To as you to teach your child how to act around dogs?

[ToBeOrNotToBee]

I'm gobsmacked, truly, still around an hour or so after this event.
Dog and I have had a busy day travelling and exploring the countryside.
On our way home, coming off train 3 of 3 on the return leg, having been out for 12 hours, I walk to the lift (which is around a corner and obscured by a stairwell) at the end of the platform with dog to heel besides me.
We're waiting with a few others when this 5-6 year old child appears around the corner, running towards us, hands outstretched, literally beelining for the dog. I see what's about to happen and immediately put the dog behind my legs and put my hand out telling the child a stern 'No'.
The child then tries to go behind to reach my dog, who is cowering between my legs. I have no choice but to grab hold of the child's coat and physically stop them, letting go when the child stops trying to reach my dog.
After a moment or two, the Dad appears and then screams at me for touching his child. As he's midscream, the lift appears and I go into it with a few others and doors close as everyone else looks awkwardly at their feet.
The doors close, we go on our merry wall.
But I couldn't stop this feeling that the child will one day do that to the wrong dog and end up a dog bite statistic.
Say for example, I wasn't as switched on, and my dog as placid as he is, or in pain that day, and the child did poke him painfully causing him to snap and bite. Child would have been hurt, my dog potentially put down, and I get a conviction for having a Dangerous Dog Out of Control.
It's something I've noticed over recent years, people treating strange dogs as public property and not animals with sharp teeth and their own minds.
So please, teach your children not to run whilst on busy train platforms (or any train platform), to not approach unknown dogs, and if someone says no, to respect it.

Is that too much to ask???

Context is everything but... these are communications, why is that not ok?

I'd rather a dog growled at me than didn't, given growling is a dog asking for space, telling me he's uncomfortable, worried, feels threatened etc etc.

The dog that feels like that, but doesn't let anyone know is far more dangerous!

Why are humans offended by a dogs bark or growl, it isn't personal, it's not equivalent to someone calling you a cunt.

If you explain the context of course - theres lots of other things someone could be allowing their dog to do that, alongside barking/growling, would be a problem (like, block a path, chase you, jump up at you, or your car).

Those things would be a problem without the barking too, actually I'd be much more worried about those behaviours without barking, they'd be far more likely to be aggressive and potentially predatory (predatory behaviour is not all that common in most dogs, dogs are scavengers first, not predators!)

How did the dad know you'd touched his child if the lift was out of sight of the platform and the dad turned up a couple of minutes after you'd let go of the child?

How about at risk from? You think op should let this kid do anything to her dog so long as the dog doesn't retaliate??

Totally agree op. And that's before we get to young child running around a train station out of reach of their parent.

Dtwins are 3, they're told no touching, I ask if it seems appropriate otherwise they're told doggy doesn't want strokes/ let's move away cos doggy is a bit scared / etc.

Similarly works both ways. DS is 8 and scared of them. Idiots letting the leads loose so their dogs can run up to kids and saying "no need to be scared of her" are as idiotic as the Dad who CBA to parent his child appropriately in the op

Not a good comparison. Dogs are not people.
You can’t grab hold of someone’s child even if you disagree with the parenting. Seems like the dog would have felt better not travelling.

Again stop comparing dogs to children. It is not the same.

Here we go

Oh FFS, all dogs should be muzzled in public. That would stop injuries however caused.

What could be wrong with that?

Out of control children are a danger to themselves. What if they are running after a ball into a road ? Would parent allow them to run up to strangers- I doubt it. And they need to understand dogs are not toys to play with.

YANBU to expect parents to teach children how to behave around dogs. It is very important to do so, not least because there are so many irresponsible dog owners.

Of course, dog owners are being equally unreasonable if they take dangerous dogs that they can't control into public spaces, not least because they should be aware that some parents fail to teach their kids how to behave around dogs, but also because kids are unpredictable and may not always remember what they have been taught.

As a parent, I didn't particularly need to teach my dd to keep her distance from strange dogs because she was scared as a result of irresponsible dog owners allowing their poorly disciplined dogs to rush and jump at her. She needed no reminders, but of course, if she had been inclined to approach strange dogs, I would of course have taught her not to do this.

I do get why it was annoying for you today, and that's fair enough. I agree that the child should have been taught properly. Ultimately, though, I believe that responsibility sits with the dog owner for ensuring that others are not put at risk.

Does not address the issue of teaching children how to behave around dogs

No parent should have to care about that.

If you had to muzzle your dog we’d all be safe.

No dog is like a big cat: they have no claws. It’s all about biting. Muzzle your dog.

So does that mean you don't think children should be taught how to behave around dogs?
All dog owners should keep their dogs under control. All children should be taught that it's not on to poke a dog with a stick or whatever. You see it on videos on social media all the time look how docile my dog is she allows my child to sit on her and pull her tail. No. It's not OK

No, we wouldn't be safe, because (leaving aside the question of whether muzzling all dogs would be a good idea) people wouldn't do it - we do not live in a world where everyone complies with the law.

In either case, you have to equip your children to be safe in the world we live in now - not an idealised world you'd like to live in.

No, I don’t believe any child should have to be taught to behave around dogs. It’s the dog owner’s responsibility to avoid bites or other dog behaviour that causes inconvenience or distress.

Muzzle your dog. Then it’s all fine. Well, likely mostly.

I wish dog owners would not allow their dogs to approach childrem or in fact anyone, without invitation

Well i guess we'll have to agree to differ because i think all children should be taught not to pull a dog's tail / approach the dog while they're sleeping or eating / scare them by making unusual noises / poke them with a stick or smack them on the head.

Sure. But if your dog was muzzled there’d be no realistic likelihood of damage to an (improperly) unsupervised child would there?

Wouldn't stop the dog pawing and jumping.
A lot of these dogs you see on social media are big heavy dogs.
A lot of dog attacks on a child are in their own home.

Pawing and jumping is bad. But not nearly as bad as biting.

Dog attacks in the home are a matter for banning dangerous (almost entirely big) dogs.

You've ignored my points that:

A. Many people would not comply with a muzzling law because people do not always comply with the law, that's why we have that thing called crime.

B. We do not have a muzzling law in the UK and there are no plans to implement one

So parents need to teach their children how to be safe in the real world we actually live in.

I've already said that dog owners should keep control of their dog but we clearly don't agree that parents have a responsibility as well.
So I'll leave it there

A. They should do. Many laws don’t dissuade people, like laws against assault or burglary; but we don’t abandon those laws.

B. There should be such a law.

they have no claws

I wonder what it is the groomer charges me to clip every couple of months then? Muzzling every dog is not necessary given how infrequent dog bites are (despite what the papers and mumsnet would have us believe). It certainly wouldn't prevent all injuries, although in some instances it would be helpful. Sledgehammer to crack a nut though as the people that need to muzzle their dogs wouldn't be bothered about the law.

But there isn't, and until there is your children need to know how to be safe, so you should teach them.

Bleating 'there should be a muzzling law' will be a fat lot of comfort to a child who has just been bitten.