Your dog is not your babies 'brother'

[Thisandthatandthensome]

Watching ITV news tonight about XL bullies. The amount of money it's costing to Kennel prior to pts, £1000 per dog per month! Huge amount.

Anyway, this delusional owner has one with her 5 month old baby girl. She reckons she knows the dog so well that she knows he wouldn't hurt his 'sister' and that he knows he's her babies big brother.

I mean I like some dogs but aibu to think you're a big delusional if you call them brothers or sisters to your actual children.

Aibu? ynbu no they are like brother and sister

Yanbu these folk are out of touch they are dogs

Maybe your dog does judge you you just don’t know because it can’t speak English.

And had it been an XL bully she’d be dead

Exactly this. Even small dogs need to be treated with caution.

I think you are wise to do what you do.

JRTs aren’t dogs that are good for kids, when my DD was a baby one did maul a newborn to death. It’s good that you recognise its limits though!

A chihuahua would struggle to rip an adults arm off, though, which is what happened to that Irish young woman who was killed by her own dog

I had to google pink juice - obviously a euphemism for killing the dogs.

I'm no fan of huge horrible aggressive dogs nor the idiot cunts and dregs of society who breed them and think it's okay to keep them around little children. And yes, it's appalling that the taxpayer foots the bill of containing and dealing with these in-bred beasts.

But the phrase 'pink juice them' is really nasty and crude, and undermines your argument.

The animals are not at fault; they were bred that way by humans. Humans are to blame.

(To save others googling, pink juice apparently refers to the colour of the euthanasia drug for dogs. I originally thought @FirepIace meant putting animals in a blender thereby resulting in pink juice, so it's less horrible than that at least).

Considering you say you don't have a problem with dogs you don't seem to like them very much

Have you ever actually met a dog? Just curious, because you don't really seem to know much about them at all...

It’s not taking anything away from the danger of XL bullies to understand that small dogs can be dangerous too.

Agree …and I absolutely adore my dog but wouldn’t trust her with a baby/ child unless supervised because she is an animal!! You cannot argue with stupid!

I have no problem with dogs at all. It’s crazy dog people I can’t be doing with. And they’re bloody everywhere right now imposing their stupidity on the poor creatures they profess to love. It never used to be like this - when I was younger people treated dog ownership sensibly, and treated dogs like animals, not humans

Well I’ve never met one that can speak English, have you?

But they’re very rarely deadly

The dog haters and cynophobes on here always claim to not have a problem with dogs. It's really very odd.

No. But babies don't speak English either do they? Yet the parents can usually figure out what their baby is telling them just from how it behaves. It is very much the same when you have a close bond with your dog.

everytime one of these beasts rips a child apart there are usually videos of the owners talking about how their dog is a great big softy. It isn’t. The whole breed needs destroying as quickly as possible. I don’t think there’s any harm in people jokingly calling the dog their child’s brother/sister I do think that babying dogs, treating them as actual humans is really not in the dogs best interests.

Because babies come from humans and we have natural instincts as to what they need from us. And eventually when babies get to the age of judging they do speak English.

We don’t with dogs, only their dog mother does.

But I’m intrigued as to what dogs judge people on and how you can tell?

@Thisandthatandthensome I read the title, clicked and then was disturbed by a phone call.

I was thinking surely people can call dogs and children whatever they want.

THEN I came back and read the OP.

I agree. Entirely.

I have four children. Two house dogs, 28 working dogs, 8 of whom are retired but have a home for life.

Huge kennels with heating and wood burner for bitter nights.

I could, call all 28 back, and have done many times.

I have also made hard calls on "working" breeds, when aggression shown.

I do not breed from anyone but the best of the breed. Two litters. Max, depending on her reaction to first.

I have shown, I do agility, dog trials and gun dog training.

I see no place in this country for those dogs as pets. Ever.

I am fairly sure if you dragged me outside now and tried to kill me, and I let the dogs out, they would react to my panic and kill you first.

However, would they harm anyone normally, nope. Would I give them an opportunity to do so, nope. Would I leave a dog unattended with a baby. Never. With a small child. Never.

I think it's weird when people refer to their pets as their children and weirder still to double down and call the animal a sister or brother to your actual child(ren). But each to their own, and call your pets whatever you like.

That said, it is totally delusional or utterly foolish to believe that your dog understands the concept of assuming a familial bond with a tiny, vulnerable, squishy, squeaky human. I can't imagine that an XL Bully would see that baby as anything other than a chew toy.

I do refer to my golden retriever as my baby and as my son’s brother. It’s not entirely serious. If people ask me how many children I have I say one and my son won’t actually be taught to believe that the dog is his brother. I grew up with a dog that was jokingly referred to as my brother, but I obviously knew he wasn’t. It’s just a term of endearment really because the dog is so like a member of the family. I honestly don’t see the issue with it. And I don’t think calling a gentle golden retriever my baby puts me on par with people who have XL bullies that are known to be dangerous around their children.

Agreed. Where I live a 61 year old woman was killed by hers. Her son said he couldn't believe it as the dog was his mother's son...

The terms and names are not the issue. Our dogs 'call' us 'Mummy' and 'Daddy'.. only obviously they don't, we're just being nauseating dog owners (behind closed doors). They don't think we're Mum/Dad, tbh if they did they'd want nothing to do with us as dog parents don't have a lot to do with their offspring after they mature...

What is relevant is that she is an idiot to think the dog will be kind and gentle to the child for any reason - a dogs (particularly a big dog) fun play can be far too forceful and violent for a tiny child or even an adult and many dogs absolutely will not self-handicap to interact with someone smaller/weaker than themselves (many will but its not something you can rely on!!).

Those of us involved in the dog industry did say it would end up costing the tax payer a fucking fortune - we have the legal system we have, and it doesn't allow for turning people into instant criminals for the crime of 'buying what at the time was a legal item of property' without proper procedure... which takes fucking ages.

Making those owners pay would also take fucking ages, cost a fortune and still result in most of them not paying because you can't get money out of people who haven't any.

Government wanted a quick fix to look like they were doing something constructive and most of the rest of the country were all for it as they bought the lie, and branded anyone suggesting it would be expensive and would not actually work as 'fluffy dog nutters'.

Hey ho.

Someone once suggested in my earshot that perhaps I did not birth my dog children, and many years of therapy later, I’m still not quite over it.

Best comment, from someone with long experience of dogs.

This! XL bullies and the like concern me. There’s a lady on our street with three and she’s about eight stone. I’ve seen them pull her over. They’ve never been aggressive but if one snapped I’m sure the rest of the pack would follow and the person on the receiving end wouldn’t stand a chance.

But I do do refer to my dog as my DCs furry sister. To my dog I refer to my son as her ‘best boy’. Because he’s her favourite person on the whole world. Doesn’t harm anyone and I really don’t care about others opinions 🤷🏻‍♀️