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?

So, if it happens again, should I just keep letting them snap at my dog's legs and say nothing until the owner eventually takes action? Who would be responsible for the vet bill when the non-lethal dogs cause a laceration to his legs?

Oh stop it, of course they're not illegal.

Have you even looked at the photos of that gorgeous dog?

Yeah. That’s not a flex mate. Muzzle it

The toddler? Excellent idea

This is why we shouldn’t have aggressive dogs out on the street, you’re worried about the dogs fighting? Most of us just want to walk around without that fear.

I think you need some sort of therapy!

@Frequency he is stunning, please ignore the stupid comments on here, MN is well known for rabid dog haters.
Other than colouring he doesn’t seem to have rottie features, I’d think he’s a leonese cross

Yeah, but this is just a typical aggressive dog owner comment. What do you disagree with about what I’ve said about safety? Why should humans have to tiptoe around dangerous breeds? Give me one reason for the latter?

For? Be specific please

It’s not tiptoeing when a toddler tries to grab its face is it? You completely didn’t understand the original OP and you don’t understand dogs, or bad parenting by the sounds of it

The only aggressive ones are the rabid anti-dog faction 😬

Your rabid fear of dogs, and your aggression

and someone thats done various streets with leafets, the nasty dogs were mainly the small ones that seemed to have a god complex, most of the larger dogs usually looked and seemed more general dog behaviour that and some cats that loved to bat

@Llamamaman
The dog isn’t aggressive, he’s a nervous rescue who needs socialised and to learn about the world.
You really are an ignoramus.

@HortiGal He does look similar. The rescue said they were 100% certain he was part beagle because mum was a beagle. Their vet guessed dad was a rott/burmese mountain x. My vet decided to register him as a "Reagle". His passport just says hound x.

I've been told he could be loads of things since then. Coonhound is one that's mentioned a lot.

Your persistant arrogance is astounding. Goes with the territory though I suppose.

Rude and unbelievably ignorant about animals 🙄

I'm properly trained but I'd snap at you if you grabbed my face when I was trying to have a drink.

I never mentioned snapping, I mentioned two harmless, common, avoidant reactions which indicate discomfort on the dogs part. So you’re saying your dog never pulls away from or turns their head away from someone unknown to them being nose to nose with them?

This thread isn't about a dangerous breed

HTH

I feel like a lot of these posts are written by bots.
I don't think actual humans are this dim and ignorant.

@Frequency unlikely to have coonhound if he’s spanish ,leonese are a spanish working breed , just say he’s a mixed breed Spanish dog.
We have a rescue and nobody can ever guess what he is

Absolutely gorgeous 😊

He didn't snap, fwiw, nor do I believe that is something he would be likely to do. He turned his head away and leaned into me, which is what he generally does when a child gets too close to him or when he sees something he is unsure of.

DD's reaction was because of her anxiety, and her fear was mostly what if the toddler later did that to a dog that was not as friendly as ours is, which I did actually say in my OP, or hurt our dog and caused him to become more fearful of children.

If I'd been alone with my dog, I would still have been annoyed at the negative interaction he had with a child, and I would have been mildly concerned that this could have escalated his wariness around children.

I prefer to keep him away from children except for controlled, calm, and positive interactions because I don't want his caution around children to turn into fear-aggression. At the moment, he is wary but not fearful to the point of aggression. I would probably have just spun the dog around so his face was out of the way and then asked him to sit before dealing, politely, with the toddler, and with gritted politeness to his mother.

It would later have crossed my mind that it could have been so much worse if the child had approached a less friendly dog in the same way, whereas DD's mind went there immediately because of her anxiety.