To not understand what this parent was thinking?

[Frequency]

While out with my rottweiler x this afternoon, I noticed he was panting more than I was comfortable with, so I abandoned our walk and took a detour to the nearest shop to buy him a bottle of water.

I crouched down at the edge of a very wide path to give him a drink. I wasn't paying attention to what was around me because I was watching the dog, and no one had any reason to be near us anyway. The pavement is about 8 feet wide on that street, if not wider. We were right at the edge, by the shop window.

The second I stood up, there was a toddler, eye-to-eye with my dog. He must have run up behind me while I was kneeling. He was literally nose to nose with the dog, reaching his hands out to grab/stroke the dog's face.

My dog is friendly but a little wary of small children, so I tend to keep him away from them.

Luckily, DD was with me and had spotted the kid and managed to hold his hands before he grabbed the dog's face and loudly told him, "Sorry, he's scared of kids, and he's just trying to have a drink, can you leave him alone, please?" She had to say it loudly because his mum and her friend had continued walking and were now a good 10 feet away from us. At this point, the mother then shouted at her other small child (around 7 or 8) to "get the baby," so the dog now had 2 kids to contend with while the mother kept walking away, ranting about how the young girl was supposed to be "watching the baby."

DD has anxiety and was really shaken by it, and can't stop thinking about how much worse it could have been if our dog were not friendly, or if the kid had managed to grab the dog's face and spooked/hurt him.

I still just cannot fathom what the mother was thinking, allowing her toddler to run up to a strange dog who was obviously eating/drinking, get nose to nose with him to try to grab him, and then send a second child over after she's made aware he is not a friendly dog?

Surely it is common sense to know that nose-to-nose with a strange, large breed dog, who is eating/drinking, is not a safe place to be, no matter how friendly the dog is?

1. I cannot control other people's irrational fears.

2. I have never said that my dog is reactive or that I am worried about him acting aggressively. The biggest issue I would have if he were startled by a child would him attempting to bolt, which is mitigated by his head collar, double-ended leash attached to his head collar and harness, and the multiple handles on his harness. As it stands, children don't cause him fear, so he doesn't try to bolt. Nor would a muzzle prevent him from bolting.

The biggest danger was to myself because his usual behaviour when faced with something he is not scared of but is a bit unsure of is to lose the ability to hold up his own bodyweight and collapse onto my leg. Again, this is mitigated by the handles on his harness. A muzzle would be useless.

If you feel I have missed a detail in my OP or following posts, ask me, don't just make stuff up to suit your agenda. It makes you look silly.

All dogs could react. That's the risk you take when approaching one by surprise

the mother shouold have been parenting her toddler end of

you did nothing wrong op

Why oh why did they take away the laughing emoji?

We have giant dogs (big fluffy ones) but people frequently amaze me with how clueless about dogs they are.

People trying to cuddle them, kiss them on the nose, leaning over them, asking me why I won’t let them off lead to play with their chihuahua. Encouraging children to come cuddle them. Grabbing fur as I walk past. Asking for selfies and sticking their faces alongside the dogs. Walking them up if they are asleep. People letting their tiny off lead cockerpoo run up barking and growling and then laughing about it cos it’s so funny as mine are so big and theirs so small.

My dogs are extremity well behaved, always on headcollars and leads in public to protect them from the silliness of the general public. I think anyone with a big dog needs to be very aware of others!

Oh my life 😆😆😆 OTT much 😆😆😆

Hahaha honestly you’re deluded. Here’s a thought.. PARENT the child!

How exactly was @Frequency wrong? What did she do, or fail to do? Aside from you clearly thinking dogs shouldn’t exist in the world or should all be unnecessarily muzzled she was entirely sensible. It was the mother who failed in all regards, it is only due to OP and her daughter, and her dog being good, that avoided something happening.

Your ant dog frothing is obscuring your vision.

My comment is based on my experience with many dogs. Not a comment based on stereotypical views. I genuinely have yet to meet a small dog that is not yappy and snappy. Big dogs I’ve encountered tend to not be this way.

