difficult to know what its intentions are, and it can be so unsettling if the owner isn't paying attention or if the dog ignores a recall command (ie it's not under control!).

There are huge numbers of ill-trained, poorly socialised, dogs around, made worse by WFH people buying pups but no puppy classes being held. And huge numbers of owners who seem blissfully unaware of dog behaviour and how things can go wrong, eg things like "trigger stacking". It's worrying.

Completely agree. Post after post of people taking the piss. They're either not dog owners or they're bad ones. Again and again I've met absolute twits with aggressive dogs who think they're totally harmless because they dont growl.

Growling is only one sign of aggression and it typically means "fuck off" not "come here and let me eat you".

The OP did go on to clarify the dog was stood stock still, tail up and straight and kept staring at the child. And the OP felt threatened. These are all bad signs.

Dogs don't like eye contact. Their nature is to look away, as to appease each other and show they are non threatening.

Check out the offensive aggression:

images.app.goo.gl/AJVn3FfczqeehqYY6

@brazenandstrange

My dog barks at people in hats. She really can't work out hats at all! Barking stops if they take their hats off. Weird.

I have a few friends who breed and show dogs. They take them to "ringcraft" classes to get used to being handled by show judges, and as part of that, they get the person "judging" to put on hats, glasses etc so that dogs get used to them.

My mother had a smooth fox terrier that barked at nuns. Which was unfortunate, as there was a convent on the edge of the village they lived in.

Her sister had one of his pups, who barked at boys in wellingtons. Same boy in different footwear attracted no barking whatsoever.

Neither of them bit anyone, but they did have a goose that was an utter bastard and used to nip people all the time. Even the fox terriers were scared of the goose.

A random dog shouldn't just bark at your child. That owner has no control and shouldn't be off the lead if it's going to do that.

Your child could've been in danger and it's lucky you were alert. The problem with most bad dog owners who have bad recalls on their dog think they own the park and their dog doesn't need a lead.

@ladycarlotta

when my daughter was a baby and a right screamer, she did get a reaction from passing dogs. Some would pop out of their houses or come over almost as if concerned whether she was OK - others would bark as if they were telling her to shut the fuck up. I'm not a huge dog person myself but I didn't get the sense that any intended to maul her, just that they were responding to something unpleasant/distressing in their environment.

It would be good if you can educate yourself a little on dog behaviour, I don't mean that patronisingly at all, but if you are ever in a situation like that again it would probably help you deal with it. If you get stressed and anxious, you may not respond in the best way and it may escalate things with the dog, even if it meant no harm.

I wasn’t stressed or anxious. I acted in a way I naturally felt was correct and In keeping with the environment.

I wouldn’t expect to be barked at and to have a 2 year old barked at is very unsafe IMO

*I wasn’t stressed or anxious. I acted in a way I naturally felt was correct and In keeping with the environment.

I wouldn’t expect to be barked at and to have a 2 year old barked at is very unsafe IMO*

OK but you were so unsure about what happened and how safe your child was that you had to ask on mumsnet. I'm not having a dig, I'm saying it genuinely sounds like you were uncertain, and uncertainty tends not to always be conducive to keeping a cool head.

A random dog shouldn't just bark at your child

My dog would bark at a child sat on the floor purely to get her attention to play.

Barking doesn’t equal aggression. Growling is a warning that the dog isn’t happy and might snap. Barking tends to be a greeting.

I disagree I think we could do with a lot less humans personally lol

Maybe a big pandemic will kill a few million lol

*the child, I mean, not yours.

@Againstmachine

Can we all agree that however much some of us love our pets, pets are animals and humans are humans and humans are more important than animals? I say this as a cat lover.

Doesn't mean that everywhere had to be for children.(I didn't say humans in my post)

And no humans are part of a big eco system we are no more important than many animals l.

If you're telling me that mother earth, gaia, is more important than humans then I agree, but if we're going down this path then humans and trees joint top, cats and dogs further down ;-)

@ladycarlotta

*I wasn’t stressed or anxious. I acted in a way I naturally felt was correct and In keeping with the environment.

