To ask dog owners to keep there dogs away from my my children?

[SparklyPeachMama]

I don't dislike dogs what I dislike is dog owners who think there dogs are more important than my children. You dog might be friendly but I'm not willing to test your theory on my babies.
Your dog should never be closer to me/my family than it is you? If your dogs recall isn't good it shouldn't be off lead when other people are around!

Exactly...so bored of them now!

Yes dogs should have good recall if off lead of course but also children can be terrible around dogs, and parents need to teach children how to behave around them. Pretty sick of kids coming up to my dog and bothering him without asking tbh

I have both children and a dog btw so don't dislike either but some balance and tolerance would be nice!

Most children like dogs, most dogs are friendly and unlikely to attack a child. Teaching your child to be scared of dogs is not doing them any favours at all

Happy to
Now if you could keep your kids away from my dog as well that would be great

I was wondering if we had had peak dog ownership with all the lock-down puppies. This set of stats shows that it was steady at around 25%, shot up in 2021 to 33% and is now at 36%.
Perhaps this increase ought to lead to more regulation of dog ownership? Dogs on leads in public? Designated off-lead areas fenced off in parks?

my previous response was —slightly— tongue in cheek.
i absolutely agree with you. I’ve got DC and a Ddog. We got him after the children and I only now get, in my 40- something year, how dogs are like family members. I love mine to bits.
however he has good recall and is not a bit bothered by anyone else’s kids as he has 3 of those at home and he doesn’t care for anyone else’s.
if any other dog jumps at my kids I immediately say something to the owner and it’ll get a kick if it doesn’t move.

likewise I cannot stand precious parents who believe that their DC are the first to be born on the planet, ever. Get over yourselves.

I presume you're just being goady.
It sounds like (with the 'actually') you are trying to correct me.
My child should be able to run freely in a public space w/o being chased by dogs.
I should be able to run across the fields (along footpaths) w/o being chased by dogs.

nb the vast majority of owners are good and step aside keeping their dog close to them. I thank them.

My son and I got chased the other day. We'd passed two owners, who put their dogs on the lead as we passed. They then took them off the lead and one of the dogs chased us. We were going in opposite directions and the owner was far away by the time the dog go to us. I had to jog back to the owner (dog still chasing me) to return it. I didn't mind this time - dog was friendly, I was out for a leisurely run over Xmas with my son. Other times that would piss me right off as my run time is precious.

Nothing irritates me more than a dog owner shouting "oh he/shes harmless" as their dog is charging at you. I don't know that; keep them on a leash.

This. In the past week alone I have had to tell parents to stop their child stroking or playing with my service dog when he is working three times, and on every occasion I was told "they just want to stroke him/ it isn't causing any harm / he's lovely, what's his name" or some such rubbish. I have previously had a instances, for example, of a grandfather lovingly looking on as their child walks up to my dog and tries to hit him with a stick; of children "walking the dog" with a parent who does sod all as their dog drags their child over trying to attack mine.... the list goes on. It happens in both directions, and yes there are irresponsible dog owners I agree. There are just as many irresponsible parents, but somehow we don't have five threads a day about them.

Apparently it’s necessary as the message doesn’t seem to be getting across to an awful lot of owners (apologies to those of you who are responsible)

Yanbu. Dogs shouldn’t be going up to anyone.

I’m a dog owner.

Please tell me you kicked those dogs

Yanbu

Dogs should be kept under control and on leads. I'd like to fines enforced. There are too many totally irresponsible owners.

I'm a dog owner and I agree.

There are a lot of people who shouldn't have dogs. That includes those who dehumanise children or act like their dogs are equivalent.

I've never ever seen a child hurt a dog when out and about. Plenty of dogs running up to children though.

My children have never gone up to dogs and they are now scared of them. We do have a family dog who they tolerate.

My toddler had 3 off lead dogs run up and jump at him last month when we were at the country park volunteering at parkrun. All with owners out of earshot. And my eldest was playing football in a park when a large retriever came over and pushed him away to get the ball. Apparently the dog can’t resist a ball. Yet is off lead in a village park with a cricket pitch and football pitch. I’ve had dogs in the past and there is definitely an increase in poor ownership.

