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.

Not if OP's dogs were under her control. I've never had my dog on a ''tight lead'', as tight leads make them tense.

A nice, loose lead, walking by your side is best.

People with those ghastly retractable leads tend to be generally out of control, and the nasty dog was clearly aggressive.

At 8 or 9 you should have been taught not to cuddle random dogs and especially approaching from behind. Sadly the parents and or child learned something the hard way.

There are times in life where you find yourself in an interaction with absolute morons. Today you were in that situation.

The dog being cuddled belonged to the child I think.

No, I merely took ten minutes to check my facts before pressing "Post", during which time no new post shows up. Not everyone answers every post instantaneously.

Besides, what applies to you applies to anyone who writes "I haven't read all your replies", and they might be quite glad to know there is an easy way to do this without having to read everyone else's posts on the thread.

OP you absolutely did the right thing. Before DH and I met he had a German Shepherd called Morgan. One evening DH was playing with his DC and he had placed his daughter over his knee and was slapping his other knee and so pretending to smack her. DD was laughing and squealing and finding the whole thing funny. Morgan heard his DD squealing and fearing something was wrong went running through. By this time DH DD had run off trying to encourage her dad to chase her. Morgan stood there just watching until his DD gave him a hug and then went back to her basket.

DH was out one day walking Morgan when a strange child ran up to Morgan and threw her arms around Morgan’s neck. Morgan was well trained and living with children meant she had endless amounts of patience with them and so she stood patiently until the child let go. DH did have a word with the child’s mother though as you never know how a strange dog will react.

Sounds to me like the Border Collie has a problem with dogs and got all uptight about the other dogs just walking past and minding their own business, and then the child surprised the dog by grabbing it from behind, resulting in the tension erupting into an attack. Chances are the child hugs the dog all the time without anything bad happening, because it just so happens that the dog is usually relaxed. It's a bit of an unfortunate combination of circumstances, really. More alert or knowledgeable owners might have

(a) not given a reactive dog the full length of its lead to take itself as close as possible to OP's dogs, and / or
(b) seen that it was a bad moment for the child to approach the dog and done something about it.

Either way,

(c) OP wading into the situation with her two dogs in tow

would have made matters worse.

Given parents failure on points (a) and (b), I'm not hugely surprised they expected (c) to happen.

Why do you believe a dog on a short lead needs to be muzzled?

I agree with all dogs should be on a short lead and physically close to their owners. I don't think there is any need for a muzzle if the dog is less than 1.5m from it's owner and on a lead. If the dog is aggressive, then the owner shouldn't have it out in public in the first place

I don’t think there was anything you could have done. The owners were just taking out their shit parenting and dog owning skills on you. If you’d approached I’m sure you would have got more of the same abuse you’ve already detailed.
I’m generally all for helping, but I’d stay well away from that. Maybe phone the police when safely back at the car, to report probable child neglect and likely dog abuse too. That’s it.

Sorry, are you being serious? If you are , I apologise but its a odd question

Let me give you a small example: A dog/s in public can't be controlled by
its owner and drags owner to the other dog it is trying to attack or a human.

That is why dogs and all dogs need to be on a short, none extending lead and a muzzle. Having ALL dogs on a short lead and a mizzle for remove any uncertainty whatsoever if the owner is braking the law if it was to become law like it has on XL dogs.

As you know there are many other dogs that look like XL's or have the strength to drag most owners around

Does that help

Those dog owners are disguising

Be a shit game of catch for my collie if you were in charge

From what you have said in one of your replies OP I don't think that they were yelling at you because they needed or wanted help - it sounds more like they wanted to have a go at you and blame you for walking on the beach and upsetting their dog. As a woman on your own you did the right thing by walking away. If they had been shouting out for help you could have stood a distance away and offered to call the ambulance or whatever but from what you have said it really doesn't sound like that's what they were shouting for.

The dogs I have now are complete hooligans and are never out in public without leads but I have had well trained dogs that would walk to heel or sit and wait indefinitely in the past but in a situation like that with an aggressive dog and aggressive adults you did the only sensible thing by getting away.

You did right to walk on your dogs could become targets to be attacked in the mayhem. You could get a bad rep for you, and your dogs, because they were not on leads. And if they joined in fighting ppl passing may think it was your dogs attacking. They really should have known how their dog would react, and should know not to let a child grab a dog in that way.

I can't believe people would be so irresponsible to have a dog that is dangerous and unfriendly around their child. Border Colliers are normally very loving aren't they. I wonder if its a rescue dog that's been abused in the past. Onto your question though in those circumstances no YWNBU.

You, a stranger to the dog, and your dogs would have massively exacerbated that situation. You made the right decision. I would think their reaction is a bit of projection as it's their fault for not reading the signs of their dog and stepping in

Yes I am being serious. In your indignance at my differing opinion, you skipped the bit where I said if your dog is aggressive it shouldn't be out in public. That covers your scenario. The most aggressive dogs (as in dragging owners to attack) I've ever encountered on walks are labs - really not a fan to be honest. Those particular dogs should not have been out in public.

A dog attacking a child is an emergency. At the very least you should have called the police. Better to call them and stand them down if not needed, than the dreadful alternative.

In your indiagenece you have forgot that dogs that attack people and other dogs are often cited by their owners as "lovely" dogs, that is until the attack in many cases not all but enough

HTH

I think you did the right thing, OP. The presence of your dogs could have kept the border collie is a heightened state; by removing the dogs and yourself from the scene you helped prevent it from escalating.

Your OH obviously has faith in your dogs' training, but you are right to hold that "dogs are still dogs". And alerting the police - would the parents have done so? I think not, so again you took the necessary action.

I’d throw in ‘if you are not confident to administer first aid.’ If an injured child was with their parents I’d hope a bystander with first aid training would off the child assistance regardless of any other factors.

OP did call the police, she posted that at 09:55 this morning.

"I rang the police when I got back to my car and reported the attack."

Laughing at the idea of a pug in a muzzle. You are frankly ridiculous.

You did the right thing. Who knows what could have happened if you intervened; your dogs quite likely could have also intervened and there could have been carnage.

i think you could tell that, although the child’s dog went for him, that he wasn’t being ’seriously attacked’ and I think if the child was clearly being seriously mauled then your natural instincts would have kicked in and you would have gone to help. I think that’s what I would have done in this scenario anyway

I was at the beach yesterday with my dog and my friend and her dog, we had had a lovely two hour walk and then set up our wind breaker and towels and sat and ate our picnic. My dog is fine off lead but when we were eating, he was on the lead and I was holding on to it.

3 labs (mine also a lab) kept repeatedly coming up to where we were sitting and bothering my lab. After the 3rd time of them coming up (trampling all over our towels etc), he snapped at them. The 4th time he he really reacted to them (didn’t bite or anything but seriously seriously warned them off) and it was at that point I got up and shouted to the owners to call their dogs back cos they wouldn’t leave mine alone (I admit I swore cos it was 4 times they came up and they were being a pain; friendly but a pain). I couldn’t believe that the owners just kept repeatedly watching their dogs come over and be a pain and just think that that was ok; for both me as someone relaxing and for my dog

Haven't read more you weren't being unreasonable

If ONLY !!