I wouldn’t expect to be barked at and to have a 2 year old barked at is very unsafe IMO*

OK but you were so unsure about what happened and how safe your child was that you had to ask on mumsnet. I'm not having a dig, I'm saying it genuinely sounds like you were uncertain, and uncertainty tends not to always be conducive to keeping a cool head.

It’s an AIBU.

Hence looking for feedback.

It’s not my child btw. It’s a child I was caring for.

@sashh

Maybe the dog had canine ASD and can't make appropriate eye contact. Or it might have some other form or special needs, if it has poor eyesight it might need to focus.

If it was my dog then he certainly wasn't staring at any one - he's half blind!

It's odd how the OP just knew that the dog was staring at her kid rather than eg a leaf, pile of cat shit, some thing generally in that direction

So not your child, who does the child belong to?

My dog barks at people in hats. She really can't work out hats at all! Barking stops if they take their hats off. Weird.
@brazenandstrange, what have you done in the way of training to address this?

While training can often lessen reactivity (ie barking at things the dog is unreasonably scared of, such as hat wearers) it's often not possible to completely resolve matters - the dog will often still have some nervousness around hat wearers.

Mine (who, as a side note, is a rescue) is reactive, and while we can normally walk down the road in a reasonably civilised fashion (thanks to much training, and input from a behaviourist), sometimes there will be a really scary example of his trigger that he won't cope with.

Today he coped with very little because my landlord has sent in builders. The trigger stacking from seeing strangers in the garden (they might have been burglars! Or axe murderers!) meant he was pretty much on a hair trigger. He barked at all sorts - even things that wouldn't normally worry him - because he was already in a bad place. It hasn't been a good day.

For many dogs, no matter how much training you put into them, complete normality just isn't achievable. Many well qualified behaviourists and trainers have (rescue) dogs with deep seated, unresolvable behaviour issues.

In such cases, suggesting training for that dog is like suggesting parenting classes will fix a child with ASD.

You mean the dog comes up to the child within 2 metres and barks at the child.

My dog sometimes barks at other dogs asking them to play. if the child was on the ground it maybe that the dog thought it was a potential playmate. Noone can answer your question if the child was in danger as none of us know the dog.

Probably telling your child to shut up !

@LaetitiaASD

I'd relax and look on the bright side - yet another irresponsible dog owner who can't be bothered to keep their dog under control may well have put your toddler off dogs for life, reducing the future pressure on you to get a puppy you don't want.

Eh ?

My dog, who is very small, cute, white, and fluffy, is absolutely infatuated with children. He grew up with young children.

When he sees a child, he wags his tail madly, and strains on his leash to get to them. If he does he just wants love, wagging his whole body. He wants to lick etc., and play.

I keep him under control but it always saddens me when the child shrinks back in fear. He has managed to win over a few children in our building, but some are so terrified of dogs they can't bring themselves to pet him even though you can see they want to.

It is sad to see, especially as dogs are the closest species to us.

Probably telling your child to shut up !

As a adult this is probably true we all want your kid to shut up

ha ha, dog barked at my child, brilliant

@LoveFall

My dog, who is very small, cute, white, and fluffy, is absolutely infatuated with children. He grew up with young children.

When he sees a child, he wags his tail madly, and strains on his leash to get to them. If he does he just wants love, wagging his whole body. He wants to lick etc., and play.

I keep him under control but it always saddens me when the child shrinks back in fear. He has managed to win over a few children in our building, but some are so terrified of dogs they can't bring themselves to pet him even though you can see they want to.

It is sad to see, especially as dogs are the closest species to us.

Your dog is on a lead.

I keep him under control but it always saddens me when the child shrinks back in fear

He wants to lick etc., and play

Maybe they just don't want to play or be licked. I detest dogs licking me and always have.

I keep him under control but it always saddens me when the child shrinks back in fear

He wants to lick etc., and play

Why does it make you sad that children don’t want to be licked by your dog that two minutes earlier has probably been licking another dog’s arsehole or sniffing some shit?