I agree with you however, that dogs’ behaviour is a direct result of the owners’ inability to train them.

I like dogs a lot.

OP needed to be more aware of her environment for a start. A toddler shouldn’t have been able to get nose to nose with her dog before she noticed. Muzzling would be a good idea in the circumstances imo.

We've got a lab, he's never met a kid he's disliked, I'd trust him round a newborn 100x more than a random (it's usually women he hates strangely) but by fuck has he met many an adult that he'll outright snarl and bark at like he's a security dog, tbf to him, all of them have looked a bit dodgy, and I say that as someone who is common as muck. I judge his good sense of character. I still don't want a toddler near him as his tails fucking lethal, he's 30kg of pure muscle, so the parent would be told straight off.

Yep I’d much rather have to deal with a rottie or dobie than a chihuahua or patterdale! Give me a large breed dog any day (except XL’s they are not dogs they are freaks)

The little yappy fuckers are always the worst behaved cos the owners let them off cos they are “cute”. No, they are little shitbags.

I see another child has sadly been killed by a dog reported in the news today. I think it’s time a lot more breeds were added to the XL Bully ban.

Im sick of massive dogs bounding up to me and my children and the owners always laughing it off as ‘don’t worry they’re friendly.’ I don’t give a fuck. I don’t want your dog leaping up at me, or knocking my children over.

I was bitten by a dog in the park whilst sat on the floor with my newborn baby. The owner said I shouldn’t have got up as it bounded over as ‘I scared it.’

Dog owners can’t have everything their own way. It’s never their fault

I dislike dogs but the parent was completely at fault here. Hope your daughter is ok OP.

Not really relevant to this thread, but okay …..🙄

Toddlers and small children can be unpredictable. If you believe your dog is likely to bite one if it gets too close then perhaps you should muzzle it in public esp somewhere like a pavement of a shopping street or residential area.

Sometimes I actually say Hello Gorgeous out loud, then have to look up and give an apologetic smile at the owner. Who is usually smiling back to be fair!

Have you read OP’s posts? 😵‍💫 At no point has OP said she thinks her dog will bite a child .. literally nowhere. Another poster making stuff up.

Well if the dog wasn't going to harm the child why was the OP's daughter so shaken and anxious? Was she perhaps afraid that the toddler would bite the dog?

She was anxious because she has anxiety. Clinically diagnosed anxiety. It's all there in the OP, if you read it. I never said the toddler caused DD to be anxious; I said DD has anxiety.

Her first thought was what if the child goes on to do the same thing to a dog that is not friendly like ours. That is also in the OP.

Nowhere in the OP did I say DD was concerned our dog might bite.

I was shocked when I took my latest puppy out for the very first time recently. A woman holding what appeared to be a newborn crouched down to pet my dog, which meant her baby was pretty much dangling in my dog's face

It was fine, and my dog has a great temperament, but she didn't know that - I didn't even know what she'd be like with other people at that point because, as I say, she was a young puppy going out into the world for the first time.

She was very indignant when I gently told her it probably wasn't a good idea to do things like that. Some people have no sense at all when it comes ot papropriate behaviour around dogs.

🤣🤣

The PARENT should have been more aware. The toddler is HER responsibility. The dog was on a lead, a car or a kid on a scooter etc isn't.

In addition to that she has already explained it was next to a very busy A road, not somewhere that you're looking out for small children (let alone tiny ones) unsupervised.

Her dog does NOT need muzzling.

Your excessive use of the word literally is literal overkill.

Two of DD's chihuahuas would love you forever if you did this to them. The one I have unofficially adopted because I call him my gorgeous boy/baby, so he would think treats or love were coming his way. He's a bit shy, so he'd probably inch away from you in case you tried to cuddle him, but you'd get a bum wiggle from him.

The aggressive one would probably go so far as to skip the part where he spends the first 3 minutes of knowing you, plotting to kill you and everyone you love, and go straight to the part where he's climbing into your lap and demanding love. Every time I see him in a new jumper or dress, I tell him he looks gorgeous, so he equates gorgeous with affection and attention. He'd definitely pose for you if he heard you.