Dog attacking child - not stopping to help

[Idioticparents]

So, I’m walking my dogs on the beach. See a border collie on a lead being walked by what I presume is mum, dad and child. No problem - my dogs are trained to come to me whenever they see another dog (not that they go far tbh).

BC is clearly not friendly. It’s frozen. Stiff. Licking its lips as I go by. No issue. Give it a wide birth (10 or so meters given the tide is high) keep half an eye on it. Owners don’t real it in and keep it on the log line (full length stretched with dog nearly choking itself).

Child (about 8/9) walks up to dog as parents watch and wraps its arms around the dogs neck from behind. Obviously the dog attacks child. Parents wrestle dog off child.

Now, here is my am I being unreasonable - I didn’t stop. I just kept walking. Kid had two parents with him and I had my dogs nearby waiting to walk on. As I walked away I got a tonne of abuse for not stopping. But why would I? IMO the dog had attack its owners child and if it’s going to do that then I am not going near it. Partner says IWU not to help.

So if I had been OP, walking my reactive dog inclined to pack behaviour (who is well trained enough that I can keep her attention on me while passing other dogs, but absolutely not trained enough to stay away from me while I walk into a situation with an attacking dog and might be inclined to join the dog in attacking anything any anybody as a fear response), you think the right thing would be for me to introduce my dog to the situation (that I can’t actually make any better with or without my dog) which could feasibly result in two dogs attacking the child?

Cool, I’ll remember that for future.

Or I might continue to be a responsible dog owner and keep my dog out of scenarios that they’re not well trained enough to be in.

What a messy situation created by those people, they clearly are not good parents or good dog owners. If you did try to help you would still get shouted at, for interfering. You did the only possible thing.

Yes which makes me question the situation tbh. I cannot see any parent, who is witnessing their child being attacked by a dog, whether it’s their own dog or not, having even the least bit awareness of what some random person is doing.

This seems like (yet another) stupid entitled parents thread where everyone is going to jump on about how everyone expects other people to prioritise their children blah blah blah.

their dog their child their situation. Absolutely I would have walked on to safety with my two dogs. You also could also have been attacked. Sorry but I do believe in today’s world people are just as likely to run away from problematic situations as towards them. I think something is going down in a store or restaurant I am out of there immediately and yes I have done this
IRL. Their dog their child their problems.

Personally I think I’d have stopped and shouted to ask if they needed help or something, it’s more to just ask, in the way you slow down for a fender bender and ask do people need help even if they’re all on phones just to shop someone is willing to help

I can't understand how anyone thinks you've been unreasonable??! You were the only reasonable one in the situation by the sounds of it, could you imagine how much worse it could of been if you had took your dogs over! 🙈

Sounds like they've got a fearful dog reactive dog that was on edge simply because of the presence of your dogs + totally mishandled by the owners (no attempts to get the dog closer to them, distract dog, get more distance from you etc etc)... and then their kid exacerbated the situation by grabbing their dog, at which point the dog redirected onto their kid.

Totally their fault in every way.

You going nearer, with or without your dogs, would almost certainly have made matters worse.

I do not understand what other posters think you should have done - last I looked, beaches often have absolutely nothing one could tie a dog to - a dog that is fearful and aggressive and being mishandled by its owners is not going to improve with the addition of a total stranger either. Particularly if its owners are going to scream and yell at that stranger for having the audacity to exist, with her dogs, in a public place!

It's almost as if off-lead dogs, long leads and dogs on beaches were a recipe for disaster isn't it?

You did the right thing OP - your interference/attempt to help would have escalated the situation. Move on from this thread, there is no reason to doubt yourself. I wouldn't be impressed with your DP suggesting otherwise.

Staying with two off-lead dogs with you would have been stupid! The best thing you could have done is to leave and remove your dogs from the area.

If you read my previous posts about being a safe distance and to visually check everything was OK. 🙄
That's being a responsible human 😊

It wouldn't have helped keeping your dogs in the vicinity

If you read my previous posts about being a safe distance and to visually check everything was OK. 🙄
That's being a responsible human 😊

The OP has stated that she called the police when she returned to her car. THAT'S being a responsible human. What use would she have been standing there gawping just for show, so that people could satisfy themselves that she had done the right thing? Not very helpful or practical.

In all my years of dog ownership, I have never had a disaster with my off lead dog on a beach.

Could be, that some people are just completely irresponsible

Nonsense.

So a scared dog turned and barked at the kid? Why do you need to call it an attack FFS? Totally sensationalist and overblown description if even true.
.

If this is true. Poor kid being raised by such stupid parents and poor dog being owned by such tears.

I probably would have done something either then or when I got a phone signal to help the child. The kid was mauled by their dog and the parents were hurling abuse at you?! Surely you believe that incident needs to be reported to safeguard the child?

Op called the police

Fair enough then, I must have missed that. As long as the child wasn't in need of medical assistance and they needed OP to send for help then it was fair to remove herself and the dogs.

THIS!!

If I was walking with my dog off lead and I see another dog on a lead , clearly its for a reason and I ensure my well trained dog steers well clear. If it goes close , that's my problem as the other dog owner has put a lead on theirs, and mine hasn't.

Now if I've steered my dog clear of the other dog on lead, and kid with the dog manhandles the dog and it turns on them, how in God's Earth is that my fault?

The only excuse the parents have for shouting abuse if the OP's dog went up to theirs on a lead, and if the dog is such a anxiety, aggressive mess, why the f*ck have they got it on a long lead??

All dogs should be on leads in public places ..

It would be great if they were all required to be muzzled as well

You’d have made it worse by rushing in, your dogs probably would have followed sensing danger. There’d have been more people and dogs bitten.

Except they don't need to be. So pretty pointless statement really.

They need to be under control, which, a responsible owner manages with or without a lead.

I don't see why people who put all the training in need to be the ones to pay the price for pricks who can't control their dog.

Your argument doesn't even make sense in this situation anyway, as the problem dog was on a lead!

What did the police say?