Dangerous dog near miss?

[volcan]

I feel l Iike we had a near miss today and I feel awful about it. DC (5) was cycling around a housing estate where I was visiting a friend when he disappeared off round a corner with a group of kids. It was away from the main road so I wasn't overly concerned but when they didn't appear around the next corner I walked over to investigate. What I found was a massive bully type dog walking alongside my DC whilst it's owner was frantically trying to get it back into the house. The owner being a petite young girl holding a tiny baby. The dog was totally ignoring her and carried on tracking my DS. I told my DS to slow down so the dog would stop 'chasing' him and we got back to the car safely. My heart was in my mouth and still is. When I asked my DS what had happened he said the dog has escaped and he was trying to catch it to help the woman. I know this has been done a million times but my AIBU is that people should be prosecuted for allowing these animals out in public uncontrolled?

Hyperbole. Your 5 yo should be supervised and know about dog behaviour.

AND dogs should be under full control.

With BOTH of these things, there would never be an issue. Only one is in your control.

Well dogs and small children should be under control on the streets for their own safety

Doesn't sound like the dog was dangerous though if your son was chasing it and it did nothing

I would have been scared by that too. Don’t know why posters are pretending the breed doesn’t matter, or that it’s a parent’s responsibility to supervise their children in order to prevent them being chased by dogs. The dog shouldn’t have been out, following a child. A petite woman with a baby is going to struggle to hold the bully, and her baby is at risk too.

What was dangerous about the dog?

I don’t think dogs should be allowed out by themselves, no. And would have been freaked out by this. But hell no would my 5 year old go cycling off out of my sight on a housing estate (or anywhere public for that matter) 😱 I’d be more worried about other humans harming him than dogs. Not saying lock him up, throw away the bike, just maybe keep a closer eye??

Obviously any dog can bite, border collies are actually known for biting - particularly children.

Herding instinct is actually just a hunting instinct without the kill.

when he disappeared off round a corner with a group of kids

is when I would have followed my 5 year old kid to check any dangers btw…

How was the dog dangerous?
https://inews.co.uk/news/american-bully-xl-dogs-too-dangerous-walk-surge-fatal-attacks-2395632

Obviously yanbu, sorry people have no reason when it comes to dogs. Apparently it's worse of you to let him a few feet ahead round a corner but she's fine to let the dog escape. OK then.

Don’t be childish OP. You know what people are saying to you. You should have had a closer eye on your 5 year old and not let him out of your sight. You were at fault with this, you were not looking after him properly. And then a dog walked next to him. I hate dogs and avoid them personally, but this was really not a big deal.

I’m surprised that people think a 5 year old (and older too, I assume) shouldn’t be allowed to cycle round the block on a housing estate pavement on his own. Normally, a poster who wouldn’t let her child do anything unsupervised would be criticised. Can’t win, eh!

I agree with this poster and you OP. I wouldn’t like it either and these dogs can flip at seemingly anything, it shouldn’t have been out in public.

I wouldn't let my daughter cycle round a corner beside a road out of sight at that age, no. Aside from the risk of cars, I don't like not being able to see her when she's on a bike.

The dog shouldn't have been free and I might have felt uncomfortable about it, but framing it as a near miss and dangerous when nothing actually happened is OTT and over-dramatic. 'Bull breed' doesn't just mean XL Bullies either. A lot of people don't actually understand what they are v a totally standard dog like a Staffy.

Non event . Nothing happened. How was this dog "tracking " your child op ?

Your child chased it
It did nothing aggressive
It walked with him,or followed him ?

That's not a dog dangerously out of control any more than your child was , out of your sight and not under your supervision.

And nothing happened!

Your entitled to not like those dogs but it didn't actually do anything!

Maybe you need to watch your child and teach them not to
Chase dogs ?

I agree with you. The owner panicked because she knows what her dog is capable of doing to a 5 year old child. It’s a strange world when a child can’t ride their bike without their parent worrying about a dog attack.

Not a week goes by without one of these threads.

The owner was likely panicked because her dog had escaped and she was concerned for its safety as it’s obviously not well enough trained to come back . It was not a dangerous dog near miss because the dog had done nothing , although by the sound of it it had plenty of opportunity as you didn’t have your child near enough to you .

YANBU. Yes that breed is dangerous. It sounds like the owner was struggling to gain proper control. So all you can do is report your concern to local police force. They do record/ investigate near misses if that’s what you think it was.

Dogs should have good recall, if their recall is not good then the owners should be making sure their dog isn’t able to leave the house.

Op you need to teach your son not to go near dogs and try to catch them, regardless of the breed. Small dogs bite too.

That seems to be the way that society is going - bizarrely. These dogs should not be in existence in my opinion.

I would have been terrified seeing one of these dogs trotting along next to my child.

What type of ‘Bully’ was it? An English bull terrier (commonly called Bullies), which look a bit fierce but are actually considered good family pets and good with kids. Or a Pit Bull ‘style’ dog?

why is she holding a baby and walking a dog at the same time ? stupid woman

You keep insisting the dog was dangerous but provide absolutely no evidence of such behaviour.

And if the dog was just having a laugh why did it's owner look completely panicked?

Meh. I 'panic' when my dog gets out because she isn't supposed to and her recall is non existent atm. The 2 times it's happened it was really hard to get her to come back in 🤷‍♀️

I'm not going to tell you that your 5 yr old shouldn't be riding unsupervised because I don't see the issue there.
I will say that it sounds like you don't even really know what kind of dog it was and you seemed to have reacted out of fear of seeing a dog walking with your child. It wasn't a 'near miss'. It doesn't sound like there was any danger. Your child chased the dog who reacted by following along side him.
I don't love unrestrained dogs, especially around children but nothing in your OP seems to reflect the level of anxiety you're showing about it.