Dog nipped child

[Twinkleandstressed]

Dog was tied up outside corner shop - I could see him from the till point. Only picking up one item. Dog is usually friendly and calm. Child darts out of shop with father and runs towards my dog wanting to pet him. My dog reacts my growling and going to bite him. He didn’t thankfully but did hurt his lip by jumping. Dad is useless and just walks on to car. I quickly go outside and go to apologise. Mum who is sitting in the car is consoling child - I ask if he is hurt. She says just a scrape on mouth. I apologise again and explain that my dog must have been startled but I feel terrible and that I cannot trust my dog.

Imagine this dog was bigger and rougher. How seriously would the child have to be injured before you would say "Poor kid. Must have been petrified"?

You genuinely don’t think the dad should have made sure his kid wasn’t darting out of shops? Is the kid allowed to run up to random strangers, arms outstretched? Cars? Rivers? Or is it just dogs that are fair game?

Op ignore the dog haters on here., the parents knew they were wrong to let a kid approach a dog like that.

MN is full of hysterical dog haters who would like dogs to be PTS for merely looking at their kid. I worry about meeting such a person in the wild.

just carry on, don’t leave your dog unattended just in case it’s unfortunate enough to meet one of these people. No need to muzzle your dog.

Maybe it will learn to treat animals with respect rather than play things. Would you have blamed a car driver if the kid had run out of the shop into the road and been struck by a car? Maybe the dog was petrified at the child running towards him.

the fault is clearly the Dads for not supervising the child.