But members of the public have no idea whether your dog has good recall, is cared for, is safe, or even whether the dog is with anyone a lot of the time. We cannot know the recall skills of a dog - and for that reason keep it well away from other members of the public. It’s totally unacceptable for you to assume a stranger knows it’s safe.

I've never had children run up to me, jump up and smearing me with mud or scratching me while I've been out running. The same can't be said for dogs.

DS1 doesn't need teaching about not approaching dogs. He wants to avoid dogs having been scared at a young age from raided picnics, noses getting into his face in the push chair and being bowled over. As a teenager being bigger than dogs, he's now calmed to standing still until the uninvited dog buggers off. As a younger child, it was bloody hard trying to coach him to calm his reaction with the dog fussing and the owner (if present) trilling the inevitable "it's OK! He's friendly!" DS very clearly was not friendly with dogs. I've come to the conclusion that this type of owner is shit at training because they can't even recognise basic emotions in their own species.

DS2 wants to like dogs but is nervous after the picnics/ bowling over etc. If a dog is calm, he does manage to ask owners before approaching, but he's still easily startled by dogs bolting around.

My children have never jumped up at random people walking around in public, or stolen their food.

A couple of months ago I pointed out to an owner that he was breaking the law when his barking dog terrified a woman onto a bench. He was slow to recall the dog and then didn't bother to use the lead around his neck. He grudgingly decided to humour me after I pointed out that the dog was meeting the legal definition of being out of control and put the dog on the lead for a minute to shut me up and distracting him from his headphones. Naturally the dog was off-lead when I saw him a few minutes later.

Over the years I've had owners tell me that I'm scaring their dog that jumped up at me 3x because I've told it to get down, and blame me for taking my child to a public nature reserve "dog walking woods" when their dog jumped up and winded my child making him cry. Plus the ones oblivious to jumping and scratching or grazing me with their teeth. And that's just the owners in sight.

I've never had these issues with random children!

Selfish

Chatting to a friend in town and her great lab (on a lead by her side) jumped up on me. I'm not afraid, but I do look after my new jacket that I spent over £100 on.
Likewise dogs jumped on my Sweaty Betty leggings. It makes me cross when dogs damage my clothes.

I've also found that if a person encounters a poor recall dog they tend to flap about and try and kick or hurt the dog and thus their children do the same.

Last year, a dog jumped on my 2 year old niece and knocked her down. My niece was doing nothing wrong, just running in a park. Damn right I kicked that dog to get it away from her. The owner tried to say something about that but they caused the situation and could deal with the consequences.

I would never usually do something like that and wouldn't allow the children to either. That situation was extraordinary circumstances and my priority was her safety.

And the dog that came over from a neighbouring table at a cafe yesterday. To watch every bite my 3 year old took. Owners werent too happy when I suggested they move the dog away.

All those dogs mauled my babies unbelievable. I've never heard of a baby attack correct me if I'm wrong!

100% agree with you.

could I ask that you keep your kids/babies away from me? If your child(en) cant listen dont take him/them to a restaurant.

sitting in a restaurant booth 2 days ago and the kid behind us keep standing up looking on our side and wanted to talk to us. The parents found it adorable. I didnt and so did my teens with whom we wanted to spend quality time.

thank you

From the government website. Just in case there are any owners that need reminding anout the definition of control.

I don't hate dogs. I like well-trained dogs with responsible owners.
And when an owner has responded to my presence by recalling their dog, standing aside or distracting, I thank them. I appreciate the work they put into it.

That is extremely selfish. There’s nothing wrong with a dog running but the second it approaches a stranger, child or otherwise, and jumps at them, sticks its nose up their crotch, barks at them or sniffs at their feet then it needs to be called back.

Completely agree with this. I don’t have dogs and always teach my children that they shouldn’t approach ay dog they don’t know and always need to ask the owner first.